Unique Blackjack Study

04 Jun 2009

According to common thought, even during financial crisis big players act recklessly and aggressively. Probably, this is a good practice as only risky people manage to overcome troubles. However, the recent study states the opposite.

The first unique business school study is based on the date collected at one of Las Vegas casinos. The authors of the study Bruce Carlin and David T Robinson say that blackjack game is one of the best ways to see how people behave in difficult situations and under the pressure.

To come to any conclusion, about 4,300 blackjack hands were studied and the results were quite striking. Those players who voluntarily get into the risky game play very conservatively and even passively. On average the stakes are lower and not enough to optimize the winnings.

In addition, the study covers the game strategy followed by the players. It was revealed that the players made more errors in making right decisions in the passive play rather than the mistakes caused by overconfidence and risk. And as result, the so-called passive mistakes were more costly than those caused by aggressive strategy.

The study also states that in general all the mistakes at the blackjack table are rarely made as a result of complex hands or lack of experience. On the contrary, the newcomers who used to play passively made fewer mistakes than the gamblers who waged big sums.

Probably, it is not reasonably to make any economic conclusions based on the players' behavior at blackjack, but it is evident that the same tendency is observed in many business areas.

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