andrew999 said:
At $5 a hand, that means over the course of the whole time, the player would loose $15. How would one go about finding the standard deviation on this? So that I could figure out how much I needed to cover that.
The variance on one hand of BJ is about 1.33. To calculate the SD for any number of hands use this formula:
SD = Sqrt(1.33 * Number of Hands)
In your case:
SD = Sqrt(1.33 * 600) = about 28 units
For a 6 hour session that gives us:
EV = -$15 (as you calculated above)
SD = 28 units = $140
1 SD range (68%) = -$155 to $125
2 SD range (92%) = -$295 to $265
3 SD range (99%) = -$435 to $405
The ranges above will give you a good idea of what sort of swings to expect
on average for a 600 hand session. However, you can’t use the number above to determine your bankroll size because they do not account for losing your money early and having to quit (as dacium mentioned above). For that you will need to use a trip ROR formula like the one in Blackjack Attack.
-Sonny-