2 or 4 deck, 1 deck cut, which is best?

2 or 4 deck, 1 deck cut, which is best?

I currently have the choice between 2 or 4 deck, cut card placed at one deck remaining.

Which game would present the higher hourly rate.

I realise the 4 deck represents better % pen., but the 2 deck often gives me a strike after the first round is dealt, & the starting % disadvantage is lower. Also 2 deck would give slightly more BJ's.

Any replies appreciated, I don't own a sim & am currently considering one.

The actual game is

2 or 4 deck, 1 deck cut
s17
DD Any

4 decks

Probably less heat, and probably a better SCORE.
Post rules and what you think you can spread, my money is on the 4 deck game. Remember, its Penetration, Penetration, Penetration.
50% pen Double Deck sucks.

SCOREs

According to www.bjstats.com, the SCOREs for those games with 1-8 spread are as follows:

2D, S17: 23.56
2D, S17, DAS: 31.32
4D, S17: 30.62
4D, S17, DAS: 40.09

You should be able to achieve a higher SCORE is you wong the 4D deck.

If you are unfamiliar with SCORE, it is way to compare games, balancing expected value with variance. Any game with a SCORE less than 50 is considered a waste of time.

Same Penetration

Many players discuss penetration in terms of Percentage Dealt. They would look at these game as 50% game and a 75% game.

This is not a good way to think about. It is better to think in terms of the number of unseen cards. Here, they are both 1 deck, which is the same. Given that, the DD would be slightly better mathematically. By that I mean, for the exact same spread, the DD would yield more.

I punched some numbers into BJRM. It doesn�t have 4 decks, but it has 6,which illustrates the point. I compared the two games, first with a 1-8 Wonging, and then with a 1-10 play all. These ar for playing 1 spot only. Here are the SCOREs

Wong  (1-8)

  DD  :64.64

 6D:   63.04





Play All (1-10)

DD:  38.69

6D 29.92

If Heat were not an issue. Then the DD would be slightly superior.

Of course, in the real world, Heat is an issue. There is usually more of it at DD. and so players usually can spread less there than in other games. Panama Rick�s posts compares the games for more realistic spreads, and it shows the shoe game was superior. But again, this is because we are forced a weaker spread in the DD game.

yes, heat is the factor the there

4D is rare but is the best opportunity out there. It is vastly better than 6 or 8 deck but is still looked at as a shoe game by the pit. 2D is seen as a handheld and generally watched closely. 4D can be played pretty much the same way that you'd play a 6D game. Counters usually give away most of their win rate with cover at 2D. They run a sim and then think that perhaps they will win 10% to 20% less due to cover. But the way most actually play they give away more than half.

The other factor in the comparison with 4D is speed. The 4 deck dealt face up from a shoe will be a much faster game than a hand dealt 2D game.

Thanks Guys

My feeling from playing, (same spread, play all) was that 2D was superior, but I was ridiculed by other pro's who said the pen. was lousy. I couldn't understand this as I saw it as the same (1 deck remain also). Smaller starting disadvantage, more BJ's, often only one round before an adavntage is reached, I couldn't understand why it wasn't a better game. That's reassuring Mathprof.

I use Wong Hi-low with no side count, & indices from Pro-BJ designed for 4 deck.

Does anyone know any improvements I should be adopting for 2 decks, that would be of importance.

Use 2 deck insurance index =2.4 (nt)

I thought we agreed you were going to blow off the 2 deck game

Mathprof pointed out that 2 deck was better only in the hypothetical (not real) world of no heat bj.

Qu' for Shark.

Long story Fine Tuner, but I needed the hypothetical answer of pure maths, no heat. (not so hypothetical :) Thanks again Mathprof.

Shark, may I ask where you derive the index figure from, book, sim?

Found answer Shark, thanks again

Table 11 Wong's Pro BJ. Thanks.