what are the odds of losing nine, ten, and eleven straight hands at
blackjack with two, four or six decks of cards?

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Request for Question Clarification by elmarto-ga on 26 May 2003 16:50 PDT

Hello wdwinds!
The comments below are right in that you should fully specify your
strategy, both for you and for the person playing against you. A
complete strategy would be something like:
- Always hit when the sum of my cards is 16 or less.
- If the sum of my cards 17 or more, hit only if the other person has
less than a seven
- Double if I get two Js, Qs, Ks, 2s, 3s, but don't if I get two of
any other cards
etc.

If you can provide your strategy, it's perfectly possible to calculate
the odds of winning. Furthermore, would you be interested in the odds
of winning once you've seen your first card, or before that?

Best regards,
elmarto

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Clarification of Question by wdwinds-ga on 27 May 2003 09:52 PDT

the strategy i would be using is to always hit when i have 16 or less.
double my bet after the second lose, and from then on until i reach a
lose in a row of nine, ten or eleven.

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Request for Question Clarification by elmarto-ga on 27 May 2003 10:25 PDT

Hello wdwinds,
OK, that's fine. Just to make sure I'm doing things right here: the
other person (the "house") is using your same strategy?

Best wishes,
elmarto

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Clarification of Question by wdwinds-ga on 27 May 2003 11:15 PDT

the house will hit up to and stand on seventeen.

I would believe it would depend on your strategy. A strategy of
"always hit, even at 21" would pretty much be guaranteed to lose. Any
particular strategy in mind?

i'm sorry for not making my question clear enough. i'm playing with
hitting and holding in all the proper methods

i think will help you with your maths

http://www.bjmath.com/main.htm

enjoy

i appreciate your link....however i thought i was paying for someone
to answer the question for me. not paying for someone to tell me to
find it myself. the question again is, if i play with the best
intentions...hitting and holding in proper placing, what are the odds
of me losing say 9, 10, or eleven hands in a row.

Hi wdwinds-ga, 
No one has officially answered you question yet. That was just a
comment from another answer.google member. There are many, many
different Black Jack strategies. I think that it would be helpful to
whoever answers the question if you provide a link to the specific
strategy that you'd be using, or at least to one of those
hit/stand/split/double down charts. If you're up for some fun reading,
I recommend checking out "Scarne on Cards" for some interesting (if
inaccurate) theories.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451113802/qid=1053898388/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-3287012-8239209?v=glance&s=books