Title:
Blackjack Player: You are player number 1054 Description: One of the most popular Casino games casino black jack game. Black Jack Tips:
THE BLACK JACK DEALER'S EXACT PERCENTAGE TAKE-1
Why do you lose at Black Jack? What is your chance to win? What odds are you bucking? What is the bank's favorable advantage, and where does it exist?
Before I calculated the bank's advantage at 5.90% when the player adheres to the dealer's fixed strategy, no one, including mathematicians, bridge experts, game-book authors, players and casino employees, knew the right answers. Without this information, any mathematical analysis of Black Jack would be meaningless.
Bridge experts Ely Culbertson, Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith admitted they didn't know either. In Culbertson's Card Games, Complete with Official Rules, they say: "In no game that has been played for high stakes has there been less analysis of the science of playing than in Black Jack. The only available guide to strategy is empirical; no one has more than his opinion on which to estimate the advantage of the dealer."
Within a few years after this book first hit the stores, more than 500 books and pamphlets were published on the subject "How to beat the game of Black Jack." Each author told how he was barred from playing in Las Vegas because his system was sure to beat the house. Several of these authors, notably Professor Edward O. Thorp and Dr. Allen N. Wilson, told their readers in effect that Scame's Black Jack strategy was for the birds; that their Black Jack system of play was far superior because it permitted even an amateur to consistently beat the Las Vegas Black Jack tables over the long run. Rubbish I Need I say more? For further information concerning Thorp's Black Jack system, see page 347.
In 1964, in an effort to test Professor Thorp's "winning Black Jack" statements I challenged him to a $100,000 contest to be staged in Las Vegas. Thorp's reply was a big "No." Later I issued the same challenge to Dr. Wilson-I'm still waiting for his reply. It's time we went on to something important.
Before we dive into a mathematical analysis of the game, I should tell you just what part of the game gives the bank an advantage. If you ask a dealer what happens to your bet when he and you tie with the same count, his stock answer is: "All ties are a standoff; no one wins and no one loses," This implies that the dealer doesn't take your bet if you tie. This isn't quite right; in fact it's dead wrong.
True, the dealer doesn't take your bet when you tie on a count of 21 or less, but if his statement that all ties are standoffs is true, then he should keep his hands off your dough when you tie at 22, 23 or anything above 21. Does he? No, that's not the way Black Jack is played. When a player busts, the dealer doesn't wait to see whether he will also bust and tie at a count above 21. He rakes in the bet and closes that transaction. The player has lost, even though his count may later tie the dealer's.
This is the crux of the hidden P.C. in the bank's favor. This is the real reason why casino operators like Black Jack and why most players lose at the game.
The bank has an advantage in the unspoken and largely unnoticed provision that ties stand off, or push, provided the count is 21 or less. Want to prove it? That's easy. Just ask your dealer to play his hand out after you have busted and if he also busts and goes over your count to pay you off. You'll get a fast answer telling you exactly where to go and when.
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