BJTF – Modern Blackjack nth Edition

Been looking around the ‘Net. People I know from older days do not have photos of themselves on the I’Net. People in my family, excepting the very youngest, have no public photos. Most of these people, like me, avoid it like the plague. Publically publishing photos of yourself is not… Read more »

In earlier days, Las Vegas, even its cab drivers, were remarkably friendly and helpful. The beginning of the change was a quarter of a century back, not recent. I remember talking to casino workers, 25 years ago, about how the friendliness of the city had dissipated. Nothing to dissipate now.… Read more »

Bill Zender’s excellent books talk to advantage play from the casino perspective. This is important to our side as we need to know how the casino side thinks. It is more important to know how the casino identifies an advantage player than it is to know how to accurately identify… Read more »

I have seen hundreds of posts over the years expressing negative reactions to other players and unpleasant dealers. Including those that say they will leave a casino in an unpleasant situation. I’m sorry, but, to me, this sounds a bit like; I went hiking and saw a priceless, ancient arrowhead… Read more »

Nearly everyone uses integer indices these days as attempting to use indices like +1.4 provide little additional gain. This isn’t just because indices aren’t that sensitive. It is also because such theoretic indices aren’t even correct. The advantage over increasing counts for a decision is not a simple linear relationship.… Read more »

We have seen charts showing the advantage a player has by section of the shoe for each True Count when discussing Floating Advantage. But, what about unbalanced counts? I created a chart showing the advantage by running count using REKO-F for the first deck in the show through the fifth… Read more »

Look around the web, and you will find dozens of sites that talk about dealer bust rates. Which is odd since it is a near useless statistic (not counting odd bonuses and side bets). What you do not see are discussions of player bust rates. Also generally useless. However, as… Read more »

Over the years, many have tried to resurrect Martingale betting (doubling the bet when you lose a hand). As we all know, Martingale betting fails, in Blackjack or in any endeavor involving betting. So, what if we use Martingale betting as cover? That is, we use Martingale at times when… Read more »

On card counting forums, the question is often asked “At what count do you win the majority of hands?” The long-known answer is at no count. Even at high counts, you win fewer than half of the hands. You make money because of Blackjacks, doubles, splits, insurance, and betting. But,… Read more »

I thought that I’d take a harder look a Blackjack card counting strategy difficulty. The point at which our minds are busiest with counting is just after the dealer has dealt the initial cards, or during the dealing of each player’s second card. At this point, we are counting pairs… Read more »

The question has been asked, if you have been trespassed, that is told to never to enter a casino again, what happens if you do and you make a large win? Can the casino to refuse to pay you? Suppose you put a dollar in a Video Poker machine and… Read more »

It should be no surprise that this is a common question. So, so many variables: Do you have chips from that casino?Are you known at the casino? Known in what manner?Do they allow money (cash) plays and in what circumstances?How big is the casino?What is your “act?” First, it needs… Read more »

Apparently, GM’s OnStar always tracks your car location, even if you drop your subscription. And everyone gets a free trial subscription. That is, they keep a database of your driving habits, and sell it. Now, they claim the info is anonymized, so that particular cars cannot be identified by the… Read more »

The most famous color-dependent card counting system is Red7, but there are several. In Red7, you count the red sevens, but not the black sevens. The idea is to realize results that are closer to a level 2 strategy, without using a more complicated level 2 strategy. In a level… Read more »

On page 464 in Modern Blackjack, I provide a chart of the advantages by card and by count if you know the first card. For example, if you know your first card is an ace, your advantage is about 51%. A staggering number. But, what if you are playing Blackjack… Read more »

It has occurred to me that a full table of contents of Chapter 15, How Blackjack Works, would be useful. This occurred to me because I go searching through the chapter myself trying to remember where I put charts. So: How Blackjack Works 369 Basic Strategy 370 What hands do… Read more »

Most people know that two wrongs don’t make a right. From this, we can logically infer that three wrongs don’t make a right. A progressionist is a person that believes that if he could only be allowed no limitations on the number of wrongs, then he would be right. Read more »

The questions seem to become more and more odd as strange bonuses and side counts abound. These charts show the percentage of hands that are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 cards in length, but for each possible dealer upcard. Split hands are counted separately. The sims are for… Read more »

Saw an article today that huge sunspot activity at the end of next year may cause massive technology blackouts. Sounds bad. But, that was followed up by a commercial for a refrigerator that has built-in Wi-Fi. Now, I’ve been in tech for longer than most everyone. But, when my refrigerator… Read more »

Modern Blackjack contains a chart of the overall percentages of hands won, lost, and tied and how these percentages are affected by card counting. But, an interesting question came up that I have not seen before. How are these percentages affected by the number of indexes? So, I ran three… Read more »