Recent content by jihan3

Are typical Australian rules blackjack pretty poor??

Max bet on the $5 table at my local casino is $500. It's most certainly possible to lose 7 hands in a row.

While reading the story, I had the same thought process. The article was apparently written in 1994. Perhaps the person was employing other techniques (reading warps, reading dealer tells, shuffle tracking, key card sequencing, etc) that aren't widely exploitable today to give him a much...

I interpreted it to mean that he was playing at an empty table with the escort sitting next to him. The crowd consisted of passerbys gawking at the money being wagered and not actively playing. Thanks for posting this up - it was an entertaining read :)

With 50% penetration, I believe cutting a high card into play has about the same effect as cutting a low card out of play. With greater penetration, I believe cutting a low card out of play is more powerful than cutting a high card into play. I believe the opposite is true with less than...

Here's what I think: Removing the 5 from play in a 2 deck game increases the true count of the played portion by 0.5. From what I've heard, each TC point is worth about a 0.5% player advantage. So if the starting house advantage is less than about 0.25%, then the BS player does have an...

I see this now - this thread is so long that I forgot who said what (and I think I have ADD!). I think you're right. As long as "better" means better for the player.

Here's my reasoning. Assumptions: 6:5 game, player has a natural, dealer shows an ace. Player takes insurance. For ease of calculation, let's say the original bet was $10 and the insurance bet was $5. Two possible outcomes: 1) dealer doesn't have blackjack. Player wins $12 on the...

Thank you for posting this. I understand where they are coming from now. The 1/26 figure is the cost of taking even money relative to the original bet. The previously cited 1/13 figure is the cost of taking insurance relative to the insurance bet. Of course, the insurance bet is half the...

There is a difference between even money and blackjack if the game pays less than 3:2. In particular, in a 6:5 game, even money is a great option for the player (stovepipe mentioned this in the second post of this thread). If you claim that there's a difference in expected win rates for an...

3:2 payment has nothing to do with the difference between taking insurance on a blackjack vs any other hand. Insurance is a side bet. The payout on the original bet has no effect on the expected win rate of the insurance bet. Insurance costs 1/13 of your bet because only 4 out of 13 cards...

Even money is the same as taking insurance (when you have blackjack, of course). Let's say you have blackjack, the dealer shows and ace, and you take insurance. Let's assume for this discussion that the insurance bet is for half the original bet. Let's also assume that you're playing a 3:2...

Thank you!

I thought the concept for Don Schlesinger's Illustrious 18 was ingenious when I first learned about it. I like the breakdown of each deviation by their percent contribution to the total gain of the I18 in Table 5.1 of Blackjack Attack. What I'd like to know is the percent contribution of the...

rounding error To restate what others have already said, you rounded off the house insurance advantage when you went from 16/52 to 1/3.