Charting the Games by Desirability Indices (Revised)

From Stanford Wong's BJ21

Posted by Fine Tuner on 24 Jul 1998, 4:38 p.m.

Using the charts below, you can assign a "Desirability Index" to any game listed in CBJN (or elsewhere, if you know the rules in question, and the penetration). "Desirability Index," as far as I know, is a term coined by Schlesinger in Chapter 10 of his book. The higher the DI, the better the blackjack game. The numbers were fine tuned by John Auston 7-7-98.


                     SIX DECK BLACKJACK DESIRABILITY INDICES 

   
	S17	S17,DS	s17dsls	H17	H17,DS	H17,LS	h17dsls

Pen.							

.5	9.65	10.11	11.67	9.02	9.60	10.80	11.29

.6	9.20	9.66	11.17	8.58	9.15	10.30	10.78

.7	8.75	9.20	10.68	8.13	8.70	9.80	10.28

.8	8.31	8.75	10.18	7.69	8.26	9.29	9.77

.9	7.86	8.29	9.69	7.24	7.81	8.79	9.27

1.0	7.41	7.84	9.19	6.80	7.36	8.29	8.76

1.1	7.11	7.54	8.87	6.51	7.05	7.97	8.43

1.2	6.81	7.24	8.56	6.21	6.75	7.64	8.10

1.3	6.51	6.93	8.24	5.92	6.44	7.32	7.76

1.4	6.21	6.63	7.93	5.62	6.14	6.99	7.43

1.5	5.91	6.33	7.61	5.33	5.83	6.67	7.10

1.6	5.68	6.10	7.35	5.11	5.60	6.41	6.84

1.7	5.46	5.87	7.10	4.89	5.36	6.15	6.58

1.8			6.84

Strikeover numbers ( < 6.59 ) deemed unplayable; 6 deck assumptions:
1-10spread; wonging only.


                     TWO DECK BLACKJACK DESIRABILITY INDICES 

	S17	S17,DS	s17dsls	H17	H17,DS	H17,LS	h17dsls

Pen.							

.5	8.32	9.21	10.79	7.06	8.00	8.84	9.71

.6	7.45	8.39	9.92	6.19	7.14	7.86	8.83

.7	6.59	7.58	9.05	5.31	6.29	6.88	7.95

.8	5.72	6.76	8.19	4.44	5.43	5.91	7.08

.9	4.86	5.95 	7.32	3.56	4.58	4.93	6.20 

1.0	3.99	5.13	6.45 	2.69	3.72	3.95	5.32

Two deck spread of 1-6 assumed.


                     SINGLE DECK BLACKJACK DESIRABILITY INDICES 

   

	S17	S17,DS		H17	H17,DS		

Pen.							

.25	13.31	14.26		12.12	13.10		

.3	11.89	12.84		10.64	11.61		

.4	9.64	10.60		8.35	9.34		

.5	7.38	8.36		6.07	7.07


Single deck spread of 1-4 assumed. Strikeover numbers ( < 6.59 ) deemed unplayable.

Using CBJN July, 1998 data, and the above chart, the top four Vegas games right now are, in descending order: Desert Inn 6 deck, Tropicana 2 deck, Harrahs 6 deck, Reserve 1 deck.

The use of 6.59 as the cutoff for desirable games is somewhat arbitrary. I use it because, until recently, it was the lowest number I had ever seen Wong describe as "good" in CBJN. The old Stratosphere 2 deck game with late surrender and 1.0 penetration was so described, back some months ago.

Numbers in the above charts were based on Schlesinger's numbers in the Chapter Ten charts, as revised by John Auston 7-7-98. However, most are interpolations between numbers he gives. For instance, in the 6 deck chart, his numbers are provided only at the .5, 1.0 and 1.5 level of penetration. All the intermediate penetration numbers are interpolations.