BJ Press is a new game from Shufflemaster. The rules, as I understand them, are as follows:
Shoe BJ, H17, DAS
Player BJ always wins, but pays 1:1
Players place three equal bets, one for each of two hands of BJ plus a Press bet.
If all four of the player's cards are of the same color, he loses the Press bet. If not, he moves that bet to the hand of his choice.
The hand is played out as a normal BJ hand.
Now I'm not sure what happens if the dealer has a natural. As I see it, the dealer checks for natural after the Press decision is made. Also, I am assuming the original bet plus the Press bet can be doubled or split together as if it was one bet. Shufflemaster's documentation isn't any better than that.
Results: I get a player edge of a whopping 0.00218% using a lazy man's CA. I took CVData data for the probabilities and advantages of all the possible BJ hands in a H17 DAS game, but neglected the fact that when two hands are dealt being dealt one changes the probabilities of receiving all others, plus it affects the dealer's card. I used 0.123 as the probability of 4 cards being the same suit in an 8D game. This rule also does have a minimal effect on the play of the hands but I neglected that.
Code: Here is my Liberty BASIC code. Liberty BASIC is a useful interpreted BASIC and a free, fully-functional trial version is available for download. Please let me know if I screwed anything up, this is important.
Shoe BJ, H17, DAS
Player BJ always wins, but pays 1:1
Players place three equal bets, one for each of two hands of BJ plus a Press bet.
If all four of the player's cards are of the same color, he loses the Press bet. If not, he moves that bet to the hand of his choice.
The hand is played out as a normal BJ hand.
Now I'm not sure what happens if the dealer has a natural. As I see it, the dealer checks for natural after the Press decision is made. Also, I am assuming the original bet plus the Press bet can be doubled or split together as if it was one bet. Shufflemaster's documentation isn't any better than that.
Results: I get a player edge of a whopping 0.00218% using a lazy man's CA. I took CVData data for the probabilities and advantages of all the possible BJ hands in a H17 DAS game, but neglected the fact that when two hands are dealt being dealt one changes the probabilities of receiving all others, plus it affects the dealer's card. I used 0.123 as the probability of 4 cards being the same suit in an 8D game. This rule also does have a minimal effect on the play of the hands but I neglected that.
Code: Here is my Liberty BASIC code. Liberty BASIC is a useful interpreted BASIC and a free, fully-functional trial version is available for download. Please let me know if I screwed anything up, this is important.
Code:
'program press
dim a(35)
dim p(35)
p(1)=.01189 'prob of hard 5
p(2)=.01188 'prob of hard 6
p(3)=.02377 'prob of hard 7
p(4)=.02377 'prob of hard 8
p(5)=.03564 'prob of hard 9
p(6)=.03565 'prob of hard 10
p(7)=.04749 'prob of hard 11
p(8)=.08309 'prob of hard 12
p(9)=.08306 'prob of hard 13
p(10)=.07117 'prob of hard 14
p(11)=.07115 'prob of hard 15
p(12)=.05928 'prob of hard 16
p(13)=.05927 'prob of hard 17
p(14)=.04739 'prob of hard 18
p(15)=.04737 'prob of hard 19
p(16)=.01188 'prob of A2
p(17)=.01188 'prob of A3
p(18)=.01188 'prob of A4
p(19)=.01187 'prob of A5
p(20)=.01186 'prob of A6
p(21)=.01186 'prob of A7
p(22)=.01186 'prob of A8
p(23)=.01185 'prob of A9
p(24)=.04741 'prob of Natural
p(25)=.00575 'prob of AA
p(26)=.00577 'prob of 22
p(27)=.00576 'prob of 33
p(28)=.00575 'prob of 44
p(29)=.00575 'prob of 55
p(30)=.00575 'prob of 66
p(31)=.00574 'prob of 77
p(32)=.00574 'prob of 88
p(33)=.00574 'prob of 99
p(34)=.09400 'prob of XX
a(1)=-0.2190 'advantages of hands as above
a(2)=-0.2393 'I'm not retyping, don't bust my balls OK?
a(3)=-0.2166
a(4)=-0.1191
a(5)=-0.0055
a(6)=0.1271
a(7)=0.1580
a(8)=-0.3144
a(9)=-0.3448
a(10)=-0.3693
a(11)=-0.3926
a(12)=-0.4124
a(13)=-0.2959
a(14)=-0.0205
a(15)=0.2568
a(16)=-0.0233
a(17)=-0.0459
a(18)=-0.0649
a(19)=-0.0855
a(20)=-0.0605
a(21)=0.0188
a(22)=0.2398
a(23)=0.5755
a(24)=1
a(25)=0.1622
a(26)=-0.0803
a(27)=-0.1018
a(28)=-0.0936
a(29)=0.1296
a(30)=-0.1422
a(31)=-0.1359
a(32)=-0.0556
a(33)=0.0340
a(34)=0.5747
'this block checks for typoes in
'variable defs
for l = 1 to 34
psum=psum+p(l)
asum=asum+a(l)
next l
print psum
print asum
for h1= 1 to 34
for h2= 1 to 34
handprob=p(h1)*p(h2)
bigbet=1.877*max(a(h1),a(h2))
'0.123 of a bet is lost due to the rule
'where you lose the press bet if colors
'of your 4 cards match
smbet=min(a(h1),a(h2))
r=(bigbet+smbet)*handprob
rtotal=rtotal+r
next h2
next h1
print rtotal*100/(3*34*34);"%"
end