No hole card BS variation

Playing prodominantly in Australia the blackjack game contains no hole card (Lose all second bets on Doubles and Splits etc. ). I recently read a book that indicated that you should not split 8's on a dealers 10 or 11. Is this correct? Most books I dismiss immediately if I can not recognise the author however this guy has a masters in mathematics! Is this guy wrong or is this variation correct? Also, if it is correct are there any other variations I should know about in a no hole card game?

BJ Conditions are:

No Hole card
Double on 9, 10, 11
H17

Also, is there any software that can determine the Basic Strategy for any casino given a set of playing conditions (DAS, No Hole card etc). Will it also include the count indices if I'm using a count system?

Thanks in advance.

Don't put any extra money on the table, via splits or doubles, vs. the dealer's 10 or ace, except continue to split aces vs. 10.

All the decent commercial software will do what you ask: SBA, CV, BJ 6-7-8, PBA.

Don

If the ENGC game your playing is OBO or even OBBO you should still split and double against those cards. Melbourne's Crown Casino is an example of an ENHC game like this.

OBO = (dealer takes) Original Bets only.

OBBO = (dealer takes) Original and busted bets only.

My understanding is that ENHC assumes dealer taking all bets. If the dealer takes only the original bet, making the distinction that there is no hole card is useless information. I've seen games where the dealer hole card is the first card instead of the second - does that matter? (keeping card sequence plays out of the discussion) OBBO sounds like you wouldn't vary basic strategy either, but I'll have to think about that one.

"Professional Blackjack" by Stanford Wong has the indice adjustments to be made for ENHC in Chapter 7 for HiLo and Halves.

Captain Caveman, since it seems you have been playing this game without even being sure of the correct basic strategy, I suppose it does no good to tell you the game rules really suck and you shouldn't be playing it at all. ENHC, H17, resticted doubles, and I suppose eight decks? means you should only be wonging in at very high counts.
Better to save your money and find a better game to play.

I wonder if this is really an ENHC dealer take all game, since they do have restricted doubling? Seems to me it would be more profitable for the casino to allow DOA, DAS and let the ploppies kill themselves against the 10 and Ace. I think that would outweigh the player's who know how to properly play the soft doubles.

I did the analysis for this game for plays like 8,8 vs T. Don't know if it's still on the theory pages.

Sincerely,
Cacarulo

Thanks for your reply SOTSOG. In regards to your question about finding a better game to play, unfortunately it is my local training ground. I will take your advice about wonging, and I think I will only play minimum bet - time to get casino experience (counting, doing the act etc.) I am not yet at the stage of putting any money on the table as I am still perfecting the count and BS.

As "The Black Jackel" indicated, it is the Crown casino. There is no Soft doubling allowed and it does contain 8 decks. I am interested if someone knows the casino advantage for this type of game (player playing perfect Basic Strategy).

Thanks again.

I explained elsewhere that ENHC, by definition, means that the dealer takes all the money on the table when he has a natural.

If you don't have such a game in Australia, then call it whatever you want, but it ISN'T ENHC!!

I explained that they don't take a hole card in Puerto Rico, either, but you don't lose any extra money. So, such a game is NOT ENHC. In fact, it isn't even worth commenting that they don't take a hole card, because it doesn't matter!

Don

8 decks, H17, NDAS, D9,10,11 = -.849% advantage if you play perfect basic strategy. If the game is indeed ENHC where the dealer takes all, subtract another .11% in edge. Either way, at 60 hands per hour, enough to eat you alive. You shouldn't play until the count is at least +4. This means two things, you are going to be standing around not playing for long periods of time, and even at +4 you don't really have that much of an advantage. (part of the advantage of high counts is being able to double down, and that is restricted) So, you might find a higher hourly return asking people for quarters outside the casino door.

Keep practicing and play very small for very small amounts just for practice. Just watching the table and keeping count without playing is also good practice. Save your money until you can travel to a good game and then hit them really hard.

Crown is an 8 deck game with usually just over 7 decks pen, D9, 10, 11, DAS, S17. Dealer takes original and busted bets only. The disadvantage for the perfect BS player is at around something like
-0.62%.

If it is 1 deck cutoff, the game is slightly playable. But be careful, 1/2 deck more cutoff pratically doubles your risk of ruin.
That is the problem with 8 deckers, the variance is so wide that it requires a huge bankroll for reasonable risk level, and a slight change in penetration can quickly kill any advantage.

The correct basic strategy play for Captain Caveman is to split his eights versus the dealer 10, but not versus the dealer ace. Double 11 vs 10, but not 11 v A. The game that Captain Caveman describes is actually S17, not H17. Also D9, DAS, and No RSA. Dealer blackjack takes original and busted bets (OBBO). Also I can confirm that penetration is consistently 7/8 decks.

Don, they certainly do have ENHC in Australia, namely Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin. The confusion reigns because of Crowns habit of taking the orginal and busted bets, which I think is the only casino in Oz to use this rule

Ben.