How to make blackjack fun for the masses

[Prospect]

The other week, my sister and her boyfriend hosted a blackjack tournament for their friends. I was called upon to deal the cards and setup the rules. I basically made the rules player-friendly. 1D, S17, DOA, DAS, LS, 2-to-1 BJs.

Everyone had a lot of fun. And, they had the most fun whenever there were a lot of chips on the table. So, that suggests that if I keep tweaking the rules to make it even more player-friendly, they would probably have even more fun.

One of the tweaks that I will add next time is "face-up" blackjack. You know this game. It is the one where both of the dealer cards are dealt face-up. Of course, in the real world, blackjacks are paid 1-to-1. The 48% winrate will go up. Anybody know the number?

Another tweak that I am thinking about is if both the player and dealer busts, it is a push. Anybody know how many loses would be turned into pushes?

Surrender-anytime would be a great tweak for the skilled-player. However, my sister's friends never once surrendered.

I am thinking that if I can tweaking the rules so that the players have something like a 65% winrate, it would be very fun for them. And, perhaps, this is what is needed to make blackjack popular to the public.

 

[toolman1]

Making it a positive expectation game? - Interesting!

Prospect: You asked three interesting questions. I think I can answer one of them (#2 below) but I may be corrested by the pros - but that's OK. I never claimed to be an expert.

1) Both dealer cards delt face up:
:vomit: I wouldn't even attempt to figure the additional win rate on this one. I think its a very bad idea. It would change all of basic strategy and remove most of the suspense from the game. Not good for either parlor games or casino tournaments.

2) Player and dealer bust, its a push:
On page 55 of Don Schlesinger's book BLACKJACK ATTACK - 2nd edition, Table 4.1 quotes hand probabilities. Dealer probability of breaking is 28.20%, player probability of breaking is 15.94%. Therefore it seams that the probability of both breaking on the same hand (and therefore a push) is 4.51% (28.29% X 15.94%). This is assuming the most common BJ rules. Rule changes will of course change the percentage. Therefore, to answer your question: 4.5 hands per 100 would be converted from a player loss to a push. I'm not a math wizz. So if any members dispute my numbers, I'm listening.

3) Not really a question, but making tournament BJ into a positive expection game:
I don't know how this would play out in the real world. Its an intreging question. I can see that it would make playing more fun for the players since they would be winning more. But it may make the game too easy, and therefore skill would count for next to nothing. You don't want to change the game so only luck counts. I think I'll leave this question to the pros.

Hope this info helps your home game.

 

[S. Yama]

Double exposure

Hola guys,

I kinda’ repost what I wrote a few hours ago. My previous post was too inexact and I added some extra stuff.

Hey , coming with more rules that give more advantage to players, sure, as long you have fun inventing it, I mean… they have fun playing it.
Game in which you see both of dealer’s cards is called “Double Exposure” You can google it or go directly to Wizard of Odds or check Wong’s “Basic Blackjack”. There will be some history of it in Snyder’s “Big Book of Blackjack” coming this fall.
You should also check rules for Super Fun.

As to how often dealer and player bust, you can’t simply multiply dealer’s average bust and player’s average bust. When dealer shows 4 to 6 you don’t bust at all and dealer busts the most, conversely, when dealer shows 7 to Ace you hit to hard seventeen and bust the most while dealer busts less than average.
If you want to get the right number you would have to take table of dealer statistical busts depending on up-card (if you don’t know it by heart already).
Let’s assume basic strategy and go through all dealer’s up-cards.
Against dealer 2 and 3 the only busting hand you may have is twelve. You will have total of twelve that you can hit (and bust) very close to 10% (it is already 14/169 for the first two cards =8.3%) but against dealer 2 and 3 it is a little bit less (the main reason being you double totals of ten and eleven instead hitting and getting “hittable” twelve).
You don’t bust for dealer’s up-cards four to six.
And you bust about the same as dealer (you hit to hard seventeen) for dealers upcards 7 to Ace. Actually, you bust a bit more because you hit soft eighteen against dealer 9 to Ace.

So rounding it up we have:
9.7% . x 35.4% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s 2
9.7% . x 37.4% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s 3
28.2% x 26.2% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s 7
28.2% x 24.4% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s 8
28.2% x 22.9% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s 9
28.2% x 21.2% times 4/13 -- for dealer’s Ten
28.2% x 11.7% times 1/13 -- for dealer’s Ace

Note that you need to use bust numbers that include blackjacks and not the ones (so often used in tournament calculation) after dealer checks and have no bj.
Anybody cares to add it all up?

S. Yama