Observation of the RNG

[Kaysha Soulsinger]

Here's one.... "six degrees of seperation" .. The theory, supported by math and example, that if you know 100 people and they all know 100 people, all of whom know 100 people etc etc ... by the time you reach the "sixth degree" you know someone thru someone who knows ALL the people on earth. The math bears this out.

Except you know Bill from work. And you know Bob from work. That's 2 of the 100 people you know.

Unfortuneately Bill also knows Bob and you.
And Bob also knows Bill and you.

So, this is the part NO ONE will understand.....

YOUR 100 people have to be TOTALLY UNIQUE from all the 100 people you know's 100 people THEY know for it to work out.

Actually, when all 100 people are unique, you have 100^6 people. That's about 150 times the total population of the Earth. So, looking at it from that point, not all those 100 people need to be as unique as you make it sound. If they were all unique, you would be more than covering the entire population to the fifth degree, not the sixth.

[Aamen]

Using C/C++, they (SOE) are currently unable to produce truely random numbers.

The odds of winning in Blackjack are about 49% for you if you play perfectly. You can improve your winnings significantly if you count cards and leverage your bets via split/double down, etc. Of course, that will get you noticed.

[Itek]

Kaysha you missed the point I was trying to make.

You do not know 100 people of whom none knows the other. There were 65 people in my graduating class in high school. I could count one and ONLY one of them. But I could NOT count anyone who MIGHT know them. (Like for example, any of my teachers, my family, any of their families, any of the rest of the 3400 people in town) Becase say I pick "Suzy" ... and I know that she doesn't know "George the Groceryman." But "suzy's dad" certainly knows "george" and "suzy" both. Now because I have picked "Suzy" I can't pick "George the Groceryman" or anyone who MIGHT know him. Which, given that our town is in a major tourist region, could include people from EVERYWHERE... Japan, Sweden, Africa...

Makes finding 100 UNIQUE people on everyone's list pretty darn hard.

(and if you fall to 50 unique people on everyone's list it drops below 15 billion, fall much below that and it becomes impossible.)

The theory SOUNDS nice and firm. And sure 10 ^ 12 is a pretty large number... but the PREMISE is flawed. Flawed premise = flawed conclusion every time.

You cannot know 100 people all of whom don't know each other or any of the other 10,000 people on the second-degree list.

Call your old high school chum. Ask them if they know any old college chums from ... Spain say... Call the Spainard and ask if he knows any German business associates... Call the German businessman and ask if he knows any Kurdish people... Get the Kurd on the phone and ask if he's got relatives in Iraq... Call the Iraqi and ask if he's met "Bill the Neighborboy, who's over in Iraq right now."

that's six degrees of seperation.

you to high school chum = 1 degree
to Spainard college chum = 2 degrees
to German business man = 3 degrees
to Kurd = 4 degrees
to Iraqi = 5 degrees
to soldier = 6 degrees ... which comes full circle, so you should have met the 6th degree

It's a fun game to play... but using this theory you should know the president of the united states well before the 4th degree due to the fact you travel in similar cultural circles. Somehow I doubt I could get an invite to Kennybunkport for the summer.

"My first cousin is your step-brother's old college roommate's sister's ex-boyfriend" ... (misquote)

"And that makes us?"

"Absolutely NOTHING!" (spaceballs, rent it... you know you want to)

[Jaytee Bushwacker]

The odds of winning in Blackjack are about 49% for you if you play perfectly. You can improve your winnings significantly if you count cards and leverage your bets via split/double down, etc. Of course, that will get you noticed

Correct, you make the majority of your money from double downs and splits.

I follow the accepted methods of playing and do the really simple card counting method of +1 -1 0 to keep running counts. However, I do have one aspect of my play I do not follow traditional logic. If I have two 10's and the dealer is showing a 4-6 I split my 10's. Assuming the dealer does not bust (which is what your hoping for obviously) I normally win one hand and lose the other resulting in a wash for the hand. Very rarely do I lose both, I win both about twice the number of times I lose both.

So aside from that one aspect of play I try to follow "the rules".

[Itek]

ACK... no splitting 10's ... *shudder*twitch*

Hmm... dealer 4 - 6 you say.... hmm... *runs off to check the math*

I can beat the computer at blackjack... and nearly decided to become a professional online blackjack player...

Till I noticed "interesting" pay out methods. They would ONLY pay money to Credit Cards that you had used to BUY chips. And only UP TO the amount of chips you had bought.

So, literally, you could NOT win money from the casino.

And here I had been concerned that they might "fudge" the RNG slightly to improve their odds. But they wouldn't need to.

1) If you lose money, we win

2) If you win money, we don't lose, because we won't give it to you.

Dang, the online thieves are even more blatant about it than the brick and mortar casinos. At least they PRETEND to give you your winnings.

Bookie's friend: "Why did you pay that guy the 10 g's ?"

Bookie: "I'm just letting him hold it for a while."

I actually saw a TV ad for online gambling like yesterday or the day before. *rofl* (Gambling is legal in Arizona, at Indian Casinos) Given your choice of unregulated gambling offered by companies out of the Carribean or Singapore... and gambling where there is at least the semblance of a "Gaming Control Board" to oversee things... which should you choose?

Anyone remember the debate over prescription drug ads on TV? Which do you think is more addictive... Viagra / Prilosec / Flonase or blackjack? I haven't seen people hocking their VCR for their allergy medicine so far...

Grats on the winning Jaytee. *still gotta check the math on that splitting*

[Jaytee Bushwacker]

A side bonus to my 10's play...I get to see all the expressions around the table of people going omg wtf are you doing.

Then once when I got a 21 and a 20 on resulting hands the lady next to me got all pissed off because she would have gotten that ace on her 6,4 hand. She got in my face complaining so much they had security escort her out of the casino rofl.

All I said to her was look I'm playing this game for myself not you so dont bother me

[Itek]

"the dice have no memory"

Itek: Lady, I didn't take "your card" or "the dealer's bust card" .. the card I took has no effect on the next card out of the shoe.

In Europe, I understand, they play BlackJack so that the dealer's last card is dealt AFTER the players are all done.

People with alphabet soup after their names I can't claim have examined the statistics of the difference between the two styles.

There isn't any.

Each card is unique. Unless you stacked the deck there's no way to "take" a card.

Rough estimate is that if the dealer has 4 - 6 and draws 2 cards (can't bust on their hole card) on average they should have between 18 and 20 for their 3 card hand.

You have a 10 on each of two hands. 6 in 13 on each hand YOU will wind up with 18 - 20 natural, 1 in 13 for the 21 (but not blackjack) and 6 in 13 for 17 or less.

So odds are you push or less on each hand. But it's close. So most of the time you will break even. Occasionally it will work to your favor.

Now if you are allowed to DAS (double after split) then you can take advantage of the "lousy" 12 / 13 hands and play risky-kitty ... but then the odds get... well odd.

Splitting a 20 is almost never a good idea. Name 2 hands that beat a 20.
*buzz* Only one hand beats a 20. Your odds of getting 20 or better again on ONE of your two hands are not great. Splitting a 20 takes a great hand and makes it two good ones.

[Lothay]

This has become a discussion of gambling and blackjack, not EQ tradeskills.

Closed.

~Lothay