Floating advantage
Anyway, for the past few years I have been working on a program to compute exact expected values. I don't promote it as everything you will ever need for blackjack. Instead I look at it as a tool that can be useful in analyzing the game.
A screenshot of the program showing the overall EV of 1/2 deck gives an idea of what I think is being referred to as "floating advantage."
The overall CD EV (using full shoe CD strategy) = +.8093 as compared with +.0243 for full single deck. If best CD strategy is used the EVs are +.8712 and +.0248. If infinite shoe basic is used, the EVs are -.0487 for the full deck and +.5780 for the 1/2 deck.
I think floating advantage refers to the fact that the fewer the number of decks, the greater the overall EV. What I have shown is a 26 card slug with a composition in an exact proportion to a full deck comp, which may not necessarily be the case.
I have made a demo version of the program available (Dead link: http://www.bjstrat.net/cdca_demo_download.htm) _here_. Basically what is required for the program is enough memory and a Windows OS.
The demo version is free, but I hope to make a little $$. I'd like to hear impressions of the program. I have an email address that can be found in the download.
k_c
This is my first post on this site. I've viewed it for a while. Of the sites I have seen, this seems to be the most open minded. In my opinion, Ken does an excellent job of allowing posts that do not necessarily conform to some pre-conceived notion, and instead drawing the line when posts turn into degenerate name calling without substance.RJT said:Floating advantage certainly does exist. Basically at different deapths of deal a TC can in certain circumstances not be indicitive of the actual advantage. This difference however is small. You could go to the lengths of memorizing where and when this happens, but the advantage gain would be miniscule.
Qfit would be able to go into a lot more detail about this.
RJT.
Anyway, for the past few years I have been working on a program to compute exact expected values. I don't promote it as everything you will ever need for blackjack. Instead I look at it as a tool that can be useful in analyzing the game.
A screenshot of the program showing the overall EV of 1/2 deck gives an idea of what I think is being referred to as "floating advantage."

The overall CD EV (using full shoe CD strategy) = +.8093 as compared with +.0243 for full single deck. If best CD strategy is used the EVs are +.8712 and +.0248. If infinite shoe basic is used, the EVs are -.0487 for the full deck and +.5780 for the 1/2 deck.
I think floating advantage refers to the fact that the fewer the number of decks, the greater the overall EV. What I have shown is a 26 card slug with a composition in an exact proportion to a full deck comp, which may not necessarily be the case.
I have made a demo version of the program available (Dead link: http://www.bjstrat.net/cdca_demo_download.htm) _here_. Basically what is required for the program is enough memory and a Windows OS.
The demo version is free, but I hope to make a little $$. I'd like to hear impressions of the program. I have an email address that can be found in the download.
k_c