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Page last modified: 7-09-95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Section B: Blackjack Questions B1 What do these funny acronyms mean ... B2 What special terminology is used by blackjack players?
B9 What is the correct basic strategy for single deck Blackjack? B10 What is the correct basic strategy for Atlantic City blackjack? B12 Why are single deck games better than multi-deck games? B14 Do 'bad' players at third base have any effect on expected gain? B15 Where is the best place to sit at a blackjack table. B20 Does penetration have any effect on basic strategy expectation? B22 What is the correct strategy for "multi action" blackjack? B24 What is the counting strategy for Over/Under blackjack? B26 What are some other sources of blackjack/gambling information? Abbreviations: BSE = Basic Strategy Edge H17 = Hit soft 17 (dealer must hit) S17 = Stand on any 17 (dealer must stand) DOA = Double On Any first two cards D10 = Double on 10 or 11 only DAS = Double After Splitting is allowed RSA = Re-Splitting Aces is allowed ESR = Early Surrender LSR = Late Surrender O/U = Over/Under 13 side bets are allowed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q:B2 What special terminology is used by blackjack players? A:B2 (Steve Jacobs, Dave Everett) Blackjack Terminology: basic strategy a playing strategy that is designed to minimize the house edge as much as possible without using techniques such as card counting, shuffle tracking, or dealer tells. Basic strategy is used as a foundation for card counting, but is also used by many non-counters. burn card cards that are discarded without being dealt to the players. After the cards are shuffled by the dealer and cut by one of the players, one or more cards are "burned" before any cards are dealt to the players. bust after a "hit", the player is said to "bust" if the new card causes the player's total to exceed 21. card counting a system for improving the player's edge by assigning "weights" to each card face and summing the card weights as each new card is turned face up. The "count" indicates when the game is favorable for the player, so that the player can place larger bets and/or make changes in playing strategy. cut card a (usually colored plastic) card that is used to cut the cards after they have been shuffled by the dealer. double down to double the initial bet and receive exactly one more card. The option to double is often allowed on the players first two cards only, although some casinos allow doubling after splitting a pair. Many Northern Nevada casinos allowing doubling only with a two-card total of 10 or 11. It is very rare to find games that allow doubling of hands that have more than two cards. double for less to double down with less than 2X the original bet. Generally, when doubling is allowed, the player does not have to actually double his bet, but may increase it by any amount up to (but not more than) the original bet. early surrender surrender which is allowed even when the dealer has a natural. Very valuable to the player, but rarely offered by the casinos. even money taking insurance when holding a blackjack results in a net gain of one bet. Some casinos will allow the player to be paid without actually placing the insurance bet. flat bet to bet the same amount on each successive hand. hit drawing a new card to add to the player's or dealer's hand. insurance a side bet, of up to 1/2 the original bet, that is offered when the dealer's upcard is an ace. If the dealer has a natural 21 (blackjack), the player's bet still loses in its entirety. If the dealer does not have a blackjack, the player loses half the bet and doesn't play the rest of the hand. over/under a rare bet that the first two player's cards will total over 13, or under 13, when aces are counted as one. preferential shuffling shuffling when the deck is favorable to the players, while avoiding a shuffle when the deck is unfavorable to the players. push a tie hand, the original bet is returned to the player. shoe a "box" for holding the undealt cards, usually used in multi-deck games. soft hand any hand that includes an ace that can be counted as 11 without having the value of the hand exceed 21. It is always possible to draw one card to a soft hand without busting. split hand hands that start with two cards of the same rank can be split to form two independent hands. This option is exercised by adding a new bet to the second hand, and these hands are played independently. spread to place more than one bet before the cards are dealt. stiff (hand) any hand that has a small chance of winning regardless of how the hand is played (usually 12 - 16). surrender the option to give back the player's first two cards in exchange for a refund of 1/2 of the original bet (rarely allowed). dealer's 10, are so bad that surrender is less costly than playing the hand. third base the last player at a table to act on his/her hand is said to be sitting at "third base". The correct playing decision often involves some consideration of the dealer's upcard. A:B3 (Steve Jacobs) Card Counting Terminology betting correlation a measure of how well the card weights correlate to the change in the player's favorability when the cards are seen by the player and removed from the deck. This gives an estimate of the accuracy of the card counting system. back counting counting cards and waiting for the count to become favorable before sitting down to play. balanced count any counting system that has a count starting at zero when the cards are shuffled, and ending at zero when all cards in the deck have been exposed. bet spread the ratio between maximum and minimum bet size. A player who uses $20 maximum bets and $5 minimum bets is using a 4:1 bet spread. This weight is added to the "count" as each new card is exposed. Weights are usually small integer values like -1, +1, or +2. count (noun) -- a number that represents the player's estimate of how favorable or unfavorable. cover bet a bet (usually large) placed at the "wrong" time, in order to fool the pit critters into thinking that the player is not counting cards. insurance correlation a measure of how well the card weights correlate to the change in the player's favorability for placing insurance bets. This gives an estimate of the accuracy of the card counting system for predicting when to take insurance. penetration the number of cards that are dealt before the cards are shuffled. Penetration is usually expressed as a percentage of the cards, as in "75% penetration". Good penetration is extremely important to card counters. playing efficiency effectiveness of strategy variations in tracking the optimal playing strategy as the deck composition changes. Efficiency is given by E = AG / PG, where AG is the actual gain from making the strategy changes, and PG is the possible gain that could be made by using a playing strategy that is "computer perfect". running count the total of the weights of all cards that have been exposed since the cards were shuffled. shuffle tracking a system to predict which sections of the deck/shoe will be favorable to the player, based on the locations of favorable sections of the previous deck/shoe, and on studying the method used to shuffle the cards. side count a count in addition to the "main" count, usually involving a single card face, as in "ace side count". strategy variations varying from basic strategy when the count indicates that it is profitable to do so. ten poor a deck that has a lower than average density of tens and face cards. ten rich a deck that has a higher than average density of tens and face cards. true count a count that is adjusted according to the number of undealt cards, usually by dividing the running count by the number of undealt *decks* (or half-decks). unbalanced count any counting system that has a count that starts or ends on a non-zero value (see "balanced count"). wonging improving the player's edge by placing bets only when the count is favorable for the player, and "sitting out" when the count is unfavorable. Unlike many other casino games, s...
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