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Does basic strategy apply to 2-card combos after card-splits? ie. Split 8’s against Dealer’s 4. You get a 2, do you double down or just hit? I have found these situations to be more of a trap than winning strategies, because if you happen to have build up your bet, then have to split and double down maybe twice or even three times, you end up risking and often losing your entire winnings and end up losing. Help, anyone?
Absolutely. Yes, these hands will make or break your entire session, because you can get as many as 8 bets working under the most common rules. (That’s three splits and four doubles!)
When basic strategy says to double, it is because the double is more profitable than just hitting. Don’t forgo these extra opportunities to take advantage.
Sure, sometimes things won’t go your way, but how sweet it is when you get several bets on the table and the dealer busts.
Hi Thanks for all information. In Asia, most casino use continuous shuffle machine , 5 or 6 decks. I am asking ,is there any change in basic strategy? ( compare to 6 deck shoes) .
Hi Thanks for all the informations. In Asia, most casino use continuous shuffle machines. ( usually 5 or 6 decks). I am asking , is there any change in basic strategy as compare to 6 decks shoes?
Hi KenSmith I have bust rate for dealer up cards from A to 10, but can’t find the bust rate for player hard 12 to 16 when hit for another cards.please give me the information.I am a basic strategy player. Thank you.
It’s pretty easy to calculate these, especially if you’re willing to accept almost-accurate numbers from an infinite deck approximation.
If you hit hard 16 and plan to stand at 17 or more, then you’ll take only one card. Five of the possible 13 card values will improve your hand, so you’ll bust the other 8/13 of the time. p(bust 16) = 8/13 = 61.5%
If you have hard 15, there are now two possibilities… You’ll bust immediately 7/13 of the time. 1/13 of the time you’ll draw an Ace for hard 16, and hit again. p(bust 15) = 7/13 + (1/13 * 8/13) = 58.6%
You can do the same thing for the other starting hands. The results? p(Bust 16) = 61.5% p(Bust 15) = 58.6% p(Bust 14) = 55.0% p(Bust 13) = 50.9% p(Bust 12) = 46.2%
These all assume you will continue hitting until you reach 17 or bust.
Thank you for everything, man. I am on vacation for six months and I have been on your site almost everyday for the past three. I have basic memorized and have started working counting in to my play. Thank you for teaching me these skills through your site. The new format looks great.
The new display, i.e. black screen on a white background is glaring. It makes my eyes hurt. It causes distortions in perception and causes a loss in concentration. Please change back to the green background or anything easier on the eyes. Thank you for the service of the strategy trainer. If you have time, how does the Surrender option effect the win/loss ratio if surrender is counted as a loss?
Can you quantify the change. I would expect the win ratio to be less even though the $Loss would be less. I have been calculating the winning percentage at 47.6. Is this about correct for the dealer hits soft-17 option. The Beau Rivage, Biloxi plays Dealer Hits Soft 17, has late surrender and re-split Aces up to 4 hands. This seems to offer good odds. What are they? Thanks again for the Basic Strategy Charts and your many excellent articles.
You are correct: with surrender the percentage of hands lost will be higher, but the money lost will be lower (assuming you use surrender at the appropriate times). This is one example of why looking at the win/loss percentage is a poor way of judging a game.
I recommend paying no attention at all to win/loss percentages, because they don’t tell the whole story. That is especially true when using the trainer. The trainer’s percentage display is simply not useful, as it even treats a push as a loss. The win percentage is just the number of wins divided by the number of total hands. (The next version will be much improved in that regard, when I get time to finish it!)
I’m extremely suspicious that this program isn’t fairly generating random numbers. It consistently deals out high cards straight from the beginning. Time after time after time, I set it to 2 decks, and I see extremely negative counts, very quickly, and the reason is because lots of high cards come out straight at the beginning. Is it possible you programmed this thing to kind of simulate “worst case scenario” conditions?
Hi Raymond, I notice you are visiting from a mobile device which likely does not support Flash. That did not change with the new website. Perhaps you were previously visiting from a desktop computer instead?
If you were previously able to access the trainer from your mobile device, please let me know. But I am unaware of any that support Flash.
By the way, now that the website design is complete, I can get to work creating a new version of the trainer. I’ve been planning that for a long while, and have a lot of improvements in mind. For one thing, the new version will not require Flash, and should work on any device. I plan for it to also optionally be multi-player.
It sounds like you pay a $1 ante for each $5 of your bet, so you pay a 20% vig for the opportunity to fold and get a new hand. I haven’t seen any analysis by anyone yet.
Does basic strategy apply to 2-card combos after card-splits? ie. Split 8’s against Dealer’s 4. You get a 2, do you double down or just hit? I have found these situations to be more of a trap than winning strategies, because if you happen to have build up your bet, then have to split and double down maybe twice or even three times, you end up risking and often losing your entire winnings and end up losing. Help, anyone?
Absolutely.
Yes, these hands will make or break your entire session, because you can get as many as 8 bets working under the most common rules.
(That’s three splits and four doubles!)
When basic strategy says to double, it is because the double is more profitable than just hitting.
Don’t forgo these extra opportunities to take advantage.
Sure, sometimes things won’t go your way, but how sweet it is when you get several bets on the table and the dealer busts.
Hi
Thanks for all information. In Asia, most casino use continuous shuffle machine , 5 or 6 decks. I am asking ,is there any change in basic strategy? ( compare to 6 deck shoes) .
Hi
Thanks for all the informations.
In Asia, most casino use continuous shuffle machines. ( usually 5 or 6 decks). I am asking , is there any change in basic strategy as compare to 6 decks shoes?
CSMs don’t change the basic strategy at all. Play with the confidence that you are playing these games as well as possible.
Hi KenSmith
Danke.
Hi KenSmith
I have bust rate for dealer up cards from A to 10, but can’t find the bust rate for player hard 12 to 16 when hit for another cards.please give me the information.I am a basic strategy player. Thank you.
It’s pretty easy to calculate these, especially if you’re willing to accept almost-accurate numbers from an infinite deck approximation.
If you hit hard 16 and plan to stand at 17 or more, then you’ll take only one card.
Five of the possible 13 card values will improve your hand, so you’ll bust the other 8/13 of the time.
p(bust 16) = 8/13 = 61.5%
If you have hard 15, there are now two possibilities…
You’ll bust immediately 7/13 of the time.
1/13 of the time you’ll draw an Ace for hard 16, and hit again.
p(bust 15) = 7/13 + (1/13 * 8/13) = 58.6%
You can do the same thing for the other starting hands.
The results?
p(Bust 16) = 61.5%
p(Bust 15) = 58.6%
p(Bust 14) = 55.0%
p(Bust 13) = 50.9%
p(Bust 12) = 46.2%
These all assume you will continue hitting until you reach 17 or bust.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for everything, man. I am on vacation for six months and I have been on your site almost everyday for the past three. I have basic memorized and have started working counting in to my play. Thank you for teaching me these skills through your site. The new format looks great.
Absolutely brilliant. So very cool. It’s bookmarked
The new display, i.e. black screen on a white background is glaring. It makes my eyes hurt. It causes distortions in perception and causes a loss in concentration. Please change back to the green background or anything easier on the eyes.
Thank you for the service of the strategy trainer. If you have time, how does the Surrender option effect the win/loss ratio if surrender is counted as a loss?
Wheelmarks
A surrender in the trainer is counted just like any other loss, so it affects the win/loss percentage as well.
On the screen colors, I may experiment with that a bit and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the feedback.
Can you quantify the change. I would expect the win ratio to be less even though the $Loss would be less. I have been calculating the winning percentage at 47.6. Is this about correct for the dealer hits soft-17 option. The Beau Rivage, Biloxi plays Dealer Hits Soft 17, has late surrender and re-split Aces up to 4 hands. This seems to offer good odds. What are they? Thanks again for the Basic Strategy Charts and your many excellent articles.
Wheelmarks
You are correct: with surrender the percentage of hands lost will be higher, but the money lost will be lower (assuming you use surrender at the appropriate times). This is one example of why looking at the win/loss percentage is a poor way of judging a game.
I recommend paying no attention at all to win/loss percentages, because they don’t tell the whole story.
That is especially true when using the trainer. The trainer’s percentage display is simply not useful, as it even treats a push as a loss. The win percentage is just the number of wins divided by the number of total hands. (The next version will be much improved in that regard, when I get time to finish it!)
For the Beau Rivage game you mention, I plugged in 6D, H17, and Late Surrender at the Strategy Engine:
https://www.blackjackinfo.com/blackjack-basic-strategy-engine/?numdecks=6&soft17=h17&dbl=all&das=yes&surr=ls&peek=yes
That shows a house advantage estimated at 0.58%. The Resplit Aces rules decreases that by about 0.08%, so this game has an expected loss of 0.5% of your initial bets.
That is the important number, regardless of what percentage of hands you will win or lose.
I’m extremely suspicious that this program isn’t fairly generating random numbers. It consistently deals out high cards straight from the beginning. Time after time after time, I set it to 2 decks, and I see extremely negative counts, very quickly, and the reason is because lots of high cards come out straight at the beginning. Is it possible you programmed this thing to kind of simulate “worst case scenario” conditions?
No, it’s random. You’ve just been lucky, or unlucky, depending on your perspective.
Hi Raymond,
I notice you are visiting from a mobile device which likely does not support Flash. That did not change with the new website.
Perhaps you were previously visiting from a desktop computer instead?
If you were previously able to access the trainer from your mobile device, please let me know.
But I am unaware of any that support Flash.
By the way, now that the website design is complete, I can get to work creating a new version of the trainer.
I’ve been planning that for a long while, and have a lot of improvements in mind.
For one thing, the new version will not require Flash, and should work on any device.
I plan for it to also optionally be multi-player.
Wow this website made me win big I started with 1k and I left with about 5.79K Thx!
I hadn’t heard of this game until your comment. I did manage to find some information at the NJ DGE though:
http://www.nj.gov/oag/ge/docs/TempRegs/switchhandsblackjack.pdf
It sounds like you pay a $1 ante for each $5 of your bet, so you pay a 20% vig for the opportunity to fold and get a new hand.
I haven’t seen any analysis by anyone yet.