Blackjack Paradox

[David Sklansky]

You are a pro who specializes beating single decks with good rules by flat betting and deviating from basic strategy according to the count. A certain casino lets you play four hands and then shuffles.

One day you walk up to a table where someone has already played one hand that you haven't seen. The pit boss tells you that you can play four hands from this point. (Not because he saw high cards come out. He wasn't even watching.

Question One: If you can't ask anyone what cards came out on the first hand ,is this just as good for you as playing starting from hand one, and getting four hands? In spite of the fact that your playing strategy will assume a count that will often be wrong?

Taking this a step further, say the player already there is identically skilled and playing with the same rules. So he has to leave one hand early.

Question Two: Are both of you playing with the exact same edge? Even though you will often be playing hands two and three assuming different counts. In fact you might sometimes have the exact same hands and play them differently? If so how could this be?

Note: Please disregard the effects of going second. Assume in fact that strategy changes will be based only on cards seen before the hand started. I'm dealing with a general principle here.