Do You Know What Your Loss:Win:Push Ration is?
I am very new to playing black jack. For about a year all that I would do was play on black jack websites for free. However, once I felt I had mastered basic strategy, I decided to venture into the real world and go into the casino. When I play black jack, I only play $5.00 a hand. When basic strategy tells me to split or double down, I certainly add more money. When I play, I keep a mental note of my win, loss and push ratio. After 10 hands of playing, I will record the results and see how I have done. I have read in many books about black jack that the Casino has just slightly over 50.5% to 51% edge over the player. Therefore the longer you play the odds are certainly against you. Call it beginners luck, but so far this month I have played a total of 3110 hands. Out of the 3110 hands, I have Lost 1450 : Won 1390 : and Pushed 270. When I put that into percentage terms, that comes out as the Casino has won 46.6% of the hands and I have Won 44.7%, Pushed 8.7% of the hands delt to me. Does this mean that my win ratio is 53.4% to 46.6% for the Casino? I don't think it is because a Push is not concidered as a win. I don't think it should be. If I look at as a Loss to Win Ratio vs the Casino should it be 46.6% vs 44.7% and the edge to the Casino is 2.0%? Should I just disgard the push data? The results for me have been profitable. Out of the 3110 hands that I have played to date, restricting myself to only $5.00 bets, I have gained a total of $2,080.00. Is this concidered good? Is this really only beginners luck? Do I need to play more hands in order for the edge of the Casino beat me? I hope not. One other point, I use basic strategy only and no card counting measures. Update....today the odds changed all in 3 days, I played perfect error free basic BJ and lost $2000. The ratio was terrible 57.8 loss 37.2 wins and remainder in push. The roll was fun and reality hurts.
Comments
Yes, the more hands you play with just basic strategy (and no counting system), the closer you will be to the house edge, i.e. losing money.
As to the win/push/draw numbers, if you check out the Wizard's appendix 4 on blackjack, you'll see that on average, the player will win 42.4%, lose 49.1%, and push 8.5%. The reason that the house edge is so low is that you often times win more than your initial bet (doubles, splits, blackjacks). So you have successfully bucked the odds by winning 44.7% of your hands, which has left you with a net win.
Don't expect it to continue, but enjoy the ride. It's gambling!
With 12% of hands being double downs and splits you wagered about $17,000. With perfect basic strategy your loss should be about $85. A skilled card counter should win just under $300. You won seven times that.
What does it all mean? Not a thing because it is the smallest of samples and anything can and will happen. Continued good cards to you!