Card Counting in Australia

The effect of card removal at the game of Blackjack, and counter measures casinos employ to prevent exploitation by players in Australia.
By Andrew MacDonald
Gaming Manager, Casino Operations, Adelaide Casino, 1994

AIM:-

To quantify by computer simulation the house edge at the game of Blackjack played under Adelaide Casino rules, where all players utilise basic strategy. To compare this result with a house edge calculated using Arnold Snyder’s “Blackjack Formula”.

METHOD:-

John H Imming’s Blackjack software, “Universal Blackjack Engine Version 4.0” (U.B.E.) was configured to the following settings:-

Rules

1. Cards dealt face down
2. Dealer shows burn card
3. Real World pick up
4. Pickup type 2
5. Dealer hits on soft 17
6. Surrender allowed
7. Early surrender
8. Macao surrender
9. Insurance allowed
10. Dealer blackjack takes all
11. No hole card game
12. Dealer peek on aces only
13. No dealer peek
14. Split any 2 tens
15. D.D.N. on any number of cards
16. Over/under
17. Double exposure
18. Double down after split
19. Only 1 split allowed
20. Cards for split as played
21. Aces split exactly as others
22. One card for split aces
23. Resplit for Aces
24. Blackjack pays 1 1/2 times
25. Blackjack pays 60% bonus
26. Blackjack pays double
27. Dealer takes all ties
28. Dealer takes tie 17
29. Player wins on 5 cards
30. Player wins on 6 cards
31. Player wins on 7 cards
32. D.D.N. on hard 10 + 11 only
33. D.D.N on hard 9,10,11 only
34. Insure blackjacks only
35. Abort all special cases
36. Abort streak betting
37. Penetration by round
38. Number of players
39. Number of decks
40. Penetration to ? cards (redeal)
41. Penetration to ? rounds
42. Delay time (100th sec)
43. Table limit max.
44. Table limit min.

(Y/N) – set to N 2.
(Y/N) – set to N 3.
(Y/N) – set to Y 4.
(Y/N) – set to Y 5.
(Y/N) – set to N 6.
(Y/N) – set to N 7.
(Y/N) – set to N 8.
(Y/N) – set to N 9.
(Y/N) – set to Y 10.
(Y/N) – set to Y 11.
(Y/N) – set to Y 12.
(Y/N) – set to N 13.
(Y/N) – set to Y 14.
(Y/N) – set to Y 15.
(Y/N) – set to N 16.
(Y/N) – set to N 17.
(Y/N) – set to N 18.
(Y/N) – set to Y 19.
(Y/N) – set to N 20.
(Y/N) – set to Y 21.
(Y/N) – set to N 22.
(Y/N) – set to N 23.
(Y/N) – set to N 24.
(Y/N) – set to Y 25.
(Y/N) – set to N 26.
(Y/N) – set to N 27.
(Y/N) – set to N 28.
(Y/N) – set to N 29.
(Y/N) – set to N 30.
(Y/N) – set to N 31.
(Y/N) – set to N 32.
(Y/N) – set to N 33.
(Y/N) – set to Y 34.
(Y/N) – set to N 35.
(Y/N) – set to Y 36.
(Y/N) – set to Y 37.
(Y/N) – set to N 38.
set to 7 39.
set to 8 40.
set to 52 41.
–
set to 1
set to 2000
set to 2

Betting Strategy

Betting strategy was defined as flat betting for all players at a fixed unit.

Playing Strategy

The basic strategy as shown in the appendix was entered.

This strategy was confirmed by three different sources for these rules:

1. E.O. Tuck – “Blackjack – is there anything more to be said?”

2. C. Ionescu Tulcea – “A Book on Casino Blackjack”.

3. Jady Davis – “Blackjack for profit”

SIMULATION

The simulation was then allowed to run from approximately 17.30 hours Friday, December 7th, to 09.30 hours Monday December 10th. In that time 71,543,288 rounds of Blackjack were played.

Results

RESULTS OF BLACKJACK SIMULATION CONDUCTED FROM 7.12.90 – 10.12.90 UTILISING R.W.C.U.B.E. v 4.0
The following results were obtained from a computer simulation of the game of Blackjack:- N.B It had been noted prior to the experiment that player 1 was malfunctioning by negative betting at high negative indices. All other player results may be considered valid.
	ROUNDS	BET	WIN/LOSS	WIN/LOSS %
Player 1	71 543 288	150 514 484	-962 174	-0.64%
Player 2	71 543 288	157 170 128	-966 129	-0.61%
Player 3	71 543 288	157 169 434	-964 045	-0.61%
Player 4	71 543 288	157 170 430	-936 456	-0.60%
Player 5	71 543 288	157 178 882	-924 008	-0.59%
Player 6	71 543 288	157 177 314	-964 353	-0.61%
Player 7	71 543 288	157 179 974	-945 521	-0.60%
HOUSE	71 543 288	1,093,560,646	6,662,686	0.61%
LESS PLAYER 1		943,046,162	5,700,512	0.6045%

“Blackjack Formula” calculation:-

	Starting advantage = DA + V DA = Deck Advantage v = sum of the effect of the rule variations Deck advantage for an 8 deck game = -0.54% v = -0.064%

therefore starting advantage	= -0.54% + – 0.064
	= -0.604%

Calculation of v:-

v = sum of –	no soft double = -0.091 no hold card = -0.113 double after split = +0.14
		= -0.064

In relation to Vegas Strip rules where, dealer stands on soft 17
double down on any two cards
no double after split
split any pair
resplit any pair except aces
split aces receive only 1 card each
no surrender
dealer receives hole card

Deck advantage taken from Arnold Snyder’s book “The Blackjack Formula” cross checked with Peter Griffin’s – “The Theory of Blackjack”.
Chambliss and Roginski’s – “Playing Blackjack in Atlantic City”

Values used are for a 6 deck game rather than an 8 deck game, however, these should closely approximate the correct values to within 0.05%. Thus, the house edge for the game of Blackjack using Adelaide Casino rules, playing basic strategy was calculated empirically to be 0.604% +/- 0.05%.

Card Counting in Australia

BOOK CHAPTERS