Long Term vs. Short Term

[tech58]

Comp counting is more art than science. In a nutshell, you bet more when the pitboss is paying attention.
You also slow play by playing less hands. You might get rated as a $25 player even though most of your best are at $10. You play four hours, mostly $10 at 45 hands an hour. You put $1800 in play. You might get a $5 comp to the coffee shop. If the pit rates you at $25 and doesn't notice how many hands you skip, you might get credited for $6000. Being a green chipper isn't worth much on the strip, but works fine most other places in Nevada.
Table players don't earn points the way video poker players do. It's a parallel system, that varies from club to club.
There are any number of free sites to practice basic strategy. It's a matter or memorizing about 50 hands and practice. Just like VP, if you play BJ using basic strategy with bad rules, you have no realistic chance of winning long term.
Marx Rubins Comp City is the bible of comp whoring. Most of the plays he writes about are dead, but it's easy to adapt many of them to modern conditions.

BR is dead on with every point in this post. The only additive kicker would be counting which is difficult to get away but can theoretically provide an extra .75% -1% and make it a positive game. But beware the repercussions, especially in Vegas.

[stevel96a1]

riverboat blackjack series pc software simulate same blackjack rules as atlantic city 10$ min bet, when using the KO (which is about same as hi lo) it ripped all my 500$ buy in by hand # 159, i think that was generous with a 1-8 spread, i know gambling has wins/losses but i was in no mood for another buy in after that or even try with 2k$ and still chance can lose all

[billryan]

Betting $80 a hand with a $500 bankroll is suicide.

[stevel96a1]

thats why i pointed out need 2 grand, and even then your risk adn lose 2 grand for 5-8$an hour?
almost sound as bad as a martingale or cancelation system

[billryan]

Yes, you are right. Stay away from the game.

[stevel96a1]

but you can argue you want to win 6.50 an hr? or lose 2.5 an hour? personally would need 20 grand and be prepared to lose 1/2 or all and i myself would think thats a lousy gamble to win 6.5 hour to those ac blackjack games, i dunno why 3:2 is still around if i owned any casino id make sure best video poker game is 95% return and id still make a profit

[Gronbog]

Gronbog is that 99.5 from atlantic city rules 8d h17?? even so id choose 99.5 jacks or better and walk away with a royal 1/5 my sessions oppose to BJ table. and comps are always better with machine vs table

just as VP returns vary with the individual games and the pay tables, blackjack returns vary depending on the exact rules. H17 is worse than S17, but if you can double on any 2 card hand and can double after splitting, and are playing with a 3:2 payout for a blackjack, you will get somewhere around a 99.5% return from a shoe game by playing the correct basic strategy for the rules you are playing against. Playing a game with 6:5 payout for a blackjack will reduce your return by about 1.5%, which is to say that you will lose 4 times as much in the long run.

[stevel96a1]

suppose i play an honest blackjack game and suppose i play 80 hands and did not receive one blackjack does that statement still hold true?

6:5 payout for a blackjack will reduce your return by about 1.5%, which is to say that you will lose 4 times as much in the long run.

for those 80 hands?

i know 100 hands would surpass the 5 Standard devation rule so im not that far off from a possibility

[FloridaPhil]

Thanks for the BJ information. I'll check it out. One of the advantages of video poker is I know what the comps and points are going to be. Monday is Big Bonus Day in Tampa. They have one of these days once a month. With my card and my wife's I get about $80 in free play. At least they give us something for playing lousy pay tables. With a $300 a day bankroll, I can play all day and walk out at least even most days. It's really not all that bad. I sit next to people all the time who play dollar 8/5 DDB. I think that's insane, but it's their money.

[Gronbog]

suppose i play an honest blackjack game and suppose i play 80 hands and did not receive one blackjack does that statement still hold true?

The 95.5% return is for the long run, so any short term results will vary. 80 hands is an extremely short period. On average you should get a blackjack every 21 hands or so. Going 80 hands without a blackjack happens about 2% of the time, which is not outrageous.

The long run for blackjack is reached much more quickly than for VP. N0 (N zero) for blackjack is only about 52,000 hands.