 
| ||
|
|
|
The ONE DECISION TOURNAMENT: Part 2
by Kenneth R Smith
Tournament expert Ken Smith has appeared on all four seasons of GSN's World Series of Blackjack, and had several appearances on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour on CBS. He is the author of the e-book.
How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments: Tips, Tricks, and Strategies to Supercharge Your Game. Ken hosts the popular website www.BlackjackInfo.com as well as the online tournament community at www.BlackjackTournaments.com. You can subscribe to his free email newsletter at http://www.blackjackinfo.com/news/. Ken also recently released his new pocket blackjack strategy cards, which are available in our BJI store.
Click here for part one of this article series.
Last month I introduced an unusual tournament format in an effort to focus on one aspect of tournament play to the exclusion of all others. The "One Decision Tournament" is a tournament round where players must choose a single bet amount for the entire round. They must flat-bet that amount, and they must play normal basic strategy for every hand. With these draconian restrictions in place, we can run some simulations to assess the relative value of various bet sizes.
The particulars of the format:
- Rounds are 10 hands each, with betting in $5 increments from $5 to $500.
- Starting bankroll is $500.
- Six decks, S17, double after split allowed, split up to 4 hands except Aces, which can be split only once and get one card on each. No surrender is allowed.
- If a player has less than his designated bet size left (but more than the table minimum), he must bet his entire bank subject to the $5 increment rule.
- If a player has too little left to double or split in full, he will play the hand without doubling or splitting.
- Ties will be broken with sudden death, playing rounds until we have a winner. If players tie with less than the table minimum left, they will be advanced $500 each for the tiebreaker.
I wrote custom simulation software to analyze this situation, and ran lengthy simulations of millions of tournaments to test the scenarios. While I had some firm ideas about what the results would be, I did unearth a few surprises.
My research questions from the introductory article were split up into several groups, so I will address them group-by-group.
Group A:
- What should the first player choose as a bet size, without knowing what his opponents will choose behind him?
- Assume the six players chose $5, $50, $100, $200, $300, and $500 as their respective bet sizes. Who has the best chance of winning the round?
- Assume the first five players all chose $100 as their bet size. What should the final player choose as his bet size to have the best chance?
- Assume that the first five players all chose to bet the minimum $5. Now what should player 6 choose?
It makes sense to actually start with question 2 here, since...
...enter your member login information below to read this article/newsletter...
Paid Members-Only Article
You have clicked on a link to a Blackjack Insider web page or article for paid subscribers. You must have a paid membership to the Blackjack Insider newsletter to view this content. About 1/2 of the articles in each issue of the Blackjack Insider are for paid members only, while the rest are viewable by everyone. Your purchased membership will allow you to read all Blackjack Insider articles for 12 months.
Enter your user name and password below (they were listed and e-mailed to you after you purchased your Blackjack Insider membership):
Forgot your membership id or password? Click here.
How do I get a membership?
A membership can be purchased online at our secure store with your credit card for only $19.95 per year. You will receive a user name and password immediately by e-mail which you can use to read the all past and future members-only articles for 12 months, as well as the regular free articles.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP NOW... only $19.95
Do I have to buy a membership?
No. Blackjack Insider will continue to be published as a free monthly e-newsletter. But about 1/2 of the articles each month will be for paid members only. Subscribers without a membership can still view and read the non-members articles for free.
What happens after I buy a membership?
Immediately after you complete your purchase, you will receive a unique login user name and password. These are displayed on the final purchase page, and are e-mailed to you. When you click on a members-only article in our web site, you will be prompted for this user name and password (as shown above). Simply enter them, and enjoy the article! Note: make sure you turn on the checkbox above when you login, to save the user name and password so that you don't have to re-enter them every time you view members-only articles.
Why did you switch to paid memberships?
Blackjack Insider is a professional monthly publication with top-notch articles by world-reknown gaming experts. In addition, we have regular reporters that monitor game conditions and tournament schedules throughout North America. We use a partially paid subscriber model to enable us to continue getting the best content for our readers from leading authors on blackjack and gaming.
|
|
©2015, DeepNet Technologies. No material to be copied without express permission of DeepNet Technologies.
This site developed by
DeepNet Technologies, Ontario, Canada. Contact webmaster @ bjinsider . com
if you have problems.
This site is best viewed in a 800x600 graphics mode, or higher.