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| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | New York, New York | |
| age | 55 | |
| visits | member for | 1 year, 11 months |
| seen | 12 hours ago | |
| stats | profile views | 322 |
I play a number of board and card games with varying degrees of skill, but using "algorithms" to avoid the most obvious mistakes. Depending on the game, if you can beat me, you are probably not a beginner, and perhaps a pretty good player.
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Apr 12 |
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In Bridge, what are “proper” responses to a “strong” 2 club bid? I have A LOT of questions on bridge on this site. Hope you have a "good time" answering them. |
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Apr 12 |
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What Is a “Reverse” In Bridge? Welcome to the site. Interesting answer. So I should have "avoided" the "reverse" by bidding one spade. Even with a suit headed by the T? |
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Mar 22 |
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Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? @TimLymington: If casinos were "even money" against a handful of "best" players and favorites against everyone else, they'd be ok. |
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Mar 22 |
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Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? @SamIam: That's because Kenny Uston fought and won a state court case against them. But they can shuffle up after every deal. |
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Mar 22 |
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Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? @KeithS: It used to be more like 0.6%. Then the casinos reduced the payouts on blackjack from 3 to 2 to 4 to 3, in some cases even 5 to 4, which took their edge above 1%. |
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Mar 21 |
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Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? @KeithS: The house does have an advantage over the player on PLAYING. But card counters overcome this advantage by betting big on certain "good" hands and betting small on (most other) "bad" ones. That's the point of counting cards. Meaning that if card counters were forced to "flat bet," they would lose. |
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Mar 15 |
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Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? Actually, it is not the "mechanic," that makes for card counting. What card counters (mostly) do is to vary their bet sizes in their own favor. See my answer below. |
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Mar 13 |
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Can “aggressive” or unusual play in blackjack get someone thrown out of a casino? I accepted your answer based on your comments (not on the original answer). So I've taken the liberty of attaching your comments to the answer. You delete the comments if your wish. (Unless you prefer to leave them in and "roll back" the answer to the original.) |
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Mar 12 |
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Can “aggressive” or unusual play in blackjack get someone thrown out of a casino? I consider your answer "warm." My understanding is that the casino will first look to see if someone is winning. If he is, then they'll make an evaluation of his play; is he "lucky" (a tourist) who is playing "randomly" or is he "doing something" (cheating or card counter). But I once read a card counter's book that opined that you could get thrown out just for breaking "unwritten rules" like by splitting tens. After all, if you break those "rules," you may also break the "unwritten rules" against card counting. |
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Mar 12 |
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How are the maps provided with Diplomacy supposed to be used? @You can, of course. But then you can't "recycle" them for future games--unless you make copies. |
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Mar 12 |
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What are some good introductory rules to bridge? @JoeZeng: It's the points that win. Winning the rubber USUALLY wins the game for you. Unless the opponents scored a lot of "penalty" points that cancelled out your rubber bonuses. |
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Mar 11 |
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In Diplomacy, Should You Have Separate Country “Draws” For Players of Different Experience? "A strong player will walk all over weak ones regardless of which country they are assigned." I once heard of a history class where students had to play Diplomacy as a class exercise. The two best students wanted to be on the same team. "Fine," said the teacher, "as long as you play Austria-Hungary." They got crushed. |
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Mar 11 |
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Can casinos protect themselves against card counters by limiting bet variations in blackjack? let us continue this discussion in chat |
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Mar 11 |
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Can casinos protect themselves against card counters by limiting bet variations in blackjack? @JoeW: The "large pools" of money run by teams isn't a problem. In that regard, they'd just be like some other "high roller" from e.g. Macao. What is unfair is when a card counter bets $10 a hand, and then waits for a "rich" deck to signal a Big Player (BP) to bet $50-$100 a hand at those times (and not others). If the BP started the game with a new deck, betting $50-$100, he'd be on the same footing as everyone else. |
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Mar 10 |
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Can casinos protect themselves against card counters by limiting bet variations in blackjack? @JoeW: By "teams," you mean a "Big Player who has teammates spread all over the casino making minimum bets, and signalling him when and where to bet big, right? To fight this, casinos could have a rule than anyone joining a table after a new "shoe" has started can be limited to a minimum bet at the discretion of the casino. |
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Mar 10 |
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Can casinos protect themselves against card counters by limiting bet variations in blackjack? @user1873: That's basically what I meant. That is, my question is, if you can come up with a construct that gives "even odds, on average," is that a result that would satisfy SE's notions of social justice? Or put it another way, should this be a solution that should satisfy both players and the house (so they stop "going to war?") |
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Mar 10 |
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In bridge, are “sequences” more valuable than non-sequences of similar point count? Very good answer. (I'm going to wait a day or two before making a decision on acceptance.) Would you then agree that connected sequences KQJXX are better for offense and "broken" sequences AQxxx are better for defense, and be more inclined to overcall with the former than the latter (all other things being equal of course)? |
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Mar 9 |
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When would you “slot” points in backgammon? @cmhughes: Beginning of the game (no cube turned, opponent's checkers on the 24 point). In my case, I would slot the five point with an opening 6-2. But not the four point with a 6-3 or 5-4 (unless I had made the five point (3-1) or three point (5-3) on a previous turn). I would play 5-3 to the three point to improve the value of a subsequent slot to the four or five points. |
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Feb 25 |
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Can a Djinn host a Parasite? @ghoppe: I guess it was my mistake. But that's the conclusion I came to when I saw the word "program." I thought it might be better for the RPG site. |
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Feb 25 |
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Can a Djinn host a Parasite? I don't see what a computer program has to do with board and card games. |
