Rule Combinations

We have looked at the frequencies of the most popular rules. Let us now look at combinations of rules. Some combinations are far more common than others and the combination frequencies dramatically vary by the number of decks. This is necessary to make up for the differences that number of decks makes to advantage.

In the below chart, sixteen rule-combinations are displayed: all combinations of H17/S17, DAS, RSA and LS. All U.S. games are included with six decks. The bars indicate the percentage of the time each rule-combination exists.

So, we can see that the magenta bar, indicating H17, DAS with a frequency of 24%, is the most popular rule-combination for six-deck games. Add RSA and you have another 21%. Only 3% of the games include all four good rules. 4% of games have all poor rules.

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The next page contains the same charts for single-deck, double-deck, and eight-deck games. We can quickly see that the more decks in the game, the more advantageous the rules. 47% of single-deck games are H17 with no DAS, RSA, or surrender. S17 is nearly nonexistent in single-deck. With two decks we see improvement in rules with S17 starting to appear. Eight-deck games more than half the time include S17. However, we see little RSA and surrender since Atlantic City does not provide these rules and this one city contains most of the eight-deck games in the U.S.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger