{"id":432,"date":"2010-02-25T21:46:23","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T21:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/2010\/02\/25\/puzzler-match-play-on-blackjack-baccarat-or-other-casino-games\/"},"modified":"2016-05-26T10:09:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T15:09:55","slug":"puzzler-match-play-on-blackjack-baccarat-or-other-casino-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/2010\/02\/25\/puzzler-match-play-on-blackjack-baccarat-or-other-casino-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Puzzler: Match play on blackjack, baccarat or other casino games"},"content":{"rendered":"As with many math geeks, I am fascinated by casinos and the math surrounding them. I, however, like to win. Consequently, I have no interest in playing a game that I am mathematically destined to lose. That means when I go to the casino, I walk past every blackjack spread, roulette wheel, and baccarat table until I reach the Poker Room. I play $1-$2 No-limit Texas hold-em and I do it better than most of the people at the table. A math geek&#8217;s dream: I get to extract money from people for being bad at probability!\r\n\r\nSomething interesting came in the mail the other day. Mohegan Sun sent me four $20 Match Play coupons good at\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/blackjack\">Blackjack<\/a> (assuming initial bet only)<\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/threecardpoker\">Three card poker<\/a> (ante bet only)<\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/fourcardpoker\">Four card poker<\/a> (ante bet only)<\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/caribbeanstud\">Caribbean stud poker <\/a>(ante bet only)<\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/baccarat\">Baccarat, mini and midi versions also<\/a> (no tie bet, must pay commission on winning banker bet)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nBasically, I put down an initial wager for $20, and the coupon makes it a $40 bet. I have checked, and this meets the minimum at every game listed above. I am looking to <strong>maximize the expected value<\/strong> of these coupons. I have no interest in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bringing-Down-House-Students-Millions\/dp\/0743249992\">learning to count cards<\/a>, or learn any complex strategies (I am willing to play <a href=\"http:\/\/wizardofodds.com\/blackjack\">basic strategy at blackjack<\/a>).\r\n\r\nI will walk away from the tables as soon as I am no longer a favorite (i.e. I run out of match play cards) and then head over to the Poker Room, where I know I am a favorite. Using MATLAB, make your best case for the wagers I should place. I know that even the best strategy could leave me losing money, I am fine with that as long as I have a positive expected value going in.\r\n\r\nJust like the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/2009\/11\/03\/puzzler-ultimate-frisbee-call-it-wrap-up\/\">Ultimate Frisbee puzzler<\/a>, I offer a MATLAB t-shirt to the most convincing entry.\r\n\r\nHere are some entries from the File Exchange that might be of interest:\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mathworks.com\/matlabcentral\/fileexchange\/4404-blackjack\">Cleve on Blackjack<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mathworks.com\/matlabcentral\/fileexchange\/?term=blackjack\">All the Blackjack entries<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<a title=\"dougsplayingpoker.jpg\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/..\/images\/videos\/2010\/02\/dougsplayingpoker.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/..\/images\/videos\/2010\/02\/dougsplayingpoker.jpg\" alt=\"dougsplayingpoker.jpg\" width=\"640\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"http:\/\/www.ncrg.org\/ (link no longer works)\">Please don&#8217;t gamble more than you can afford to lose<\/a> (especially if you sit down at <em>my<\/em> poker table) and please take a big look at the legal disclaimer from MathWorks: <strong><em>&#8220;These postings are the author&#8217;s and don&#8217;t necessarily represent the opinions of The MathWorks.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As with many math geeks, I am fascinated by casinos and the math surrounding them. I, however, like to win. Consequently, I have no interest in playing a game that I am mathematically destined to&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/2010\/02\/25\/puzzler-match-play-on-blackjack-baccarat-or-other-casino-games\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2422,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/2422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}