blackjack-bst.com |
Blackjack Basic Strategy Trainer |
The idea is to help people memorize the basic strategy for playing blackjack. Compared to other casino games, blackjack gives you really good odds, but only if you know what you are doing, which means following the basic strategy. Now, the difference between following the basic strategy and playing the way most people play (trying to guess on the spot what is the right move) is about 20 cents on each dollar played. Pretty enormous...
Why doesn't everyone play by the basic strategy, then? Some people are not aware that there is such a thing as basic strategy for blackjack, while others, do not grasp the finer points of the theory of probability, which generally argues against relying on your gut. Most importantly, for many people, (well, at least for me) learning the basic strategy is too much of a pain because it involves memorizing a large table.
That's where this site comes in. It keeps showing you card combinations and scores your answers according to a basic strategy table. It's very simple: you get a couple of cards, you see one of the dealer's cards and decide whether you should hit, stand, double or split.
You don't actually play the hands, because when it comes to memorizing, that would be a waste of time. BlackjackBST simply cycles through hands as rapidly as you can make decisions, while keeping track of your performance. That is all. As with flashcards (but more fun, I hope), you keep testing yourself until you can make the right call effortlessly even after six drinks, with a waitress about to slide away without your order and the guy next to you spilling his vodka tonic on your lap.
BlackjackBST doesn't force you to play out each hand because for any given card combination, there is a single correct move, and it doesn't matter if in any particular instance that move leads you to a win or a loss. Instead, BlackjackBST gives you a chance to test yourself by going through as many card combinations as possible as fast as possible. Also, if the cards were chosen randomly as they would be in any blackjack game, it would take many thousands of hands before you see a card combination for every entry in the table. BlackjackBST specifically chooses cards so as to cover all the entries in the table as frequently as possible.
Basic strategy gives the greatest boost to your odds. Counting can improve on that and push you into a net positive territory, but not by much and at the expense of much greater effort. Besides, you need to learn basic strategy well before proceeding to counting. Having said that, I might add some kind of a counting feature if asked.
Good point. Basic strategy changes slightly depending on the exact set of rules you might be playing (these include the number of decks, whether the dealer stands on soft 17, whether you are allowed to double after splits). Because strategy changes very little, if you have memorized it for a particular set of rules, it should not be difficult to play with other rules -- all you have to do is memorize the differences. Currently, BlackjackBST allows you to practice on four of the more popular rule sets. Drop me a line if there is a particular rule set you are interested in.
My name is Serge Saxonov. I am a grad student at Stanford, who recently got married after coming back from his bachelor party with an idea for this site.