Free Bet Strategy Question

Hello all, I have a question about the Free Bet strategy chart. How should an A7 free hand be played against a dealer 4/5/6 if it contains more than two cards? ie. the player has A52 vs a 4 upcard.

The other secondary soft double plays all look pretty intuitive but hopefully someone can confirm that. Thanks for the help.

Quote: joss

...How should an A7 free hand be played against a dealer 4/5/6 if it contains more than two cards?...

I see that the strategy for a multi-card soft 18 free hand was omitted from that card, but an infinite-deck analysis gave me these results:
soft 18 vs 4: hitting is better than standing by 0.0010
soft 18 vs 5: hitting is better than standing by 0.0007
soft 18 vs 6: standing is better than hitting by 0.0004

(These differences are really small, so the 6-deck decisions might be different than the infinite-deck decisions.)

I'm surprised they are so close. Thanks for the info.

For a while, doubles were allowed with three or more cards. Maybe if you look hard enough, you'll find one of those casinos.

Quote: Deucekies

For a while, doubles were allowed with three or more cards. Maybe if you look hard enough, you'll find one of those casinos.

Played FreeBet (very successfully) at the Plaza this week.

No free doubles on soft 9-10-11. No splits on 10's (value). DAS on 2 cards allowed; no 3 card doubles, before or after split.

These are printed on the table card, and I'm pretty sure those are Bally/SG/Switch's rules as well.

I haven't had an opportunity to play it yet but this sounds like a neat game. I see that aces can be re-split. Do you just get one card after or do you have an opportunity to hit and/or make real money doubles?

Quote: joss

I haven't had an opportunity to play it yet but this sounds like a neat game. I see that aces can be re-split. Do you just get one card after or do you have an opportunity to hit and/or make real money doubles?

Aces get one card only, but can be re-split, as you said. It's a great game, IMO. They deal it double-deck, and dealer does hit soft 17. Penetration was about 1 1/3 deck, if anyone cares. It's really sweet to get paid 2-1 (since you're not having to put your own money up) and so you look for opportunities to split especially more than you would otherwise.

I don't honestly know if you can split/double on your own if it's not covered by the FreeBet (like on a soft 9), but I took it that the only doubles/splits allowed were those covered by a FreeBet transaction. I tried to double on a soft 9 and was not allowed, tried to double on an 8 and was not allowed, but it's possible I misunderstood the dealer, and if I'd insisted on my own money double, they might have let me. Didn't seem like it was an option at the time. I think it has to do with the math working properly on the HE.

You're supposed to be allowed to pay your own double at any time. (Ideally, only on non-free hands, but hey, more power to you...) Same for splits. One thing that a lot of inexperienced FB dealers miss is that tips are doubled/split too, if applicable.

I THINK there was a version somewhere that prohibited splitting 77 in return for something else, but I may be off. Should be mentioned in one of the Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods discussions.

Quote: Venthus

You're supposed to be allowed to pay your own double at any time. (Ideally, only on non-free hands, but hey, more power to you...) Same for splits. One thing that a lot of inexperienced FB dealers miss is that tips are doubled/split too, if applicable.

I'm a dealer at an Iowa casino. We've had FB for almost a year now. When FB was first introduced at our place, we would place the free coin out there for dealer bets as well, just so we wouldn't forget to pay ourselves twice. After about 6 months, we were told not to bother with it, since we collectively got used to paying twice on doubles.

Quote: TriathlonTodd

I'm a dealer at an Iowa casino. We've had FB for almost a year now. When FB was first introduced at our place, we would place the free coin out there for dealer bets as well, just so we wouldn't forget to pay ourselves twice. After about 6 months, we were told not to bother with it, since we collectively got used to paying twice on doubles.

It's in Iowa?? It's still not in Missouri to my knowledge...grrr

Quote: ChesterDog

I see that the strategy for a multi-card soft 18 free hand was omitted from that card, but an infinite-deck analysis gave me these results:
soft 18 vs 4: hitting is better than standing by 0.0010
soft 18 vs 5: hitting is better than standing by 0.0007
soft 18 vs 6: standing is better than hitting by 0.0004

(These differences are really small, so the 6-deck decisions might be different than the infinite-deck decisions.)

I asked the same question some time back and according to Switch who invented the game

Quote: Switch

Jim, if you have 'soft 18' with 3 or more cards (on your Free Play hand) then you would 'Hit' against all dealer up-cards except a 7.