PLAYER ADVANTAGE VS, DEALER UP CARD

As the table indicates, although the dealer is most likely to bust with a 5 showing, the player has the greatest advantage with a dealer 6 up. (This table assumes a one-deck game played with typical Las Vegas Strip rules.) The numbers vary only slightly with multiple decks and rules variations. The Basic Strategy shows how to play every hand you can receive in Blackjack depending upon what the dealer up card is. This strategy is de-signed to help you in one of three ways by showing you how to: lose less, win more, and win instead of lose.

Case I shows a "lose less" situation. All hands assume a single-deck game with a $1.00 initial wager. If you were following a dealer-mimic strategy holding A,7, you would stand. If the dealer has a 10 up, you will lose with this play 18 per cent more often than you will win. This means for every $1.00 you wager in this situation, in the long run you will lose $.18. If you follow Basic Strategy and hit A,7 versus a dealer 10 up, you will still lose more often than win, but your expected loss will be $.04 less. Basic Strategy helps you lose less in this situation.

Case II illustrates how you might not be winning as much as you could be with one of the loser strategies. Again you are hold-ing A,7, only this time the dealer has a 6 up. You already know that this is the best possible situation for the player. If you follow dealer mimic (also no-bust) and stand, you will win 26 per cent more often than you lose for an expected win of $.26. If you double, as I did in the first hand in my game with Marge, your net win decreases to 19 per cent. But since your bet increased to $2.00, the expected value of this play is your win percentage times a doubled wager: .19X$2.00-$.38. Your net gain from doubling is $.12. Basic Strategy has helped you win more.

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