Why does it matter when others play the “wrong” move at a blackjack table

Question

The odds of the other person getting a card they want doesn’t necessarily change, so why does it effect anybody when a player doesn’t play by the chart

In: 204

Answer 1

Mathematically it basically doesn’t matter. You’d get a random card either way.

I suppose, in principle, if you are card-counting, and the ‘count’ is good, then another player hitting one more time is slightly bad for you, because that will probably move the count towards neutral (because, on average, it is always neutral, and at the extremes, most card draws will push it towards neutral).

But, just as often, the other player who is hitting more than they ‘should’ will do it when the count is ‘bad’, hence getting the count closer to neutral, which helps the card-counter.