Unplayable splitting strategies

[ericfarmer]

[QUOTE=DSchles;302521]Not to one of those split hands; to the far-right one. We have to play the game. We don't get to choose where to start. (I understand it makes no difference for the math. But let's play correctly.)[/QUOTE ]

Right. Or left? That is, from the dealer's perspective or the players? I think newly split pair cards "grow to the right" from the player's perspective, and the dealer always "comes back" to the leftmost single card (also from the player's view), or do I have it backward? At any rate, you're right that for this discussion it makes no difference.

Well, if you're not allowed to reckon any of the cards (you're not counting), you hit your 14 vs. dealer 8. But that obviously isn't the discussion.

Seems pretty clear that, reckoning all the cards, we double. But, to calculate e.v., are we allowing knowledge of the three sixes to our left or not? See BJA3, pp, 389-391 for the discussion and Cacarulo's methodology. I think we've been down this road before.

Don

Right, this is the key point all of this hinges on. How complex is our laminated strategy card, i.e., how much information about the cards in our current hand, and surrounding cards in the round, can we use to look up what action to take?

There are a couple of common options, called CDP and CDPN, for which an exact EV can be calculated efficiently. But (I claim, using this depleted shoe round with CDP as a specific example) that those CDP[N] reported values are of academic interest at best, since you can't make a consistent strategy decision in the above situation-- interestingly, no matter what strategy is employed to complete the rest of the round-- that would yield the calculated EV.

The problem is that to achieve the calculated EV, we need the dealer to deal the single additional card to each of the other three pair cards first, before coming back to the first 6-8 hand and asking us what to do.

E

[DSchles]

Right. Or left? That is, from the dealer's perspective or the players? I think newly split pair cards "grow to the right" from the player's perspective, and the dealer always "comes back" to the leftmost single card (also from the player's view), or do I have it backward? At any rate, you're right that for this discussion it makes no difference.

So, as the player, and not the dealer, the first hand played is to MY right. And the resplits keep getting pushed over to the right, but that's somewhat irrelevant, as it's always the same card (rank). Finally, no, you play the split hands from your right to your left, just as the table hands progress from right to left.

There are a couple of common options, called CDP and CDPN, for which an exact EV can be calculated efficiently. But (I claim, using this depleted shoe round with CDP as a specific example) that those CDP[N] reported values are of academic interest at best, since you can't make a consistent strategy decision in the above situation-- interestingly, no matter what strategy is employed to complete the rest of the round-- that would yield the calculated EV.

Right. And you see my argument in BJA3. BS means only the dealer's upcard and the cards in YOUR hand? Well, what's your hand? The two cards you're currently playing (with blinders on)? Maybe. But what are those other three sixes lying over to the left? Whose hand do they belong to? Yours eventually, but not at this instant, so you have to ignore them? Well, maybe! What's that? To determine BS for THIS hand, you ARE allowed to reckon those other sixes? OK, great. But, I can't also reckon any of the other cards on the table because, what, they don't BELONG to me?! Gets silly very quickly.

The problem is that to achieve the calculated EV, we need the dealer to deal the single additional card to each of the other three pair cards first, before coming back to the first 6-8 hand and asking us what to do.

I understand. Very interesting. I used to agonize over things like this but eventually came to understand that players (and, hence, my readers) crave practical information that they can turn into dollars but are less enamored of the pure theory if it truly can't help them make more money.

Always lovely chatting with you.

Don