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Modern Blackjack nth Edition

Having put out a 684 page book, I thought I had run out of Blackjack-related subjects. Particularly since I hate typing. But, the field seems inexhaustible. A forum doesn’t work too well as a repository. So, I thought I’d give blogging a shot.

This is a continuation of my book, Modern Blackjack, with some random musings and studies, generally on the subject of Blackjack. Feel free to add comments.

  1. Lucky Ladies Double-Deck

    Normally, we think of improved odds with fewer decks. Of course, this is not always true with side bets. With Lucky Ladies, we are looking for two heart Queens. This is less likely with fewer decks. With two decks, there are only two heart Queens. So, if we have one, there is only one card left that will give us a large bonus.

    This is a continuation of the previous post on Lucky Ladies and uses the same payoff schedule. So, what are the results? With this schedule and two decks, the
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  2. Lucky Ladies Improved Payout

    In my book, Chapter Ten provides an analysis of the Lucky Ladies bet. The following payoff schedule is used:


    Q hearts pair w/ dealer BJ – 1000:1
    Q hearts pair – 125:1
    Matched 20 – 19:1
    Suited 20 – 9:1
    Any 20 – 4:1


    Results were an advantage at TC +7 (High-Low) but a better SCORE at TC +9. A reader found a better payoff schedule as follows:


    Q hearts pair w/ dealer BJ – 1000:1
    Q hearts pair – 200:1
    Matched
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  3. The Obligatory “If I ran a Casino” Post

    The goals of the casinos and of the advantage players are in conflict. The casino wants every dollar the player has and the player wants every dollar the casino has. If either party gets what it wants, neither side wins. It is necessary that both sides make money to keep the casinos in business and keep the mystique of the game alive. So, this is my attempt at triangulation.

    My suggestion is that the casino offer a rather poor set of rules, 8 deck, dealer hits soft-17, double after
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  4. Simulation Reliability Note (Programmers only)

    I minor point that I neglected to mention in my book, not of interest to non-programmers. In the Sim Secrets chapter, I discussed simulator architecture – in particular, separating the actual simulation engine from the setup and display code. The simulation engines, the heart of the process, actually comprise a small percentage of the code. When you compile code, you set several options. Among them are various checks on operation of the code – for example, array bounds checks, integer overflow
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  5. How Often Do We Reach a Count?

    When you are playing a six deck Blackjack game, and using KO or REKO, you start the count at -20. But, you do not get to bet until the card count has increased a fair amount. The question was asked on my forum, how often does this happen? Good question. I ran 32 simulations. All were six deck, S17, DAS, three players. Penetration varied from 65% to 80%. I measured the percentage of shoes where the count reached levels of -2 through +4. Below are the results.

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About Blackjack: The Forum

BJTF is an advantage player site based on the principles of comity. That is, civil and considerate behavior for the mutual benefit of all involved. The goal of advantage play is the legal extraction of funds from gaming establishments by gaining a mathematic advantage and developing the skills required to use that advantage. To maximize our success, it is important to understand that we are all on the same side. Personal conflicts simply get in the way of our goals.