<div class="bbWrapper">Statistically speaking, the concept of good or bad play ruining a table is flawed. Basic strategy is predicated on the probability of certain card combinations - whether another player hits or not does not materially affect this statistic. Here's an example:<br />
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Dealer with 6 showing, you have a 14, third base has a pat 12. You stay, third base hits, and elicits a look of hatred from you. Third base busts out with a 10. Dealer has 10 in the hole, then pulls the 3 to beat you. Sound familiar?<br />
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But what if the 3 and the 10 were reversed? Then third base "saves" the table. Are you telling me that the 10 ALWAYS comes before the 3...? <img src="/forums/styles/default/casinomeister/smilies/smile.gif" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> If it were this situation (where the next card was a 3), you would say that third base was lucky, and congratulate yourself on playing correctly. <br />
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Anecdotally, we tend to remember our losses due to "bad play" more than our lucky wins due to "good play".<br />
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By the way - I've seen high limit players do irrational moves (such as split tens), and kept a win streak alive by doing so. As they say, it's better to be lucky than good. <br />
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jpm said:
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Sure, real simple. I've had it happen many times at land based tables (which is why I'd never play multiplayer online). You've got one bad player that has no clue what they're doing sitting either before you or after you in the deal, doesn't seem to matter their position, and they are typically hitting when they shouldn't (like whenever they have less than 17, regardless of dealer up card), or splitting when they shouldn't. You play your hand the way you should, (doubling, hitting, standing) and you end up losing a hand you should have won because the bad player misplayed their hand. Either they pulled the card you needed or pulled the dealer's bust card away with their misplayed hit or split. <br />
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I know, I know, the card position is all random, blah blah blah. But do a quick calculation on where the cards would have fallen if they played their hand properly, and you usually see that the outcome would have been reversed had they played it right. On RARE occassions I've seen a misplay result in the dealer busting, but much more often its improved the house's advantage to have the bad player at the table. <br />
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Obviously the house always has the advantage, but the bad player is affecting my actual return. And since they probably only last for maybe a couple of dozen hands or so, there's no time for it to even out. Its just a big sigh of relief when they finally bust out and leave. I think typically its someone who's just visiting the casino for fun, etc and just plays at the cheapest table they can find ($5 at the casinos I frequent). Because of this, I'll play at the next level table ($10 or maybe $15) to avoid the 'newbie' player. Don't know if this happens online though, since I won't play multiplayer BJ online. <br />
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Other games like Let it Ride, 3 card poker, or Caribbean Stud aren't affected by the 'bad player' because the only decision is play or don't play. But I prefer to play these one on one in the hope of a better chance of getting winning hands (as in let it ride, if I have a king and 3 other players at the table do too, then the dealer will never flip one to make my hand a winner. But if its just me, then there's 3 more kings that could come out of the deck to help my hand).
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