Infinite Deck

Hi guys! I'm new here on this forum. Recently started learning about blackjack and basic strategy, so it would be fair to say I'm a complete novice. I was going through the charts with the expectation for different basic strategy plays on the Wizard's website and it says there they are for infinite deck S17 DAS games. Forgive my asking such an idiotic question but what does he mean by infinite deck? I read somewhere that the more decks are into play, the smaller the differences in the effect of card removal become and for some reason but that's all i know. So is this similar to multi-deck or?

Quote: poojones

Hi guys! I'm new here on this forum. Recently started learning about blackjack and basic strategy, so it would be fair to say I'm a complete novice. I was going through the charts with the expectation for different basic strategy plays on the Wizard's website and it says there they are for infinite deck S17 DAS games. Forgive my asking such an idiotic question but what does he mean by infinite deck? I read somewhere that the more decks are into play, the smaller the differences in the effect of card removal become and for some reason but that's all i know. So is this similar to multi-deck or?

The use of 'infinite decks is a simplification.
Consider a single deck game:
The chances that the first card out being an ace of spades are 1 in 52 But after a couple of cards have been dealt it's 1 in 50. If it hasn't been dealt after 26 cards, the probability becomes 1 in 26. That variation makes calculation of house edge and strategy tricky and dependent on what has already been dealt.
But with an infinite deck ( equivalent to an unlimited stack of decks of cards ) the chance of the next card out being Ace of spades ( or anything else ) will remain at 1 in 52. That greatly simplifies derivation of strategy and works well enough with say 8 decks dealt half way through.

With infinite deck the assumption is each card still has a 1 in 13 of coming next. There are some minor differences in strategy playing fewer decks as the chances change.

The easiest one to understand is if you have 7-7 (14) vs a Dealer's 10. Playing single deck, your chances of getting another 7 are slimmer, there's only two left. Also the chances of the Dealer getting 17 is less if you were to, say, draw a 4. For these reasons you don't draw on 7-7 vs 10 single deck; but do on more decks.

A more useful practical use is with the picture cards. For instance 10,3 vs 2 or 10,2 vs 4 can turn into a hit if an excess of 10's have appeared.

Thank you for explaining! I think I get it now.

Yeah I noticed there were differences in the strategies for different decks. I will practice online for free on six deck games until I learn the strategy well enough, I'm still struggling with pairs and some soft hands lol. There are no casinos in my vicinity that actually offer real table games so and so, only slots and electronic table games....

Don't worry about soft hands until last (as they only add a minor difference compared to other plays).

Assuming DDAS the doubles can be remembered.
In the UK at one time you were only allowed to split A 2 3 6 7 8 9 and no soft doubling so..
2 to 6 - split all (i.e. A 2 3 6 7 8 9)
5 to 6 - also split 4's if allowed
7 - A 2 3 7 8, this is a special case but they add up to 21!
8 to 9 - A 8 9
10 and A - depends on which version of the game you're playing, normally A 8.

Quote: charliepatrick

Don't worry about soft hands until last (as they only add a minor difference compared to other plays).

Assuming DDAS the doubles can be remembered.
In the UK at one time you were only allowed to split A 2 3 6 7 8 9 and no soft doubling so..
2 to 6 - split all (i.e. A 2 3 6 7 8 9)
5 to 6 - also split 4's if allowed
7 - A 2 3 7 8, this is a special case but they add up to 21!
8 to 9 - A 8 9
10 and A - depends on which version of the game you're playing, normally A 8.

Thank you for the advice! Luckily the game I have chosen to practice on has very decent rules. You can double down on any two cards you want, including soft hands, double after the split, split to four hands, and there is even late surrender. The aces cannot be re-split or hit unfortunately. To my understanding the casino edge with basic strategy is rather low on one such game.