Power button use @ island resort tournament

Discussion in 'Blackjack Tournament Strategy' started by Ewok, Jul 2, 2022.

  1. Ewok

    Ewok Member

    Looking for Opinions and experiences from people on how they have used the yellow "ace" button and purple "no bust " button and when, how, at what point in the round etc? I have not played there before and will be there next week. Thanks in advance. Hope to see some familiar faces there!
     
    Lakegirl32 likes this.
  2. Billy C

    Billy C Top Member

    Good question. Needless to say, the ideal situation is not having to use either one of them. Unlikely, of course.
    Most will be used on max/near max bets and last/near last hands.

    Billy C
     
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  3. noman

    noman Top Member

    When I was very young I played with my young friends the game of "In Between." Invariably when one had an Ace King and bet pot, an Ace or King came up.
    The same pit fall awaits using the yellow Ace card.

    To me the purple "No Bust" card is advantages in very rare hand improvement opportunities. Much rather have had a mulligan.

    But. So it goes.
     
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  4. gronbog

    gronbog Top Member

    Main things to remember are that the yellow "ace" button is played along with your bet before the cards are dealt. Your first card becomes an ace and you're hoping to paint it for a natural (2/1). Use this when you're pretty sure you need to win twice your original bet. Even if you don't get the natural, you'll be able to double without risk of busting. The purple "no bust" button is played when you bust and is no good on a double. Use it in a critical situation when winning a single bet is what you need or when a push is as good as a win.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2022
    Ewok likes this.
  5. noman

    noman Top Member

    I'll take that advice to heart.
     
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  6. Lakegirl32

    Lakegirl32 Member

    The Yellow Ace button was a bomb for me in my round. I had intended to use when I thought chances were good to paint it and when I had a large bet out there, but it did not go that way. And the Purple "No Bust" did not get used. I really did not need it and fortunately luck was on my side - I sorta forgot about it.. woops.
     
  7. Monkeysystem

    Monkeysystem Top Member Staff Member

    I used the Ace button late in the 2nd round on a max bet on a ten card... It gave me a max bet blackjack. I never used my no bust button. I had planned to use it late in the second round but no opportunity came up. The clock ran out too soon, because the last hand took longer than expected. I was going to use it on any two cards except a blackjack.
     
  8. gronbog

    gronbog Top Member

    I never used it either for the same reason. This button is played at the time of the bust, except on a double, so if it's your last opportunity to use it:
    • For hard hands the optimal strategy is to just keep hitting until you bust. Even if you have 20!
    • For soft hands, there will be a tipping point where you stand, because of the possibility of making your hand worse by continuing to hit.
      Blackjack would definitely qualify as a hand to stand on! :D
    • There are probably considerations for possibly splitting certain hands, depending on what your goal for the hand is.
     
  9. Billy C

    Billy C Top Member

    I think you meant to say simply that you used it on a max bet. Being it had to be placed before any cards were dealt, you didn't know it had a chance to yield a BJ.

    Billy C
     
  10. gronbog

    gronbog Top Member

    Here are the details of what I touched on in an earlier post regarding optimal strategy for using the "No-Bust" button. I call it "Bust Rescue".

    For the goal of maximizing your chance of winning at least 1x your original bet (Must Win), you can achieve a 52.68% success rate by following this basic strategy:

    http://gronbog.org/results/blackjac...stRescue/MustWin-IslandResort-BustRescue.html

    As I had speculated, you hit all hard hands, most soft hands and most pairs. As with previous strategies like this that I have posted, when splitting, you must go on to play the optimal strategy for each of the split hands. There are dozens of charts, which would be impractical to memorize. The good news is that by never splitting and instead hitting all pairs, including A,A, you only give up 0.03%. This is still a significant improvement over the 43.81% success rate achievable without the bust rescue.

    For the goal of not losing your hand (A Push is as Good as a Win), you can achieve a success rate of 62.31% using this strategy:

    http://gronbog.org/results/blackjac...scue/MustNotLose-IslandResort-BustRescue.html

    There are a lot more splits recommended here because splitting has a tendency to increase the number of net pushes (i.e. win one lose one). By not splitting and instead hitting all pairs you give up 0.27% here. Once again this is a significant improvement over the 52.73% success rate achievable without the bust rescue.
     
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