Date of Award

1985

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Committee Chair(s)

David White

Committee

David White

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of computer simulation to the game of Twenty-One to predict a player's expected return from the game. Twenty-One has traditionally been one of the most popular casino games and has attracted much effort to accurately estimate the house's true advantage. Probability theory has been tried, but the thousands of different combinations of cards possible in all hands throughout the entire pack make it practically impossible to apply probability theory without overlooking some possibilities. For this reason, Twenty-One is a perfect candidate for simulation. By blocking several simulations, normal theory can be used to predict a player's expected return given his personal strategy on the game.

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