Which would you take

[Thunder]

8 deck S17 game with one deck cut off or 6 S17 deck game with 1 deck cut off. I can hear Automatic Monkey screaming penetration, penetration, penetration but after my last trip, I'm pretty convinced that distribution plays a bigger role than one might think. I have a hard time believing the advantage when the count is good is just .02% for 6 decks vs 8 decks after noticing that over many hours of play, I seem to do better at the 6 deck games.

[johndoe]

Originally Posted by Thunder

8 deck S17 game with one deck cut off or 6 S17 deck game with 1 deck cut off. I can hear Automatic Monkey screaming penetration, penetration, penetration but after my last trip, I'm pretty convinced that distribution plays a bigger role than one might think. I have a hard time believing the advantage when the count is good is just .02% for 6 decks vs 8 decks after noticing that over many hours of play, I seem to do better at the 6 deck games.

Obviously the 6D in this case is better, but a fairer comparison would be between 6D/1.5 vs. 8D/1 or 8D/0.75.

I would rely more on the sims than your observed results in any case. On of my best daily wins was on a H17 8D/2 with no surrender!

[Thunder]

I thought 1 deck cut off out of 8 decks would be better since that's 87.5% penetration vs 1 deck cut off out of 6 decks since that's 83.33% penetration

[kewljason]

Originally Posted by Thunder

I thought 1 deck cut off out of 8 decks would be better since that's 87.5% penetration vs 1 deck cut off out of 6 decks since that's 83.33% penetration

The percentage number, that we all always refer to is really not what is important. What is important is the number of unseen cards before the shuffle. Fewer is better. In this case 87.5% is not better than 83.3%. They both cut off one deck or 52 cards and the games will be similar. Since all things appear equal, the edge goes to 6 decks because the HE is slightly lower on 6 decks. (.03)

A more interesting comparison would be 6 decks, 2 cut off vs 8 decks 2 cut off. 6 decks 66.6% pen vs 8 decks 75% pen. It would first appear that the 8 deck game is better, but again the games are basically even with 104 cards cut or unseen, so advantage to 6 decks because of lower house edge.

[21forme]

Kewl - I disagree. Take it more to the extreme: Would you rather play an 8D game with 1.5D cut off or a 2D game with 1.5D cut off? The 2D game has a lower house edge, so it must be the better game, right? I don't think so.

[kewljason]

Originally Posted by 21forme

Kewl - I disagree. Take it more to the extreme: Would you rather play an 8D game with 1.5D cut off or a 2D game with 1.5D cut off? The 2D game has a lower house edge, so it must be the better game, right? I don't think so.

You are absolutely correct. But I was only comparing the 2 games that the poster mentioned. 8 decks vs 6.

[daddybo]

In reality games with poor penetration are "bad" only if the good cards are behind the cut card.

[Ferretnparrot]

Its all just comes down to the percentage of total hands offered at a player advantage, and the magitude of them, only a sim could tell.

Personally, i would go for the 6 deck game because i hate waiting for longER periods of time inbetween playing as is the norm for 8 deck games.

[Automatic Monkey]

Originally Posted by Thunder

8 deck S17 game with one deck cut off or 6 S17 deck game with 1 deck cut off. I can hear Automatic Monkey screaming penetration, penetration, penetration but after my last trip, I'm pretty convinced that distribution plays a bigger role than one might think. I have a hard time believing the advantage when the count is good is just .02% for 6 decks vs 8 decks after noticing that over many hours of play, I seem to do better at the 6 deck games.

Well, they both do have the same penetration!

If there were 8D and 6D games being dealt down to a deck, I'd play them both randomly. Cant complain about shoe games being dealt down to a deck.