I have heard this “favor the player” theory in blackjack so many times I can remain silent no more. According to the experts, “favor the player” theory, meaning when the remaining un-dealt cards in the deck are rich in 10s and picture cards, the player’s chance of hitting a blackjack increases.
How did the experts come to this conclusion? To me, the player’s chance is just as great as the dealers’ are. I do not see the advantage to the players. We are talking only about chances of hitting a blackjack. The experts say the player’s chance of hitting a blackjack under those conditions is greater because if the player hits a blackjack, the player is paid 3 to 2. Am I missing something here? Willy L.
Experts, AKA card counters, base their conclusions on the myriad of computer studies generated over the years. Additionally, be it Thorp’s Beat the Dealer, Revere’s Playing Blackjack as a Business, or the abundance of other books written on the subject, all loudly cry out: “A deck rich in 10s favors the alert player!!!”
Counters are players who continuously track the cards dealt, and bet and play according to the value total of the moment. By doing so, the skillful counter achieves an advantage over the game. But even you, the accidental tourist, will benefit from an increase in 10s. Besides the 3 for 2 payoff for a blackjack, the simple knowledge that a deck is rich in 10s benefits the player. Why? Listen up: The dealer’s play is inflexible: he’s forced to hit on 17. Because of this, card counters can calculate their success-probability at every display of a 10 card. Knowing in advance the resultant success ratio improves his chances against the dealer’s up-card.
And Willy, don’t sneeze at the additional bets a player can make with the knowledge that the deck is rich in 10s – like splitting pairs or doubling down. Each correct move slices away at the house edge. As for dealer advantage in blackjack, there is only one. You and the dealer begin dead even, 50/50, when get your first two cards. The house’s edge is that you must act on your cards first. So even if your hit card would also have busted the dealer, your money is snatched and stashed in the dealerıs tray. The dealer loses nothing and pitches your next two cards, casino owners smiling ear to ear.
Please, Willy, do not be a player who believes the winning hand that was won was the hand that was played properly. Quite possibly if you play that hand the same way again you will lose. Then, of course, it wasn’t played properly, right? Read that back to me.
Dear Mark,
I read in a magazine that you are going to be able to Login Sbobet exercise while playing slots. Is this for real? Gail B.
Reading magazines again, are you? I believe I weighed in on that (pun intended) in a previous column, with the surly recommendation that if these machines are eventually an industry-wide success, casinos should park them just outside the exit doors of their cattle-feed buffets. As carousal customers do-si-do out the door, the guilt-ridden can seek atonement on the huff-and-puffs.
Called Pedal & Play and the Money Mill, the concept of the inventors, Fitness Gaming Corporation, was a bike and a treadmill each fitted with a slot machine. But the excess weight the users shed won’t compare with what their wallets sweat away.
I question whether they will be a success, and even if they are, you are probably asking the wrong person. With a teenaged drummer banging away under the TV room, disrupting the simple epicurean pleasure of gorging on Ben and Jerryıs ice cream, and a wife who’s a bit excitable lately (can it be menopause?), I am giving up exercise to voluntarily shorten my life.
Gambling thought of the week: “What are hunches but mysterious messages coming out of the deeps of our minds through some sort of mental telepathy.” – Harold S. Smith Sr., I Want to Quit Winners (1961)
