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Calculating hand values in Blackjack. Ask Question Asked 9 years, 9 months ago. Active 7 years, 2 months ago. Viewed 4k times 5. I am implementing a little Black Jack game in C# and I have the following problem calculating the player's hand value. Aces may have a value of 1 or 11 based on the player's hand.

Well, looking over my last 800 hours, ive noticed that all my big losses have always if not most of the time come at times when i was heads up vs dealer and played 2 hands vs the standard of 1 hand as recommended by many BJ authors. There has been much debate on this forum as well as other forums over the years. I have always been an advocate of two hands to reduce a bit of variance. Yes you eat up more cards but you're also getting more money on the table for the same level of risk so it's basically a wash. I have gone through all the previous threads and some have ran sims on this and two hands is slightly better, EV wise and variance wise, but im not too sure anymore. All my big losses have come from playing two hands heads up vs dealer. Im starting to wonder if i should just go to the industry standard one hand and wondering if this is why i have gotten my a$$ beat every time i had a big loss. Ive had more big losses heads up 2 hands than any big wins from what i can remember. My betting pattern would be aggressive wong-outs at -1 and play 1xtable minimum usually 1x25 and spread to 2x50 at +1 with a max bet of 2x250 at +5.
Thoughts?I cant handle the dealer one on one? I didnt say i was making mistakes, just wondering why it's happening. I guess it's just a coincidence. The EV is the same if not slightly better with two hands even if you're wasting more cards, you're getting more money on the table at the same risk. It's just that these big losses have made me start to think that somehow two hands are inferior to one in terms of EV when playing heads up and that maybe it's not recommended. I know most authors recommend 1 hand heads up due to more positive EV rounds and less cards being used up, but regardless i shouldnt be doing so poorly everytime i play dealer heads up with two hands.How's the Vegas planning coming along?

How's the Vegas planning coming along?

Leaving first week of May. I got the bankroll already and barring an epic negative variance collapse, I should be there sometime within 1st-2nd week of May.
You gonna alert the Oklahoma cops and vegas casinos that I'm coming? Thanks.AxelWolf

Leaving first week of May. I got the bankroll already and barring an epic negative variance collapse, I should be there sometime within 1st-2nd week of May.
You gonna alert the Oklahoma cops and vegas casinos that I'm coming? Thanks.

No, I wanted to sell you a pair of really big shoes.Romes

Blackjack Hands Chart

Blackjack Hand Calculator

I feel like with a good act you should stick to one hand until TC +3 or so and you can spread to multiple. When you're heads up with the dealer you can break out all kind of ploppy VOODOO... Thus, I'm a fan of playing 1 hand and then working in 2 hands usually around TC +3 or higher, but triggered off of a winning or losing event... or another player coming to the table then leaving.
'I won when he was here, so I wanna keep his hand in!'
At TC +2 or TC +3 when you lose a hand: 'Hmmm, maybe I need to change it up for a couple hands' as you add another hand to the game.
'This game you gotta figure out when it's a dealer shoe and change it up with hands to mess up the dealers hands!'
etc, etc.

Thanks Romes, but the thread was more about if somehow 2 hands is the culprit for me getting my a$$ handed to me when playing heads up. Of course common sense tells me its just variance, but looking over my results, all my big losses came when playing heads up at 2 hands and so I'm starting to think that maybe I should from now on only play one hand heads up. Also most BJ authors subscribe to only playing one hand vs dealer when heads up to get in more positive rounds per dollar bet.

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