Blackjack Warning

[Linda]

In case anyone is planning on playing some Blackjack and hasn't played in Las Vegas in recent years, you should be aware that traditional Blackjack is played at very few tables nowadays. There are a lot of rules variations that give the casino an extra edge. For example, a lot of games pay only 6 to 5 on a natural instead of the normal 3 to 2. There is also a game where you don't get paid if the dealer busts with 22 ; it is considered a push.

Therefore, when you sit down to a game, make sure you know what the rules are, unless you don't care about your money. A better game might be just a table away. Here is a link to a page that shows how each rule variation affects the game in terms of percentage gain or loss for the player: http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack ... ariations/

Good Luck

[annie]

I very seldom play Blackjack anymore, or any table games.

Main reason is that they have increased the conveniently-available minima to what I'm not comfortable risking. You can seldom even find a $5 table anymore. It's most often $10 or even $25 per hand, and that's too much like real money, sorry.

$1 Blackjack at the old Sahara used to be fun.

I haven't seen a "push on dealer 22" game yet, but as I said, I haven't played much Blackjack lately.

[Bev]

Linda, do you have any recommendations on where the best blackjack is to be found? Has those changes hit downtown as well?

[Linda]

Bev, these conditions are definitely downtown, which has always had worse rules than the Strip. On the strip, Harrahs and Casino Royale are very bad. They are found mostly with single and double deck games, since the casinos know that card counters will have virtually no chance of gaining an advantage. I didn't see any such games at Caesars and other high class casinos, but that doesn't mean they don't have them at certain times of the day.

I have heard that you can get a traditional game, even a single deck game, if you ask for it and you are a high roller. Of course, you can be certain that they will be watching your play closely to be sure you're not counting cards.

The good news is that, according to a study by UNLV, the take from table games has been declining since the casinos made these changes. Therefore, we can hope that they will eventually back off a little.

By the way, to be fair, the game where a dealer bust on 22 is a push is called "Blackjack Switch" and has some interesting rule variations in favor of the player to partially compensate. So it's not quite as bad as it seems at first glance. This game is described in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackjack_Switch and elsewhere on the Web. http://www.netbet.org/blackjack/blackjack-switch.html

[Ami]

Just saying this as a local, but I don't know how anyone can consider downtown BJ worse than the strip. Fremont & El Cortez (I think) have $3 BJ, and I know at least 4 of the casinos pay more than 6/5 on BJ... It's true about a dealer pushing on a 22 on BJ Switch, but few downtown casinos have that. Margaritaville and a few others on the strip also have $3 BJ (usually after midnight, when us girls wake up)

Bottom line: Know the rules of the game before you play!

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Vera Delmar
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Several years back, I heard a rumor , whether true or not, that there
was an active push to turn the casinos on the Strip into "High Roller"
territory and the downtown casinos were to cater to the "Low Roller"
types. I really do prefer the downtown casinos not for that reason
necessarily. For me, it reminds me of the old Las Vegas.

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(This posting was entered by Vera Delmar, an external user of MyDLV.)

[Linda]

Ami wrote :
> I don't know how anyone can consider
> downtown BJ worse than the strip.

It's just a historical and mathematical fact. In the good ole days (60s, 70s, 80s), dealers always hit soft 17 downtown, whereas they were required to stand on soft 17 on the Strip. This rule alone gave the downtown casinos an extra 0.22% advantage over the player. Of course, now they all hit soft 17. One good thing about BJ downtown is that you're less likely to be cheated, since most dealers are less experienced.