Re: New Player Needs Some Advice

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Rod Garvey
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> A couple questions:
> 
> 
> What does 'double down' mean?

  Almost all blackjack games allow a player to increase his/her wager
  by an amount up to the original wager by declaring a double.  The 
  player then must take one and only one additinal card.  Doubling is
  almost always on the first two cards of the hand however.

  This permits the player to put money into the game when the
  odds seem favourable, as in the case of a player's total of 11
  when the dealer is showing a 5.

> And if you don't mind me asking, why are
> you playing based on what the dealer is showing moreso than what
> you've got? After all, you're the only one who can bust your own hand
> - the dealer is playing the dealer's game, my opinion is not to worry
> about that as much as not going over 21.
> 

  Your opinion nonwithstanding, the mathematics of 21 clearly shows
  that identity of the dealer's card is a prime determinant of the
  player's strategy.  It is more profitable, for instance, to stand
  a player's 16 when the dealer shows a 6 and to hit a 16 when the
  dealer shows a 7.  Remember that the player will win with a 
  16 if and only if the dealer breaks.  The dealer will break, on the
  average, between 42 and 44% of the time with a 6 showing and
  around 26% of the time with a 7 showing.



> That's my strategy. As for my computer game being fixed, I highly
> doubt it - I never play the game on the 'easy' setting, almost always
> 'medium' or 'hard'. 
> 

  Nonsense.  Why should the "hard" setting be less profitable for the
  player?  You are assuming the game is fair.  This is a bad assumption.

-- 
Harvey J. Cohen, Ph. D.
-------

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as 
you please. -- Mark Twain
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