"The game"
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I am new to gaming and probably shouldn't even be posting here yet. I have read up on Blackjack by two different authors. The one I liked best likes to hit if holding 12, 13, or 14 when the dealer's up hand is 2 thru 4. Some of the hitting is optional, given your take on the cards played. From what this author says about the odds, his position made sense to me, albeit I am an admitted klutz. But when I found this site, and started playing 'the game', (a huge overall help to me to be able to practice like this), I was graded as incorrect when hitting with the above hands. Very frustrating. So I went back to the more classic, would you say, way. I wish the game gave alittle more leeway here, or is the author of the game just not a proponent at all of the other way? What do you all think about this?
luchia -
luchia said:I am new to gaming and probably shouldn't even be posting here yet. I have read up on Blackjack by two different authors. The one I liked best likes to hit if holding 12, 13, or 14 when the dealer's up hand is 2 thru 4. Some of the hitting is optional, given your take on the cards played. From what this author says about the odds, his position made sense to me, albeit I am an admitted klutz. But when I found this site, and started playing 'the game', (a huge overall help to me to be able to practice like this), I was graded as incorrect when hitting with the above hands. Very frustrating. So I went back to the more classic, would you say, way. I wish the game gave alittle more leeway here, or is the author of the game just not a proponent at all of the other way? What do you all think about this?
luchia
For most deck configurations (all maybe?) you would only want to hit 12 against a dealers 2 or 3 up. Otherwise stand on 12 and ALWAYS stand on 13 or 14 against the dealer's 2-6.
That's just Basic Strategy. -
luchia said:I am new to gaming and probably shouldn't even be posting here yet. I have read up on Blackjack by two different authors. The one I liked best likes to hit if holding 12, 13, or 14 when the dealer's up hand is 2 thru 4. Some of the hitting is optional, given your take on the cards played. From what this author says about the odds, his position made sense to me, albeit I am an admitted klutz. But when I found this site, and started playing 'the game', (a huge overall help to me to be able to practice like this), I was graded as incorrect when hitting with the above hands. Very frustrating. So I went back to the more classic, would you say, way. I wish the game gave alittle more leeway here, or is the author of the game just not a proponent at all of the other way? What do you all think about this?
luchia
Basic strategy is to hit 12 vs 2 or 3 and not hit your other examples.
This hitting of stiff hands will expand as the count goes further negative and eventually disappears as counts go positively higher, but computer similulations done for billions of hands have proven over and over again that without counting you would only hit that 12 vs 2,3.
So perhaps you missed something in the book and took indices (changes to basic strategy according to the count) as basic strategy.
Another very strong possibility is that you purchased a book with a bunch of wrong information. There are plenty of bad blackjack books written by people who make false claims stating they are some kind of blackjack expert.
There are also plenty of good solid books, but if you are new to the game, your local bookstore is a very dangerous place (danger to your wallet) to buy a blackjack book because they will not know if the book has good or bad advice within its pages.
I would suggest, in the future, you go to a either of these two blackjack sites that also sell books. They only list books that are recognized as being good. Buy them from the site or at least use them as a guide to determine which books to look for at your bookstore.
Try
bj21.com or
advantageplayer.com
ihate17 -
Thanks for the input for this beginner. I did go to the site suggested, ""bj21.com and saw the book was by Stanford Wong. Frankly, I already really studied his book and found alot of talk and little explanation about how to actually play and how to play basic strategy. I found two other books that were way more clear about basic strategy and really took the time to take you through actual play and explanations. By the way, the author telling about taking hits when having 12, 13, 14 against dealer's 2,3,4 did say those hits were optional based on the count, and I should have made that clear. I found his book took much more time to explain and tell about basic strat. than Wong"s, though Wong's was one of those "for idiots" books. To me, Wong is out to impress. Alot of talk about theory I guess before he even got to how to actually play the game. I am completely new to gambling, much less basic strategy of blackjack, and I was lost with his book. The books that helped me were "American Casino Guide-2001" and my favorite, "how to beat the casinos at their own games". These two would be my suggestion for people wanting to learn. Also, may I ask what is a "stiff" hand? What does 'stiff' mean; is that the opposite of 'soft' hand, where there is an ace and another card?
luchia -
Most people consider having a hand that is below 17 and be busted (going over 21) with just one hit a stiff. So, hands of 12-16 are stiffs when they are hard 12-16.
ihate17 -
Thanks, Sonny, for the definition of "stiff hand".
luchia
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