Blackjack Counting Strategies

A benchmark of card counting on popular Las Vegas games. Seven counting systems, each learned by self-play, are compared with DQN agents that have no predefined count: they learn from the full composition of the shoe and approach the optimal gain, so the gap measures what a single count leaves on the table. The table below shows the best counting system per game; each game's page compares every system with the DQN agents, and has the strategy at every count, the value of each decision, the player's edge before the deal and the return of each betting strategy. Figures are units won per 100 rounds (1 unit = the minimum bet). Code: https://github.com/apicquot/blackjack. Tables: apicquot/blackjack-counting.

GameBest countNo count, flat betBest count, flat bet Bet 1–3, play every roundBet 0–3, sit out bad counts
1 deck, H17, DAS, 6:5Omega II−1.59−0.88−0.05+1.25
2 decks, H17, DAS, 3:2Zen Count−0.49−0.16+0.98+1.71
6 decks, H17, DAS, surrender, 3:2Wong Halves−0.54−0.40+0.27+1.01
6 decks, S17, DAS, surrender, RSA, 3:2 (high limit)Wong Halves−0.27−0.13+0.72+1.27
8 decks, H17, DAS, surrender, 3:2Wong Halves−0.56−0.47+0.03+0.74