My friend, slot expert
John Robison, has decided to learn how to play blackjack.
He’s a serious-minded gambler and he wants
to play the best possible game he can against the
casinos. So he’s learning basic strategy.
Basic
strategy is the uncreative name for the computer-derived
play of every player hand against every dealer upcard.
If you follow the basic strategy for hitting, standing,
doubling down, and splitting pairs, you will face very
small casino edges on multiple-deck games -- in the
vicinity of 0.3 to 0.6 percent -- and almost no casino
edge on single-deck games. In fact, in some single-deck
games with good rules, the player can have a tiny edge
over the casino, on
the order of 0.14 percent!
(A casino edge translates like this: If a casino
has an 0.6 percent edge that means for every $100
wagered, the long-run expectation is for the player
to lose 60 cents.)
Players who play some
shadow version of basic strategy or play the “I
have my own strategy and don’t tell me no different!”
will face edges of from one percent to six percent
depending on how far they stray from the correct
moves. So for a little effort, the few days of memorizing
of basic strategy, there’s a lot of reward
-- you’ll get to keep more of your money when
you play against the casinos.
Most of basic strategy is relatively easy to learn
and understand. After all, when you get a two-card
21, you just sit there and smile and collect your
3-2 payoff. You certainly don’t double down
on it as if it were an eleven. Also, when you have
a 17 through 20, you do nothing but wait and hope
you can beat the dealer or that the dealer busts.
The above strategies are logical and most players
intuitively understand that hitting a 20 or splitting
tens won’t help them very much. And doubling
on a two-card 5 is not the right move against a
dealer’s 10 up.
But some strategies are not so logical and often
fly in the face of logic. Hitting your 12s against
a dealer’s 2 or 3 is one such. In the long
run, the computers show that a basic strategy player
who hits his 12s against a dealer’s 2 or 3
will win slightly more money, or lose slightly less
money (same thing but said differently), than one
who stands. Still, those busting tens do come with
irritating frequency when you’re hitting that
12, or at least they seem to. It is no wonder that
many players balk at the move, despite the fact
that it is the correct one to make.
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Columns By Franki Scoblete
