Understanding Monte Carlo with Blackjack
Blackjack is a simple card game that is quite popular in casinos. It is a great game, as it is simple to simulate and take samples, and lends itself to Monte Carlo methods. Blackjack is also available as part of the OpenAI framework. Players and the dealer are dealt two cards each. The dealer shows one card face up and lays the other card face down. The players and the dealer have a choice of whether to be dealt additional cards or not:
- The aim of the game: To obtain cards whose sum is close to or equal to 21 but not greater than 21.
- Players: There are two players, called the player and the dealer.
- The start of the game: The player is dealt with two cards. The dealer is also dealt with two cards, and the rest of the cards are pooled into a stack. One of the dealer's cards is shown to the player.
- Possible actions – stick or hit: "Stick" is to stop asking for more cards. "Hit" is to ask for more...
