Charles Jay on Blackjack
NOT-SO-SWEET SIXTEEN

With the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament upon us, it’s a reminder that having a 16 dealt to you at the blackjack table is decidedly not very sweet. In fact, it’s a horrible hand to have, since you can easily “bust” (go over 21) with a hit, and it’s not very advantageous to stand with it.

So if you’re sitting in a game and get a 16, how are you going to handle it?

Suffice it to say that this is a hand which is probably misplayed by a most people. On a psychological level, you may in fact be scared to hit a 16. That’s understandable, since in all likelihood you’re going to break 21. But there is a hard reality, which is that the best way to help yourself here is to hit the hand, that is, against the so-called “pat” upcards that run from the seven through the Ace (it goes without saying, at least we think, that you will stand against anything from a two through six as the dealer’s upcard, because those are generally bad cards for the dealer). If you think about it for a second, the dealer has to play by strict house rules in the casino which require him to hit on a total of 16. And if you notice, he winds up making hands to beat you, to the point where there is a house advantage to blackjack. That is no coincidence, believe me.

You need to operate on that principle too. Hitting hands is the best way you have at your disposal to make hands, and when you are playing against a dealer who is most likely going to make a hand for himself, there’s no way you can preserve your bankroll in this case while employing a “no bust” strategy. Experts also call that a “no-win” strategy.

Let’s take the example where you’re going against the dealer’s weakest “pat” upcard – the seven. If you stand in this situation, you are going to win 26% of the time and lose 74%. If you hit, you’ll win only 27%, which is only a small improvement but an improvement nonetheless. More importantly, you’re going to wind up losing less, to the tune of 67.5% (with the rest being pushes). So by hitting the hand, you are, for the most part, making an attempt to SAVE some of your bankroll.

As an addendum to this discussion, let’s make sure we’re very clear as to what to do in one particular situation – when you have a 16 and the dealer is showing a ten (or ten value card, like a Jack, Queen or King).

That puts you into one of the tougher spots a blackjack player can find him/herself. There is virtually no chance at all to win the hand. The necessary point of focus here is how you’re going to LOSE LESS on the hand. More so than some of the others, this is a very close call. Let’s say you took the posture that you were always going to stand on this hand. That strategy would bring you a defeat 77% of the time, which constitutes roughly the number of times the dealer is going to be pat with a ten showing. Hitting the hand will obviously leave you busting out quite a bit, and you will win 2.7% less. But you will also LOSE 3.1% less, making it a slightly better decision to hit the 16 here. Minimize your losses when you can.

Because it counts for something.

I’ll tell you one instance where you can indeed get a “Sweet 16.” It’s when you are dealt a pair of eights. In this case, they are indeed “Elite Eights,” because you will always split them. It’s a much better opportunity, especially if you can take advantage of doubling down after splitting.

That counts for something too.

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Understanding the Games.
By Charles Jay

Part two: PAY TABLE

The pay table applies to video-based games such as slot machines and video poker games. It is, in effect, a “schedule” of payouts and describes the relationship between the amount of coins or units the bettor puts into a wager and the amount of units he or she will get back with a win. When you are playing at Superior Casino, for example, you are going to be able to access the pay table for any video slot or video poker game easily, simply by clicking a button.

The pay table also serves an important function, particularly in the area of slot machines, in that, ideally, it clears up things quite a bit, as it gives the player all the payout possibilities. Remember, there are a lot of pay lines on a video slot machine, and a wide number of possible ways to win. Imagine 40 pay lines, going in every direction, with dozens of symbols to account for, which pay off to different degrees, not to mention the various ways the player can score jackpots, supplemental payouts and qualify for bonus rounds. The pay table outs all of that information at the player’s fingertips.

Although we are most concerned about the pay tables as they appear in the interface of Superior Casino, you will find it as well on a physical slot machine or video poker game in the casino, where it appears in front of you. Find it, read it, and pay attention to it, so that there is no misunderstanding as to your payouts, and use it as a guide for betting, so that you can achieve your desired payouts.

Part three: PERCENTAGE PAYBACK

You often hear about video poker games or machines with a 99.5% payback – this would be, for example, a 9/6 Jacks or Better game (that which pays 9-1 on the Full House and 6-1 on the Flush). These are supposed to pay put $99.50 for every $100 played on them. The house would be operating on a .5% advantage in these cases. That would be not too much different as the house advantage when you play Basic Strategy in blackjack. Here’s the “rub,” as they say – of course, that payback and those percentages only hold up if you are able to learn a strategy for video poker and implement it perfectly. If you play foolishly, or say, as an experiment, deliberately go out of your way to discard potentially winning cards, your disadvantage will go up considerably and the payback on the game will go DOWN considerably.

Percentage payback is going to be different according to what kind of game you play. An 8/5 Jacks or Better game (that which the player gets paid 8-1 on the Full House and 5-1 on the Flush) has a payback of 97.3%, giving the player a 2.7% disadvantage, even with perfect strategy play. A 6/5 Jacks or Better game, which pays just 6-1 on a Full House and 5-1 on a Flush, has a payback of 95%. Obviously, no one would be advised to compete at a game with a 5% built-in house advantage, when there are better games available. But check out ALL the games over at Superior Casino!

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