Basic Strategy

[Pascual]

I was wondering if someone knows what the mathematics behind Basic Strategy are?
How do they come up with the tables?
How is the mathematics behind BS changed depending on the different house rules?
Are there any research papers/books/essays out there that would be worth reading to understand the math?

 

[KenSmith]

The idea is pretty simple, but implementation is challenging.

Combinatorial analysis involves examining every possible outcome on a hand, weighting them by the probability of that branch of the tree of possibilities, and using the information to choose the strategy that returns the highest value to the player.

It gets really sticky when you get to splitting pairs.

There is more information available at http://www.bjmath.com (Archive copy)
If you're interested in this stuff, you really should buy Peter Griffin's Theory of Blackjack.