Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

Some interesting percentages in the game of blackjack... If a dealer has an Ace showing, about 31% of the time they will have a ten underneath. Only card counters should take insurance. And if that dealer doesn't have a ten underneath with that Ace showing, they have a 12% chance of busting. That's why what to changes so much with an Ace showing. If a dealer has a 5 or 6 showing, they have the best chance of busting, but it's still only 42%. Yes, you should still stand on your hard 12 or 13, but you're only going to win slightly more than 2 in 5 of those hands. But standing is still better than taking the chance you will bust.

This article came from SB Nation Cleveland : We can now officially put a ribbon on Super Bowl XLV. The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers was a win for the sportsbooks - marking the 15th time in 16 years that sportsbooks came away as winners. The only time they lost was in 2007 when the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots. According to RJ Bell of Pregame.com, $87.5 million was wagered in Nevada alone with $724,000 being won by the sportsbooks. It was the smallest haul by the 'books since 1998 when the Denver Broncos beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. "Packers and Over was by far the worst possible result for the sportsbooks, and even so they ended up net winners. This is a great example of the steep uphill climb the average player faces trying to win." said Bell. An amazing stat, however is the fact that Las Vegas accounts for just 1% of the worldwide Super Bowl 'handle', or the total amount bet, and sportsbooks worldwide ...

Well, this week's storm was a pretty good one. I think a lot of people all across the country will remember it for a long time. Oklahoma City and Tulsa had record snows, Chicago and a lot of cities around here had top-5 snowfalls, Indianapolis had an inch of ice, .... It depended on which side of the street you were on in our neighborhood. Bloomington officially got 13" of snow. Our neighbors across the street had part of their driveway clear and part with about a foot of snow. On our side, though, we had drifts that I measured at 35", and at least 2 feet everywhere on the driveway. I used the snow blower enough for us to get a car out of the garage. This weekend I'll continue shoveling us out to clear the whole driveway before any more snow comes (a chance of some Sunday). We lost power around 10 in the morning on Wednesday. We were trying to figure out what to do - went over to some friends for dinner. A 19-month old just doesn't understand enough (she wouldn...