Blackjack Rules/Tables

[topnole]

just got back from oasis. $6 minimum tables, $10 minimum tables. lots of them, they pay out 6:5 for BJ. Lucky ladies side bet (terrible odds) from $1 to $25.

 

Anything over $15 tables ($25, $50, $100 minimum) had BJ pay 3:2. Much better and less novices playing the $15+ tables. Gentleman from Colorado and I both won over $2,000 at a $15 minimum table with 8 deck shoe. No automatic shuffler, hand shuffling so it was easy to ace track. Each of us nodded to each other and could tell he was counting cards, just like me.

 

So you adjusted your bets based on card count?

[SRF]

So you adjusted your bets based on card count?

 

Why else would you count cards?????

[Kevin]

True, but if you play the right way, it's the best odds in the house at 50/50 dealer/player.

Even playing perfect there is no set of Blackjack rules that do not have a house edge.

 

If you know the casinos specific rules you can calculate the house edge here: https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/calculator/

[rabidstoat]

Royal likes their $6 minimum on the 6:5 table. Their hope is that people will put the $1 on Lucky Ladies, as that has abysmal payout odds. Second best is that people will bet the $6 on the hand, and lose the $0.20 on a blackjack. Some people will stubbornly bet $10 minimum to not lost the few measly cents extra Royal is willing to part with on a blackjack.

 

I don't like people being rude in general at the tables, but people should especially not be rude over anything, strategy-wise, that a player at the $6 minimum tables does. That's where the beginners play to learn. That's also where sometimes people just screw around even though they know better, like the guy I saw who was quite knowledgeable but started deviating from basic strategy after the dealer was winning repeatedly on really unlikely hands. His joking logic: "If the dealer is playing unconventional, so am I!" (He actually did start doing better, coincidentally.)

 

But in general, sheesh, I wish people didn't obsess over how others are playing at the minimum table. I don't care how "if they played by strategy the dealer would've busted, they ruined the whole table!" Because sometimes they play crazy and the dealer loses, whereas basic strategy would've had the dealer win. It cuts both ways.

 

Though funny story. I was playing at the minimum bet table during the middle of the day, and a couple of guys were grousing about how this woman got two tens against a dealer's showing eight, and decided to split them. They said after that hand -- which ended up with everyone losing where they were convinced if basic strategy was followed everyone would have one -- all four other players at the table quietly left and decided to play at a higher limit table. They didn't seem super upset or anything, but one of them was astonished enough to mention it. Gamblers, after all, are a suspicious lot with their quirks.

 

Later that evening I was at the low minimum table again, and there was a woman there who was obviously a beginner. She would ask questions and was slowly picking up on basic strategy as we and the dealer offered advice when sought. At one point she told a story about how earlier that afternoon when she was just starting out she split two tens, and how everyone at the table left after that, which is how she learned she wasn't supposed to do that. And I blurted out, "Oh wow, I heard about you, I heard that story, you're famous!"

 

Poor woman looked a touch embarrassed. I assured her it was no big deal, it's a minimum table and that's where beginners play, if people are hard over at a $6 table that's their problem. I still think it was hilarious that I heard the story from both perspectives in the space of a few hours!