Microgaming Blackjack

[funky_seagull]

ugh... never again...

Has anyone ever managed to beat this blackjack?

The results seem about as random as an Italian football match.

[vinylweatherman]

ugh... never again...

Has anyone ever managed to beat this blackjack?

The results seem about as random as an Italian football match.

It's VERY streaky. I did beat it though, £1 flat betting with the expert mode. 100,000 hands and £800 up. Highly suspicious if you ask me, that is one hell of a performance for 100,000 hands, and if it was £800 DOWN I would have been less surprised.

Because of this, I did wonder if there was some kind of bias in the way the RNG produced the results, and I looked at tweaking the strategy to match this quirkiness, rather than using perfect strategy. It didn't get me very far, but it turned out MG had made an error with the defaults, and these have been corrected.

[GrandMaster]

ugh... never again...

Has anyone ever managed to beat this blackjack?

The results seem about as random as an Italian football match.

No complaints here, I am still about 1SD above expectation after 6 or 7 years.

[Westland Bowl]

Since November of last year, I've played at Lucky Nugget, RiverBelle, Wild Jack, 777 Dragon, Casino Share, 7 Sultans, King Neptune, and Red Flush. I've done very well in MG Blackjack (Vegas Strip version.) At one point last month (June), my total withdrawals were almost $14,000 on total deposits of around $4,000.

Then in mid-June, things went to hell. I got a lot of blackjack sessions of one-and-dones which are like 5 losses in a row, then one win, 4 losses in a row, 1 win, 1 loss, 1 win, 3 losses, etc. In other words, streaks of losses separated by one win. I usually up my bets on a win but obviously one-and-dones are bad for that type of betting strategy. The long-run winning percentage of Vegas Strip blackjack is around 43% but I was/am getting a number of sessions in a row with below 40% winning percentage to boot.

I've deposited over $4,600 since things went bad. One thing I've noticed is that when I go to a new MG casino, it appears my player history from other MG casinos follows me. After making a deposit, the sessions immediately are always filled with one-and-dones. Many times I'll flat bet the one-and-dones then a double or triple win streak happens, which gets me out of my flat-betting mode. Then the one-and-dones immediately kick in again making me lose a lot. Ah ha! They are now employing psychological tactics now, for this has happened often. This would only make sense if you believe, as I do, that the online casinos use Artificial Intelligence in analyzing your betting strategy. Random?

Also, since mid-June, I've noticed a lot more losing double-downs/splits after a win in which I usually up my bets. Random?

It's harder for me to get past $500 in my balance. It's as if they know I do well when I get past $1000.

[funky_seagull]

It does definately feel like it has an A.I. cause the games get a lot harder the longer you play, and the difficulty continues onto future sessions, to the point where it becomes near impossible to win. You can often just start a new game and lose 5 times in a row... even though you haven't played for several days.

I get the feeling it has a payout meter which is constantly trying to balance out the amount you can win, a bit like the slots do, designed only to payout a certain amount, dictated by a fixed percentage of win/lose - which if this is true means it can't be random.

I am trying to confuse it at the moment by betting random, constantly changing my strategy, this seemed to work ok for a while but soon the dealer was constantly getting 20's, 21's and bjs Think maybe I must have pissed the A.I. off... time to play a different game for a while I think...

[Westland Bowl]

It does definately feel like it has an A.I. cause the games get a lot harder the longer you play, and the difficulty continues onto future sessions, to the point where it becomes near impossible to win. You can often just start a new game and lose 5 times in a row... even though you haven't played for several days.

When I first started playing online blackjack, I often got games where I would have blocks of wins: win 3, lose 4, win 5, lose 3, win 2, etc. Not so hard to win with the way I play. That was then. Nowdays, I get this type of session only when the overall win percentage is "adjusted" back up to reach the normal 43% overall win percentage for Vegas Strip BJ. It definitely has gotten harder and harder to win a session when it appears to be adjusting to your style of betting.

I do not use the martingale strategy but I did use it several times the past month. Results? Each time I got loooong losing streaks and a win right when I stopped the progression. To me, this means the A.I. or whatever is immediately counter-acting ANY successive progression betting I use. It used to be that it took the software from 10 sessions or longer to "figure you out" but now it is almost immediate that it notices that you changed or tweaked your strategy. Random?

I get the feeling it has a payout meter which is constantly trying to balance out the amount you can win, a bit like the slots do, designed only to payout a certain amount, dictated by a fixed percentage of win/lose - which if this is true means it can't be random.

Right, random it ain't. I certainly would be frickin' mad if MG (or any other software casino platform) start to force losing hands anytime I bet my big bets. Lasseters Casino did this on their 2 cents minimum bet Blackjack game when I played their several years ago. It was obviously NOT random there as there were an abundance of back-to-back-to-back looong lossing streaks (record for me: 22 straight losing streak followed by another 10 ) Everytime I bet bigger, BAM! I lost! That was absolutely rigged! If Lasseters does/did it, I'm sure the others do it too though to a lesser extent (but still has same effect on your bankroll!)

I am trying to confuse it at the moment by betting random, constantly changing my strategy, this seemed to work ok for a while but soon the dealer was constantly getting 20's, 21's and bjs Think maybe I must have pissed the A.I. off... time to play a different game for a while I think...

With online casinos, you can have low Chi factors indicating strong randomness in the cards drawn AND still manipulate the win or lose outcomes. This is a problem with virtual, invisible playing cards that are handled by the casino from beginning to end as opposed to seeing the cards in a real casino shoe.

A real casino can get into trouble with government authorities for running rigged games. Is it the online casinos turn now?

[Jufo]

It's VERY streaky.

If this is true then the game cannot be random or fair as it should follow the same laws or probability as a real deck of cards.

With online casinos, you can have low Chi factors indicating strong randomness in the cards drawn AND still manipulate the win or lose outcomes. This is a problem with virtual, invisible playing cards that are handled by the casino from beginning to end as opposed to seeing the cards in a real casino shoe.

I could run some statistical analysis in case someone is willing to provide a sufficient play data sample (1000+ hands). I would calculate the histogram of the lengths of consecutive runs and compare that to the expected frequency distribution with Chi-Square test, to determine whether the "streakiness" is outside of limits of normal variance.

[casinoTerminato]

never had any problems with microgaming BlackJack nor any other microgaming game.

[Westland Bowl]

I could run some statistical analysis in case someone is willing to provide a sufficient play data sample (1000+ hands). I would calculate the histogram of the lengths of consecutive runs and compare that to the expected frequency distribution with Chi-Square test, to determine whether the "streakiness" is outside of limits of normal variance.

Well, let me know the details of how to get it to you. The software I use to track the blackjack play can only export in .txt or html format and in one session at a time. So I guess you have to merge them together. I have about 6 casinos in which I suspect funny play. Just send me a private message through this forum. Thanks.

[Westland Bowl]

Due to my postings here, I gotten five negative reputation points. I find that MiniVegasGroup representative visited my public profile so I suspect that is where I got it from but I have no proof. Whoever did it should have emailed me as to what I written that offended them/him/her so.