Here are all the comments posted on the site, with the most recent discussions listed first.
To participate in any of these discussions, you can reply on the article page.
Sure…
With Hard 17vs Ace, surrender if you can. If you cannot surrender, the “stand” index is -5, meaning stand if the true count is -5 or better. Only when the true count is worse than -5 should you hit.
With 88vAce, surrender if you can. If you cannot surrender, the “split” index is -2. Split if the true count is -2 or better. If the true count is -3 or worse, you should hit instead of stand.
Ken, il y a des années, j'ai compté en utilisant HiLo. J'aimerais recommencer à compter de manière récréative lorsque j'irai à Vegas ou lors d'une excursion d'une journée à AC. J'essaie KO parce qu'il n'est pas nécessaire d'estimer le nombre de jeux dans le plateau de défausse. Mais je trouve que l'augmentation des comptes négatifs est difficile à gérer et il est plus facile de savoir quand j'ai un avantage en utilisant HiLo et la table de pari est plus facile à mémoriser. Que conseillez-vous à un joueur récréatif, de supporter l'estimation du jeu ou de se débarrasser des nombres négatifs et des stratégies de mise non intuitives ? Quelle doit être la précision de l'estimation du jeu de cartes ?
KO est vraiment plus performant que Hi-Lo, donc je pense que c'est un choix très raisonnable. La plupart des personnes qui choisissent KO finissent par ajuster le décompte de départ et les chiffres clés de manière à éliminer la plupart des décomptes négatifs. C'est un bon plan.
Malgré cela, j'ai toujours préféré les décomptes équilibrés, même s'il est nécessaire de les convertir en décomptes réels. Avec KO, vous ne pouvez pas vraiment savoir de manière fiable quelle est l'importance de votre avantage, mais seulement si vous avez un avantage ou non. Cela m'a gêné, bien que les simulations confirment que ce n'est pas un gros problème. Bien que la précision de l'estimation du deck soit importante, vous vous en sortirez bien si votre précision est assez fiable pour un deck.
If mgm goes to $10.00 parking, and the price of gas stays where it’s at (below $3.00) and they keep pushing this 6/5 business, and union pressure in a RTW state, these high priced execs better start checking how far away the competion is.lol Not to mention a 20% rake and increase in food and room rates. Should help out the taxi business, but the indians and out of staters might get tired of that long drive for a 20$ hamburger at micky dees.
First MLife stopped table game express comp earning, and now they plan to charge for parking. Vegas is becoming a far different place. Once Vegas casinos’ non-gaming revenue eclipsed gaming revenue, we could have seen this trend coming.
Basic strategy is to stand with 13v2. But as the index numbers above indicate, you should hit this hand if the true count is -2 or worse. Stand at -1 or better, which matches basic strategy.
Bonjour, je voudrais poser une question sur le décompte réel, après qu'un tour a été fait, par exemple nous avons un décompte courant de +6 et 3 jeux n'ont pas été joués, le décompte réel est de +2 . Mais lorsque nous commençons un nouveau tour, où dois-je commencer à compter ? A partir de 0 ou en continuant le compte courant de +6 que j'avais avant ? Je vous remercie de votre attention et vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées.
beaucoup
Maintenez le compte courant jusqu'à ce que le croupier mélange les cartes, en le reportant d'une main à l'autre. Lorsque le croupier mélange les cartes, recommencez à zéro.
Yes, you should still split Aces. The rule you describe is used in almost all casinos. Blackjack is only possible on the first two cards, not after splitting. If you draw a ten to a split ace, the hand is just a normal 21, and does not get paid 3:2. In addition, when splitting Aces you will be dealt only one card on each hand. (Some casinos allow resplitting if that card is another Ace.) Even with these restrictions, splitting Aces is still the correct play.
There are quite a few online casinos that deal live games. Unfortunately, as far as I know none are yet available in the two US states where online casinos are legal (Delaware and New Jersey). I did try these kinds of games years ago, before the law changed in 2006. At that time, they were painfully slow, likely under 30 hands an hour. I can’t participate now, but I hope they improved the speed. You should be able to watch and see how the shuffle is handled, and how deeply the games are dealt to decide whether it is worth the trouble.
I agree with Shack on his final verdict… The third baseman myth won’t ever be dispelled, facts be damned. Some people just need a scapegoat for their losses.
It’s just a close call, and the optimal basic strategy happens to change between S17 and H17. Yet the index numbers round to the same value. Just another of the subtleties that emerge from the game.
Michael Shackleford, A.S.A., a professional actuary who has made a career of analyzing casino games, sees your statement as myth. He runs the numbers on new games for casinos and game developers and has helped design many of the popular slot machines on the Internet.
In his own words…….
“Unless you are a card counter, how other players play should not affect what you do. Basic strategy players should stick to the basic strategy no matter how badly the other players play. Other players are just as likely to help you as hurt you. In the end, it makes no difference how they play.”
“In ten years of running this site I steadfastly denied the myth that bad players cause other players to lose in blackjack. However, you are the lucky 1000th person to ask, so I took the trouble to prove it by random simulation. The rules I put in are the standard liberal Vegas Strip rules as follows.
6 ponts
Le croupier s'arrête sur un soft 17
Double on any first two cards allowed
Double after split allowed
Late surrender allowed
Player may re-split to four hands, including aces
Cut card used
First, I had both players follow correct total-dependent basic strategy. Over almost 1.6 billion rounds, the loss of the first player to act was 0.289%, and the second player to act of 0.288%.
Second, I had the first player follow the same correct strategy, and the second player follow the same correct strategy except:
Always hit 12 to 16
Always double 9 to 11
Split any pair
Never surrender
Never soft double
In a simulation of 1.05 billion hands the loss of the first player was 0.282%, and the second player was 11.260%. So the house edge of the basic strategy playing first player was almost the same, regardless of whether the second player played correctly or wildly incorrectly. I hope this puts and end the third baseman myth, but I doubt it. As I have said many times, the more ridiculous a belief is, the more tenaciously it tends to be held.”
ok thanks, I’ve gone back to Professional Blackjack and found the wider index ranges for H17 & S17 shoe games.
One last question (at least for now!) on Double Deck. On your Adv Charts the index value for A,3 vs 4 = 1 for both H17 & S17. However the basic strategy action is Hit (S17) and Dbl (H17). I know this scenario is a close one but what’s the reason for the differences in basic strategy between H17 & S17 despite the same index.
Can you please clarify the index play on 6D H17 DAS: Hard 17 vs A where it says RS-5; and 8,8 vs A where it says RP-2.
Sure…
With Hard 17vs Ace, surrender if you can. If you cannot surrender, the “stand” index is -5, meaning stand if the true count is -5 or better. Only when the true count is worse than -5 should you hit.
With 88vAce, surrender if you can. If you cannot surrender, the “split” index is -2. Split if the true count is -2 or better. If the true count is -3 or worse, you should hit instead of stand.
That makes a lot of sense now. Thank you for your quick response.
Ken, il y a des années, j'ai compté en utilisant HiLo. J'aimerais recommencer à compter de manière récréative lorsque j'irai à Vegas ou lors d'une excursion d'une journée à AC. J'essaie KO parce qu'il n'est pas nécessaire d'estimer le nombre de jeux dans le plateau de défausse. Mais je trouve que l'augmentation des comptes négatifs est difficile à gérer et il est plus facile de savoir quand j'ai un avantage en utilisant HiLo et la table de pari est plus facile à mémoriser. Que conseillez-vous à un joueur récréatif, de supporter l'estimation du jeu ou de se débarrasser des nombres négatifs et des stratégies de mise non intuitives ? Quelle doit être la précision de l'estimation du jeu de cartes ?
KO est vraiment plus performant que Hi-Lo, donc je pense que c'est un choix très raisonnable. La plupart des personnes qui choisissent KO finissent par ajuster le décompte de départ et les chiffres clés de manière à éliminer la plupart des décomptes négatifs. C'est un bon plan.
Malgré cela, j'ai toujours préféré les décomptes équilibrés, même s'il est nécessaire de les convertir en décomptes réels. Avec KO, vous ne pouvez pas vraiment savoir de manière fiable quelle est l'importance de votre avantage, mais seulement si vous avez un avantage ou non. Cela m'a gêné, bien que les simulations confirment que ce n'est pas un gros problème. Bien que la précision de l'estimation du deck soit importante, vous vous en sortirez bien si votre précision est assez fiable pour un deck.
If mgm goes to $10.00 parking, and the price of gas stays where it’s at (below $3.00) and they keep pushing this 6/5 business, and union pressure in a RTW state, these high priced execs better start checking how far away the competion is.lol Not to mention a 20% rake and increase in food and room rates. Should help out the taxi business, but the indians and out of staters might get tired of that long drive for a 20$ hamburger at micky dees.
First MLife stopped table game express comp earning, and now they plan to charge for parking. Vegas is becoming a far different place. Once Vegas casinos’ non-gaming revenue eclipsed gaming revenue, we could have seen this trend coming.
Greatly appreciate your website. Many thanks. Hit en once more.
Bonjour,
Quick question, I thought you were always supposed to stand 13v2?
thanks
Basic strategy is to stand with 13v2. But as the index numbers above indicate, you should hit this hand if the true count is -2 or worse. Stand at -1 or better, which matches basic strategy.
Bonjour, je voudrais poser une question sur le décompte réel, après qu'un tour a été fait, par exemple nous avons un décompte courant de +6 et 3 jeux n'ont pas été joués, le décompte réel est de +2 . Mais lorsque nous commençons un nouveau tour, où dois-je commencer à compter ? A partir de 0 ou en continuant le compte courant de +6 que j'avais avant ? Je vous remercie de votre attention et vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées.
beaucoup
Maintenez le compte courant jusqu'à ce que le croupier mélange les cartes, en le reportant d'une main à l'autre. Lorsque le croupier mélange les cartes, recommencez à zéro.
If the casino does not pay out 3 to 2 for blackjack after splitting Aces, do we still proceed to split ace pair?
Yes, you should still split Aces. The rule you describe is used in almost all casinos. Blackjack is only possible on the first two cards, not after splitting. If you draw a ten to a split ace, the hand is just a normal 21, and does not get paid 3:2. In addition, when splitting Aces you will be dealt only one card on each hand. (Some casinos allow resplitting if that card is another Ace.) Even with these restrictions, splitting Aces is still the correct play.
There are quite a few online casinos that deal live games. Unfortunately, as far as I know none are yet available in the two US states where online casinos are legal (Delaware and New Jersey). I did try these kinds of games years ago, before the law changed in 2006. At that time, they were painfully slow, likely under 30 hands an hour. I can’t participate now, but I hope they improved the speed. You should be able to watch and see how the shuffle is handled, and how deeply the games are dealt to decide whether it is worth the trouble.
can you please look at betfair online live casino i don t think they have a shuffling machine is.is there good to play pls take a look
I agree with Shack on his final verdict… The third baseman myth won’t ever be dispelled, facts be damned. Some people just need a scapegoat for their losses.
It’s just a close call, and the optimal basic strategy happens to change between S17 and H17. Yet the index numbers round to the same value. Just another of the subtleties that emerge from the game.
Michael Shackleford, A.S.A., a professional actuary who has made a career of analyzing casino games, sees your statement as myth. He runs the numbers on new games for casinos and game developers and has helped design many of the popular slot machines on the Internet.
In his own words…….
“Unless you are a card counter, how other players play should not affect what you do. Basic strategy players should stick to the basic strategy no matter how badly the other players play. Other players are just as likely to help you as hurt you. In the end, it makes no difference how they play.”
“In ten years of running this site I steadfastly denied the myth that bad players cause other players to lose in blackjack. However, you are the lucky 1000th person to ask, so I took the trouble to prove it by random simulation. The rules I put in are the standard liberal Vegas Strip rules as follows.
6 ponts
Le croupier s'arrête sur un soft 17
Double on any first two cards allowed
Double after split allowed
Late surrender allowed
Player may re-split to four hands, including aces
Cut card used
First, I had both players follow correct total-dependent basic strategy. Over almost 1.6 billion rounds, the loss of the first player to act was 0.289%, and the second player to act of 0.288%.
Second, I had the first player follow the same correct strategy, and the second player follow the same correct strategy except:
Always hit 12 to 16
Always double 9 to 11
Split any pair
Never surrender
Never soft double
In a simulation of 1.05 billion hands the loss of the first player was 0.282%, and the second player was 11.260%. So the house edge of the basic strategy playing first player was almost the same, regardless of whether the second player played correctly or wildly incorrectly. I hope this puts and end the third baseman myth, but I doubt it. As I have said many times, the more ridiculous a belief is, the more tenaciously it tends to be held.”
ok thanks, I’ve gone back to Professional Blackjack and found the wider index ranges for H17 & S17 shoe games.
One last question (at least for now!) on Double Deck. On your Adv Charts the index value for A,3 vs 4 = 1 for both H17 & S17. However the basic strategy action is Hit (S17) and Dbl (H17). I know this scenario is a close one but what’s the reason for the differences in basic strategy between H17 & S17 despite the same index.
Merci !