For many years I have regarded it as a given that the card consumption in a NHC-game would be slightly less than in a hole card game since sometimes the dealer doesn't have to take a second card.This is the case when all the players have either busted or got a Blackjack which happens quite frequently when the dealer is facing only one or two player's hands.A few years ago I had conducted a study for French standard rules (DAS,D9)and established that the card consumption for a BS-player was 2.8 cards per hand.I was therefore a bit surprised to learn that in a typical American game the BS-player would use only 2.7 cards.
But when I saw this recent discussion on card consumption it struck me like lightning that I had overlooked the crucial point:
In a hole card game, whenever the dealer has a natural, no further cards will be dealt to the players which means that for this round the card consumption will be exactly 2.0 per hand.
I think this explains why in an NHC-game the card consumption is actually a bit higher.
Francis Salmon

