Nice post Danny.
I have just 2 comments:
I think most strategy charts for blackjack are created using simulation, rather than analytically computing the probabilities. Play each situation enough times with randomly shuffled cards and find out what actions work best on average.
I agree with you that the initial developments in Basic Strategy came from simulation. I thought I had read that more recent developments involved calculating the probabilities, but I suppose I could have gotten that confused with something else.
While this is correct strategy when the dealer stands on 17, at bitzino the dealer hits on 17 so the proper strategy at bitzino is to double in this situation.
You mean "soft 17" here I think. i.e. if the dealer has 7/17 (like A6, or A24). If the dealer has a hard 17 (89, say) he always stands, under all sets of rules.
Yep. Thanks for pointing that out. I most certainly did mean that at bitzino the dealer hits on
soft 17, but accidentally left out the word "soft" when I typed it. Thanks for the correction, I'll go back and fix in in my original post.