Blackjack

I played the game of blackjack somewhat competitively for many years. Recently I have started to play Hearthstone. How did playing blackjack prepare me to play Hearthstone somewhat successfully? This post will attempt to answer this question. Imperfect Information Playing blackjack effectively is an exercise in imperfect information. You never know what the dealer’s hole card is, so you have to make decisions based on probabilities and the knowledge of cards that were previously played after the shuffle....

If you are playing at a blackjack table where late surrender is allowed, you should take advantage of the late surrender rule by slightly changing the blackjack basic strategy rules for when to stand on hard hands. Late surrender allows you to surrender your hand and lose half your bet only after the dealer checks for blackjack. Ask the blackjack dealer at your table if late surrender is allowed. Here are the updated rules for when to surrender....

One of the questions I often receive is: How much money do I need to play blackjack at $25 per hand? In an earlier post on blackjack risk of ruin I calculated that you need to have a bankroll size of $5,000 to have a 15.9% risk of ruin. This was an example calculation for risk of ruin when including blackjack comps as part of your winnings. For this post I am going to assume that you are playing a blackjack game for 4 hours per day, playing 70 hands per hour, with a house advantage of 0....

If you are playing at a blackjack table where the dealer hits soft 17, you need to slightly change the blackjack basic strategy rules for when to double down on hard and double down on soft hands. Here are the updated rules for when to double down. 3 blackjack basic strategy rules for doubling down on hard hands when dealer hits soft 17: Always DOUBLE on 11 DOUBLE 10 vs. dealer 2 thru 9 DOUBLE 9 vs....

Risk of Ruin is: The probability that you will lose your entire bankroll To calculate the bankroll size you need for an acceptable risk of ruin, you need the following information: Net Win per Hand of Blackjack Played Standard Deviation per Hand of Blackjack Risk of Ruin desired (percent) Net Win per Hand is the sum of: Loss from playing blackjack Amount received from comps = (comps received per hour) / hands per hour / betting unit size Example: 2D H17 DAS game loss = -0....