UKMark
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June 19th, 2018 at 2:58:00 PM permalink
I’ve been working on a new game and would like to get feedback from the forum.

(I have 4 posts to make to enable me to add the link so apologies for breaking this into pieces)
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UKMark
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June 19th, 2018 at 2:59:25 PM permalink
It’s a fast, fun and simple multi-deck poker game where you need to beat the dealer hand to win and the dealer's hand always plays, there are no qualifying hands.
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UKMark
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June 19th, 2018 at 3:00:17 PM permalink
The game is called Hexa-Deck Poker and is a poker based game played with 6 decks.

You place your ANTE bet and get dealt 1 card (imagine this is on a table) the dealer gets one card face down and 4 table cards are alternately dealt face up, one for the player, dealer, player and finally dealer.

You must now decide if you want to PLAY or FOLD. Selecting PLAY you will make a 2x PLAY bet and the next 4 table cards are dealt, again alternating between player and dealer.

The dealer hand always plays so there’s no qualifying hand and if the player hand beats the dealer hand the player wins, even with a winning high card hand.

That’s it in a nutshell, it’s a fast, fun and simple multi-deck poker game.

The house edge is 3.48% in the demo game.
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UKMark
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June 19th, 2018 at 3:01:17 PM permalink
If you have any questions or spot anything you think is not quite right then please let me know.

Looking forward to the reviews and comments.

(Hopefully I can now add the link in the next post)
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UKMark
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June 19th, 2018 at 3:01:57 PM permalink
Here’s the link to the game;
Hexa-Deck Poker
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gordonm888
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June 19th, 2018 at 4:24:08 PM permalink
So:

1. It is 5 card poker -player see three of his cards and two of the dealer's cards before the Play bet.
2. The Play Bet pushes on a winning high card card hand and pays according to this pay out table when the player wins:

Royal 100
Straight Flush: 50
5 of a kind 20
4 of a kind 10
Full House 5
Flush 4
Straight 3
Trips, Two Pair, One Pair 1
High Card: Push

A winning ante bet pays 1:1.

With six decks there will be a higher frequency of pairs and flushes and a (slightly) lower frequency of straights.

Interesting game.
So many better men, a few of them friends, are dead. And a thousand thousand slimy things live on, and so do I.
gamerfreak
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June 19th, 2018 at 5:24:40 PM permalink
Have you done any vulnerability testing? At a glance it seems like it would be susceptible to a suit count.
gordonm888
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June 19th, 2018 at 6:33:40 PM permalink
I calculated this for the 6 deck probabilities. Note that some One Pair, Two Pair and 3oaK hands can also be flushes; such hands are shown as flushes in the table below. Could someone please check me on this?

Hi Card____42.4564 %
one Pair___ 45.5919 %
two pair___ 6.5574 %
3 oak______ 4.1838 %
Straight___ _0.3338 %
Flush _______ 0.3423 %
Boat________ 0.3653 %
4 oak________0.1668 %
5 oak________0.002316 %
Straight Fl___0.00117 %
Royal________0.00013 %

Note that a Full House > Flush > Straight
Last edited by: gordonm888 on Jun 19, 2018
So many better men, a few of them friends, are dead. And a thousand thousand slimy things live on, and so do I.
rsactuary
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June 19th, 2018 at 7:40:15 PM permalink
So I have to get a straight before I make any money? no.
miplet
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June 19th, 2018 at 8:01:45 PM permalink
Quote: gordonm888

I calculated this for the 6 deck probabilities. Note that some One Pair, Two Pair and 3oaK hands can also be flushes; such hands are shown as flushes in the table below. Could someone please check me on this?

Hi Card____42.4564 %
one Pair___ 45.5919 %
two pair___ 6.5574 %
3 oak______ 4.1838 %
Straight___ _0.3338 %
Flush _______ 0.3423 %
Boat________ 0.3653 %
4 oak________0.1668 %
5 oak________0.002316 %
Straight Fl___0.00117 %
Royal________0.00013 %

Note that a Full House > Flush > Straight



https://wizardofodds.com/games/poker/ has multi deck combinations.
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beachbumbabs
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June 19th, 2018 at 8:20:22 PM permalink
Quote: rsactuary

So I have to get a straight before I make any money? no.



Edit: couple inaccuracies in my understanding of the game corrected later in the thread. Leaving this intact anyway. -BBB

No. Dealer always qualifies. You're head-to-head. HE is coming from the ante push on a high-card hand win, where a high-card hand lose will be 2 or more unitsost to the house. 45% of hands you will have a high card, so that's a sizable number of them, but in 5 card stud, it's sizable for the dealer, too. About 1 in 5 hands you will be hi card vs hi card, expected to lose .5 of those, so 10% against you before odds.

Pair another 42%, 2pr and 3oak make ~99% of hands where you won't make more than 1:1. The other 1% is where the rest of the ante push -ev goes, to pay odds. But it's worth noting the odds pay is on the Play, so a good starting hand, you can bet up and get multiples of your ante paid at odds, check down your bad hands for less money.

Seems like it would be playable. The HE is probably a bit too high, though, because the 6 deck will get more hands out than most poker games. I would guess 40-42 HPH. Blackjack pay (3:2) on 3oak would fix it, I think. Could be too much of an over-correction.
Last edited by: beachbumbabs on Jul 3, 2018
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
gordonm888
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June 19th, 2018 at 9:43:24 PM permalink
Quote: beachbumbabs

The other 1% is where the rest of the ante push -ev goes, to pay odds.



The push is not on the ante bet, it is on the Play Bet, which is 2x the ante.

The strategy for this game is not immediately obvious. When dealer's 2-card hand is a pair or A-high and higher than player's 3-card hand (ignoring flushes and straights) then I think player folds. But there is probably a lot of fine structure in the Play/Fold decision depending upon the details of the dealer and player hands.
Last edited by: gordonm888 on Jun 20, 2018
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UKMark
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June 20th, 2018 at 2:54:10 AM permalink
Quote: gamerfreak

Have you done any vulnerability testing? At a glance it seems like it would be susceptible to a suit count.



Due to the possible combinations and variations I don't believe the game has the same sort of vulnerability as Blackjack to any counting. With Blackjack (and my knowledge of counting) you are basically tracking the shoe until it has more high cards and aces then you start increasing you bet sizing (keeping it simple :-) ) whereas in this game you may track all the high cards but you need a 2 to make a straight or counting suits but you fold 10 hands before getting a suited 3 card starting hand that turns into a flush winning 4-1. So fold 10 hands at $10 ante stake = -$100 then $10 ante and $20 play with a flush wins $10 on the ante bet and $80 on the play = +$90 with a balance of -$10. Therefore you'd need to hit a flush more often than 1 in 10 hands to make that favourable which doesn't happen.

That said I have not captured the frequency of the starting hand combos so I may have a look at that just to determine if there is any possibility of a suit count.

How did you find the game, did you enjoy playing it?
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UKMark
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June 20th, 2018 at 3:11:13 AM permalink
Quote: gordonm888

I calculated this for the 6 deck probabilities. Note that some One Pair, Two Pair and 3oaK hands can also be flushes; such hands are shown as flushes in the table below. Could someone please check me on this?

Hi Card____42.4564 %
one Pair___ 45.5919 %
two pair___ 6.5574 %
3 oak______ 4.1838 %
Straight___ _0.3338 %
Flush _______ 0.3423 %
Boat________ 0.3653 %
4 oak________0.1668 %
5 oak________0.002316 %
Straight Fl___0.00117 %
Royal________0.00013 %

Note that a Full House > Flush > Straight



Have you calculated the base probabilities of a hand from a 6 deck shoe, if so check it with the details the Wizard has done, link in Miplet's reply.

The thing is that although calculating the probability for a 5 card hand from 312 cards is one thing, calculating if it is a winning hand is another so although your odds look close (not checked) it's not the true odds of a winning or losing hand.

One thing to note that you have shown is that you get a boat more often than a flush or a straight. In the game I decided to leave the std poker hand rankings in place as these are more well known and only added the 5 of a kind hand before the straight flush.

This means not only do you hit a boat on average more often than a straight or flush you also get better odds for it, that applies for a shoe dealt game. Factoring in a CSM deal the odds change with a boat beating a flush but not a straight in terms of probability.

Thanks for your input
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UKMark
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June 20th, 2018 at 3:40:18 AM permalink
Quote: beachbumbabs

Seems like it would be playable. The HE is probably a bit too high, though, because the 6 deck will get more hands out than most poker games. I would guess 40-42 HPH. Blackjack pay (3:2) on 3oak would fix it, I think. Could be too much of an over-correction.



The house edge differs if the game is dealt from a shoe or a CSM. I have determined this is due to the card availability at the start of the deal when dealing with a full 312 cards opposed to a diminishing number of cards, and therefore combinations, from a shoe.

I think the game is more suited to a CSM deal as this also alleviates any counting possibility as mentioned by gamerfreak but we must allow for the shoe deal. As the demo game runs as a shoe deal I have indicated the shoe HE.

I have looked at the 3:2 option for 3oak hands but it does have too big an impact on the HE so it's not really viable.

That does lead me to ask this:

Given a choice of
1:1 on ante bet and push play bets with a winning high card hand and 1:1 on 3oak
OR
push ante and play bets on a winning high card hand and winning 2:1 on 3oak

which do you think players would prefer?

Bearing in mind you win with a HCH almost twice as much as with 3oak but you do win more overall with 3oak at 2:1 but I have thought about the player perception of the game and as you hit more HCH and winning on the ante bet seems more player friendly than getting the 2:1 on 3oak that you don't see as often? It's a player perception rather than a maths based decision cos most players play with what they see rather than what actually could make money.

Really interested to get views on this.

Cheers
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beachbumbabs
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June 20th, 2018 at 6:20:36 AM permalink
Quote: gordonm888

The push is not on the beat bet, it is on the Play Bet, which is 2x the ante.

The strategy for this game is not immediately obvious. When dealer's 2-card hand is a pair or A-high and higher than player's 3-card hand (ignoring flushes and straights) then I think player folds. But there is probably a lot of fine structure in the Play/Fold decision depending upon the details of the dealer and player hands.



Thanks for the correction. Read it cross-eyed or too quickly, I think.
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
SM777
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June 20th, 2018 at 6:46:59 AM permalink
I would estimate the people interested in playing poker with 6 decks at a very low percentage.
Torghatten
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June 20th, 2018 at 7:28:57 AM permalink
Quote: UKMark



I have looked at the 3:2 option for 3oak hands but it does have too big an impact on the HE so it's not really viable.


What about 3:2 or even 2:1 on suited 3oak? (And similiar for 4/5 oak)
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June 20th, 2018 at 11:47:07 AM permalink
Quote: UKMark



The thing is that although calculating the probability for a 5 card hand from 312 cards is one thing, calculating if it is a winning hand is another so although your odds look close (not checked) it's not the true odds of a winning or losing hand.


Good lord, I know that the extra information you get from seeing the 3 cards in your hand and the 2 face-up cards in the dealer's hand will define strategy and decisively drive the Fold/Play decision.

I simply calculated those 52 card probabilities to get a feel for how often different hands will occur. For example, gamerfreak's question about tracking suits in a shoe looks to be irrelevant in a game where less than 0.5% of all hands will be flushes. But mostly, I wanted to get a feel for how often pairing occurs before I analyzed the game.

Indeed, by looking at the hand probabilities table and thinking about the game structure I can conclude that there are probably no viable "card counting" strategies that can be used against this game (if indeed you envision multiple hands being dealt from a six deck shoe.)

Also, I agree that your House Edge is too large and will be a negative factor in player acceptance, especially considering the enormous number of player "errors" (non-optimal player decisions) that will occur.

Also, your House Edge was probably calculated with a fresh 6 card shoe, but the House Edge will tend to increase with shoe penetration.
Last edited by: gordonm888 on Jun 20, 2018
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UKMark
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June 21st, 2018 at 2:14:12 PM permalink
I would say that the discerning player who takes time to read the game details and look at the house edge may be perturbed by a HE around 3.5% but for the casual player, and there are many, this may not be a consideration.

The game is better dealt from a CSM as this alleviates the need to reshuffle and due to the speed of the game the drop in HE between a CSM and shoe should be made up in the additional game play time.

A CSM game HE is 2.04% with the shoe deal coming in at 3.48%. The difference is due to the number of better 3 card starting hands the player sees, these being 1 pair, flush, straight, trips and straight flush that go on to win around 65% of the time.

I have thought about the 3oak, 4oak & 5oak suited win options but think that would be something to bring in as a jackpot style prize or side bet but I haven't done any work on it yet.
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beachbumbabs
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June 21st, 2018 at 2:39:20 PM permalink
Quote: UKMark

I would say that the discerning player who takes time to read the game details and look at the house edge may be perturbed by a HE around 3.5% but for the casual player, and there are many, this may not be a consideration.

The game is better dealt from a CSM as this alleviates the need to reshuffle and due to the speed of the game the drop in HE between a CSM and shoe should be made up in the additional game play time.

A CSM game HE is 2.04% with the shoe deal coming in at 3.48%. The difference is due to the number of better 3 card starting hands the player sees, these being 1 pair, flush, straight, trips and straight flush that go on to win around 65% of the time.

I have thought about the 3oak, 4oak & 5oak suited win options but think that would be something to bring in as a jackpot style prize or side bet but I haven't done any work on it yet.



Ok, if the casino has a CSM, and can offer the game at a HE of 2.04, I don't think that's out of line, even with the faster deal.

Your game might be OK from the shoe, too, but this is something I had to learn the hard way, and caused some disagreements with the distributor.

There is a narrow sweet spot where a game is viable. 2% is about right for most poker/carnival games to be successful in the long run.

My game was deployed with a 6 deck shoe and a HE of 3.823%, though there were options that would lower it. It dealt in excess of 80HPH. People, especially beginners, loved it (which was the target audience). Comment cards were universally positive.

But the game lost players after a few weeks, even where initally the table was SRO, because it took their money so fast that, even on a $5 minimum table, they could lose $100 in 10 minutes or less. So they wouldn't dig out that 2nd hundo, or a third, and keep playing, because even though they won 42% of the time, it just felt like a money sink.

That was the product of the HE * HPH. People staggered away, couldn't believe they lost so fast. Reports back were, great game, hold too high. It got removed within 3-6 months the first dozen installs, lasted a year in a couple of those overseas.

They pulled it from the distributor sales, but right then, with a lower HE, we got a year in California, and is now 2.5 years and still playing in Australia, with an even lower HE. So not quite dead.

But that little formula is EVERYTHING. Too tight. People won't play for long. Too loose. Casinos won't keep it on the floor. In my opinion, (and you didn't say what the 3oak BJ pay did to the HE), your shoe needs to be below 2.5%. The CSM, you're on the edge of a blowout. No shuffle downtime, only 1 decision point, you're going to average 50+ HPH, where 3CP, almost exactly the same HE, won't average more than 40 due to single-deck downtime. Total guess, but your sweet spot for CSM is probably around 1.8% HE

Still all my opinion. But you can make money from my experience if you get what I'm saying and at the least, offer 3-4 configurations with different HEs, and test the HPH so the casinos can decide what they want to offer. .
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
gordonm888
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June 21st, 2018 at 4:26:06 PM permalink
I have written a calculator to evaluate the EV of various situations (currently it only handles situations in which the 3 player cards are not suited -not a flush draw -and the dealers cards are unsuited as well.) Always possible I still have bugs in it.

For player hands that are three consecutive ranks (straight draws) here are what I get for basic strategy. Again, all player hands on this list are offsuit and dealer hands are offsuit.

Player straight draw hands and when to fold them

AKQ------Fold against: any pair
KQJ------Fold against: any pair
QJT------Fold against: 77-AA
JT9------Fold against: 66-AA
T98------Fold against: 66-AA
987------Fold against: AK and 66-AA
876------Fold against: AT-AK and 55-AA
765------Fold against: A8-AK and 55-AA
654------Fold against: A6-AK and 44-AA
543------Fold against: KQ, A5-AK and 33-AA
432------Fold against: Q7-QJ, K4-AK and any pair
32A------Fold against: AQ,AK and any pair

These strategy rules may or will be different for:
1. Player hand is suited, Dealer is unsuited
2. Player hand is unsuited. Dealer is suited
3. Player and Dealer hands are both suited -different suits
4. Player and Dealer hands are both suited in the same suit

And that is strategy for only 12 hands, or rank combinations!

Obviously, players are going to be playing at far from 2.04% House edge because of the complexity of the strategy required and non-optimum play.. BBB's excellent advice about House Edge has to be considered in the context that players may be giving up several percent in House Edge because of player errors.
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gordonm888
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June 21st, 2018 at 10:22:27 PM permalink
I have spent a lot of time analyzing this game and thinking about. I think this game has a drawback that is fairly unusual.

To illustrate what it is, I challenge the OP/game owner to do this:

Develop a simple description of how a player should play this game. Something like 4-8 rules that advises a player what the rough strategy is for playing this game. And then, using a computer code, simulate the game assuming that the player uses that "simplified player strategy." And calculate what the House Edge is against this novice player.

I suspect that the House Edge, given a player using 4-8 strategy rules, will be enormous. Maybe over 10%.

The problem is fundamental. The player is allowed to see 3 of his 5 cards and 2 of the 5 dealer cards - but there is no readily apparent way to "summarize the information in those 5 cards" into a small number of "lumped categories" so as to define "strategy rules" on how to play.

Blackjack involves decisions after seeing three cards. We add the two player cards and use the sum and also the rank of the dealers card to define about 200 categories such as "15 vs 7" or "11 vs Ten" -and then memorize rules.

In Three Card poker we see three cards than can easily be summarized by the 3-card poker value of the hand.

In Mississippi Stud, we see two cards initially and define certain ranks as High, Medium and Low, and use that to define about ten rules on how to make the initial decision.

But in Hexa poker there are five cards seen from two hands. Observe:

1. 643 (offsuit) vs K5 (offsuit) EV = - 0.935
2. 643 (offsuit) vs K6 (offsuit) EV = - 1.0025
3. 843 (off) vs K6 (off) EV = -1.140 (Note: Player 843 is weaker than Player 643)
4. 643 (off) vs A2 (off) EV = - 0.876 (643 should Bet/Play vs A2 but Fold vs K6.)
5. 643 (off) vs A3 (off) EV = - 0.972
6. 643 (off) vs A4 (off) EV = - 1.065

Small changes in the rank of the lowest cards can make very significant changes in EV, and some of those changes are counterintuitive. I understand why all those changes in EV occur, but writing strategy rules is going to be messy because the trend in EV is not monotonic.

The player will need to look at his (unpaired) hand and ask:

1. do I have a flush draw (suited Cards?)
2. Does the dealer have suited cards?
3. Do I have a straight draw? If so is it 0 gaps, 1 gap or 2 gaps, because different rules apply.
4. Do the dealer's two cards have adjacent ranks?
5. Are my 3 cards high or low in relation to the dealer's 2 cards? (many possible answers to that one.)
6. Do I have an A,K or a Q? (cards that are high in an absolute sense.)
7. Does dealer have an A, K, or Q?

Strategy may hinge on the answer to any or many of those questions.

The basic strategy maps will have many "boundaries" between Fold and Hit. The Hexa Poker strategy will be as least as complex as Russian poker, and it may be quite a bit more complex. And nothing in the rookie Hexa player's experience will inform his instincts when looking at the 5 cards - because he is looking at fragments of two opposing poker hands.

Basically, when I first played the simulated game on the link, my chip stack plummeted like a stone. I am not the dullest knife in the drawer, but I was making so many errors that I didn't have a chance. And after more than a dozen hours of analyzing this game, my chip stack on the simulator still drops like a stone, just a bit slower.
So many better men, a few of them friends, are dead. And a thousand thousand slimy things live on, and so do I.
UKMark
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June 25th, 2018 at 2:42:19 AM permalink
Quote: gordonm888

I have spent a lot of time analyzing this game and thinking about. I think this game has a drawback that is fairly unusual.

To illustrate what it is, I challenge the OP/game owner to do this:

Develop a simple description of how a player should play this game. Something like 4-8 rules that advises a player what the rough strategy is for playing this game. And then, using a computer code, simulate the game assuming that the player uses that "simplified player strategy." And calculate what the House Edge is against this novice player.

I suspect that the House Edge, given a player using 4-8 strategy rules, will be enormous. Maybe over 10%.



That's quite a challenge so I've been looking at the game data and have these strategy rules:
PLAY:
- any premium starting hand of 1 Pair, Flush, Straight, Trips, Straight Flush (Flush, Straight, Str Flush hands are dependant on dealer cards and what high/low cards are on show)
- when all 3 player cards are higher ranked than the dealer cards (look for 1, 2, 3 gapped straight hands where all cards are higher than dealer's)
- when 2 cards are higher ranked then the dealer's cards
- 1 gapped straights with one or more player card higher ranked than the dealer's cards, hands like A 3 5
- 2 gapped straights with 2 or more cards higher ranked than the dealer's cards, hands like K Q 9 or J 8 7 (look for 5 & 10 in your hand as these are critical to a 5 card straight)
- 1 player card higher than the dealer high card and 2 player cards higher than the dealer low card

FOLD:
- to any dealer pair unless player has higher pair
- to any dealer ACE if player has no ACE apart from where they have a PLAY hand as above
- whenever dealer's 2 cards are higher ranked then the player cards except when the player has 1 pair or trips

That is the basic strategy I find myself playing and can see your chip stack drop but then it does recover, it will be interesting to find out how you get on.

I will look to get this all automated to test the house edge and drop out the results when I can.

I have also looked at a revised pay table which brings in some higher payouts for the ANTE bet when you get a flush or better, this makes the HE 1.40% from a CSM deal.
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UKMark
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June 25th, 2018 at 2:59:48 AM permalink
Quote: beachbumbabs

But that little formula is EVERYTHING. Too tight. People won't play for long. Too loose. Casinos won't keep it on the floor. In my opinion, (and you didn't say what the 3oak BJ pay did to the HE), your shoe needs to be below 2.5%. The CSM, you're on the edge of a blowout. No shuffle downtime, only 1 decision point, you're going to average 50+ HPH, where 3CP, almost exactly the same HE, won't average more than 40 due to single-deck downtime. Total guess, but your sweet spot for CSM is probably around 1.8% HE

Still all my opinion. But you can make money from my experience if you get what I'm saying and at the least, offer 3-4 configurations with different HEs, and test the HPH so the casinos can decide what they want to offer. .



I value all of the responses I receive and post on here to get feedback and advice from those who have already tread this path, your opinion and experience matters so please don't stop :-)

The 3oak BJ 3:2 payout dropped the HE to 0.57% which IMO is just a little bit too much so keeping the PLAY payout the same I have looked at enhancing the ANTE payout when the player hits a Flush or better. This drops the HE to 1.40% for a CSM deal. I am just updating the demo software and will drop that out soon after I've done some further testing.

I can certainly have 3-4 pay table options and make a calculation for expected HPH (40-60 is my current estimate)
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June 25th, 2018 at 1:12:15 PM permalink
Quote: UKMark

PLAY:
- any premium starting hand of 1 Pair, Flush, Straight, Trips, Straight Flush (Flush, Straight, Str Flush hands are dependent on dealer cards and what high/low cards are on show)
- when all 3 player cards are higher ranked than the dealer cards (look for 1, 2, 3 gapped straight hands where all cards are higher than dealer's)
- when 2 cards are higher ranked then the dealer's cards
- 1 gapped straights with one or more player card higher ranked than the dealer's cards, hands like A 3 5
- 2 gapped straights with 2 or more cards higher ranked than the dealer's cards, hands like K Q 9 or J 8 7 (look for 5 & 10 in your hand as these are critical to a 5 card straight)
- 1 player card higher than the dealer high card and 2 player cards higher than the dealer low card

FOLD:
- to any dealer pair unless player has higher pair
- to any dealer ACE if player has no ACE apart from where they have a PLAY hand as above
- whenever dealer's 2 cards are higher ranked then the player cards except when the player has 1 pair or trips



Your list is an excellent starting point, but some rules are duplicative and a few are vague and thus non-actionable (those that say "look for dealer or player hands with certain kinds of cards."

Here is a set of strategy rules that is not perfect but catches virtually everything you were trying to say and adds a couple of points. These may be easier to program as well.

1. PLAY any premium starting hand of 1 Pair, Trips and 3-card Flush/Str Flush draws and 3-card open-ended Straight draws
- except FOLD a Pair if Dealer has a higher Pair
- except FOLD a 3-card open-ended straight if dealer has a Pair that is equal to or higher than the lowest card in the player hand

2. FOLD any non-premium player hand versus a dealer Pair
(Non premium = No pair, no flush draw and no open-ended straight draw)

3. When neither player nor dealer has a pair, and player has no premium draws, PLAY
- any hand versus dealer 10-5 or lower
- any hand where 2 (or more) player cards are higher ranked then the dealer's cards
- any hand where 1 player card is higher than the dealer high card and 2 player cards are higher than the dealer low card
- any Ace-high hand except FOLD AJx or lower vs Dealer's AK, AQ
- any 1-gap straight draws that are Q-High or higher
---- any 1-gap straight draws (J-High or lower) versus any dealer hand that is Q-high or lower
Otherwise FOLD

This is only ~ 10 rules and may be as much as many players would try to remember. By the way, I have not analyzed the Player hands that are 3 card flush draws, so I just followed your strategy on those.

Regarding this rule
PLAY
- any hand versus dealer 10-5 or lower


The basic idea is that when dealer has two low unpaired cards and player also has 3 low cards, that the face up cards don't much matter - it will come down to whether Player can out draw the dealer. Despite the disadvantage of player having only a 2-card draw, Betting is better than Folding when many ranks in the deck are higher than dealer's highest-ranked card.
Last edited by: gordonm888 on Jun 25, 2018
So many better men, a few of them friends, are dead. And a thousand thousand slimy things live on, and so do I.
gordonm888
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gordonm888
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UKMark
June 25th, 2018 at 4:12:11 PM permalink
I keep optimizing these proposed Strategy Rules for ease to remember and to capture more EV

1. PLAY any premium starting hand of 1 Pair, Trips and 3-card Flush/Str Flush draws and 3-card open-ended Straight draws
- except FOLD a Pair if Dealer has a higher Pair
- except FOLD an open-ended straight draw if dealer has a Pair that is equal to or higher than the lowest card in the player hand

2. FOLD any non-premium player hand versus a dealer Pair
(Non premium = No pair, no flush draw and no open-ended straight draw)

3. When neither player nor dealer has a pair, and player has no premium draws
PLAY
- any hand versus dealer 10-5 or lower
- Any 9-High vs J-6 or lower
- Any 10-high vs J-9 or lower (ex: play 10-4-2 vs J-8)
- Any J-High vs Q-5 or lower
- Any Q-High vs Q-10 or lower
- any K-high hand vs K-10 or lower
- any Ace-high hand vs AJ or lower
- any hand where 1 player card is equal to the dealer high card and a 2nd player card is higher than or equal to the dealer low card (ex: Play AKx vs AK and AQ; Play QJx vs QJ, Play KQx vs KJ or KQ)
- any 1-gap straight draw versus K6 or lower (ex: Play 643 vs K6 or lower)
Otherwise FOLD
So many better men, a few of them friends, are dead. And a thousand thousand slimy things live on, and so do I.
UKMark
UKMark
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Joined: Jan 6, 2017
June 28th, 2018 at 3:55:49 AM permalink
Quote: gordonm888

Your list is an excellent starting point, but some rules are duplicative and a few are vague and thus non-actionable (those that say "look for dealer or player hands with certain kinds of cards."

Here is a set of strategy rules that is not perfect but catches virtually everything you were trying to say and adds a couple of points. These may be easier to program as well.



Thanks for all of the assistance and analysis, I'm now going to plug it all into my game simulator and test it out. I'll post the results as soon as I can but want to capture the stats for the hands dealt and fold v play hands plus result so got a bit to plug in.
Success comes in cans, not cant's
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