by Paul Lamford
One of the best live dealer games to play is Infinite Blackjack supplied by Evolution. For
several reasons. You can practise with very modest stakes, and don’t have to bet on any
hand. You can set the number of hands to miss to, say 8, which will ensure that you remain
on the table, as most sites “kick you” back to the Lobby if you sit there and just watch for too
long. But the biggest plus of Infinite Blackjack is the ability to cash out your bet:
The first cash out and the actual equity for hitting 14 v 18 was -0.8313, so an expectancy on a £2 bet of just under £1.17, so there was a 3% gain in accepting the cash out of £1.20. As luck would have it, hitting would have got a 7 and would have won £4.
The above was better. The equity for hitting, on a £2 bet was -0.7935, so under £1.21 so Diable thought it was excellent to take the £1.26. The next card was a 10 so it did well.
This time, hitting would have lost, although standing would have won. The equity for hitting was -0.4514. So we made a tiny gain by accepting the £0.55 on offer.
The closest decision of the lot. The equity for hitting was -0.5401, so we gained one hundredth of a penny by taking the £0.46 on offer. The next card was a queen, so hitting would have lost.
Another bad position, and professional players know that this is a good “surrender” position, and would accept £0.50. The equity for standing was -0.5756, so we gained by accepting the cash-out offer. Only 0.56 of a penny, but Diable is not proud.
The sixth and final cash out. We had a poor 13 v 7. The running count was over +2. Hitting was -0.3345, but accepting the offer gained 0.0345. Not much on £1, but it is still 3.45%. I think Evolution sets the offer to be about 97% of the hand 1 equity, which in this case is -0.2691, when £0.70 would not be value.
Evolution’s profit for the full year 2024 was €1.24 billion with about 75% from live play. If all the players used Diable, they would have made a large loss as Diable never makes a negative expectancy bet. Your expectancy using Diable on almost all games is +1% per bet, twice the margin that the casinos have. And most people lose an average of 2%.