Best Player Advantage Rules

mdw

Well-Known Member
#1
It would be nice to know in advance of a trip to Las Vegas, which casinos have the better player advantage rules. It must change from time to time. Any information would always be appreciated. Post away. Thanks
 

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
#2
Current Vegas conditions

I'm planning on doing a lot of scouting and reporting on the Las Vegas casinos when I'm there in May. Meanwhile, anyone feel free to pass along current conditions.

Also, here's a free resource that is helpful though often out of date:
http://blackjack.skister.com/

The best games I'm aware of at the moment in Las Vegas are downtown, with excellent double-deck games available at the Plaza and the Las Vegas Club.
 
#3
Plaza Pen....

Andy Lang comp'd me three days last week at the Plaza and the DD game pen was 60%, 3/2,DOA,DAS,S17...not what I would call a good game. Of course this could change daily, but it remained the same for my 3 day visit. I just stiffed him on the playing time and played at nugget...H17, LS,DOA,3/2, DAS and a 70% pen...good game as far as I'm concerned. I burnt that bridge but pick-up a future comp at the nugget. I'm not worried because the Plaza is a dump and easy to get rated if you are lucky enough to find a playable game during a downtown roadtrip.

Best, Bubba
 

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
#4
Sounds like things have tightened up at the Plaza since my last report from there. No surprise really. Change is the only certainty in game conditions.
 

Mackhack

Well-Known Member
#6
I would say downtown casinos have the best odds for you right now. I went lest weekend, 2 weeks ago, 4 weeks ago and 8 weeks ago to Vegas. A lot of tables have 8 decks and a very low penentration.

I decided do don't play on the strip anymore as long as the odds are so bad.

I talked to a cashier at the MGM Grand and he said that the odds are really going down for the players and he thinks that is only in the short run good for the casino, but in the long run not.

And that's right, why should I drive to Vegas only to gamble if I have so many Indian Reservations here in San Diego County.
 

mdw

Well-Known Member
#7
Thank you Mack. We are flying out to Las Vegas this weekend for a week. Sounds like we need to head down town. My wife loves all of the casinos in vegas. So I am sure I will get dragged into each one. I plan to pay attention to what rules are where and try to post when I get back. We have a casino hear on the Seminole reservation, but no table games with the exception of poker. The slot machines are tied to some virtual bingo game going on. You must have bingo before your slot will pay out. Since it is the only game in town it is packed. I think they are trying to change the laws in Florida to accomodate table games. We have the casino cruises as well, but you need to plan around their schedule. I can see where in the long run the strip casinos may end up being penny wise and pound foolish. One of the shows on the satellite had an interesting statistic. Only about two percent of the visitors gamble that visit the mega casinos on the strip, but %80 percent of the visitors to vegas gamble on average 4 hours a day. Seems gamblers prefer a more intimate environment to play. Could this be the beginning of the end? Time will certainly tell. I appreciate your recent input.
 
#8
Games at the Rio

I just got back from Vegas. I was attending a conference at the Rio. I was suprised to see so many people playing $25, $50 $ $100 games of 6/5 single deck. Those tables were packed. They didn't even offer Stand on All 17. The rules were HS17, DAS, DOA. I was there 4.5 days and there were only a few shoe games, with manual shuffle, but they were standard rules with decent penetration, 4.5 to 5 decks.
 

Mikeaber

Well-Known Member
#9
<<Change>>

I was at the Plaza 5-11 thru 15. Their game is about like it was back in January. The slot cut in the discard holder allows a little leeway in pen....60% to around 75%. I probably played 30 hours there over the 3 days and 4 nights there. Most of the time, we were getting the deeper pen. I was at a $5 table with most of the players playing the minimum except for a high roller who was betting the $2,000 table limit Sunday morning EARLY (and they knew this guy). I lost my butt.....but blame it on variance and too much beer, and "no", I wasn't the $2000 player <LOL>. Andy is comping me 3 nights at the end of June, so I'll probably go back.

bubba22001 said:
Andy Lang comp'd me three days last week at the Plaza and the DD game pen was 60%, 3/2,DOA,DAS,S17...not what I would call a good game. Of course this could change daily, but it remained the same for my 3 day visit. I just stiffed him on the playing time and played at nugget...H17, LS,DOA,3/2, DAS and a 70% pen...good game as far as I'm concerned. I burnt that bridge but pick-up a future comp at the nugget. I'm not worried because the Plaza is a dump and easy to get rated if you are lucky enough to find a playable game during a downtown roadtrip.

Best, Bubba
 
#11
JWeber said:
I was in Vegas last week. I didn't play much, but all the single deck games are either 6:5 or 1:1, no matter where I went.
1:1?? Wow. Thats rediculous. Even church lawn fete's pay 2:1. Of course they win all ties. Anyone know what the house advantage is when BJ pays 2"1 and house wins ties? Can't be good thats for sure. Of course, I'm talking about church lawn fete's here. The bet spread is 1 to 5 dollars.

Mike
 

mdw

Well-Known Member
#12
We are back from Vegas. Did some day trips to the mountains on both sides of the valley, very beautiful areas and walked through a lot of casinos looking at tables to decide where to play. Here is what we found. No casinos along the strip are posting the rules at any tables with the exception of the soft 17 rule. You will need to ask.The Venetian did offer late surrender as well as the Ceasar's. This was on their shoe games. There are single deck games, but few post that they are 6/5 games. There are some casinos offering their own single deck games with there own made up rules including one game that deals you two hands and allows you to swap your two upcards, but what good is that if you have a 10/5 and a 10/3? Dealer wins pushes and blackjack is even money. These teaser games could not be in the players favor. If the casinos are doing a variation, a sure bet is the advantage goes to the house. Finding a 5 dollar game on the strip was next to impossible. Here are some of our other impressions. We found downtown, very seedy. The rules were much better, one casino boasting best rules in nevada. At night time, with the exception of the covered walkway, I would not want to have my bankroll, walking that neighborhood. It looks like you could get rolled at any time. The tables down town seemed dirty and worn out and the casinos were very smokey. We don't smoke, not good for BJ players in general. We also went to a few of the "Station" casinos. We like them the best. Not too high class like the strip casinos and not dumps like down town. They have good buffets too. Where we ended up doing most our play was a surprise. We went to Green Valley Ranch, featured on American Casino on the Discovery Channel just to see it. It is a beautiful, clean place, well worth the trip off the strip. No five dollar tables though. My wife asked a dealer at an empty $25 dollar table if there were any $5 dollar tables. The dealer politely said no, but the pit boss overheard the question and said if you want to play, this table is now a $5 dollar table. We sat and played for 2 hours. Both of us were up when we left. You can DAS, double on any hand, no surrender, and no auto shufflers. These are not the best player advantage rules, but for short term players and comps the "Station Casinos" have what we tourists look for. Notice, I said tourist not player. We continued to play at Green Valley the rest of our stay at $10 and $15 dollar tables. Without giving away details, we stayed for a week at a timeshare on the strip we won off of ebay. A week stay ended up being $180.00. I recommend keeping an eye on ebay for a place if you want to save some money and you have a little time to plan your trip. One thing that was a major put off, was some of the casinos on the strip had, people in blazers, appearing to be casino employees. They were however, timeshare sales people trying to sign you up for a free shows etc in exchange for visiting a timeshare sales pitch. It was a pain and a waste of time to keep repeating no thank you. This was even going on at the Venetian, one of the nicer looking places on the strip. If you are wondering, I was down a little at the end and my wife was up. It seems I should be a BS instructor not a player. Oh one last note. Most of the dealers, if you could understand them, will coach you in basic strategy. Every time I saw advice offered by a dealer when asked, it was accurate, even on doubling and splitting. Over all, we had a good week away. Did I mention it was hot? Over 100 everyday for the week. A record breaker and this was the end of May. I'd hate to be there in July or August.
 
#13
1:1?? Wow. Thats rediculous. Even church lawn fete's pay 2:1.
At least that's what the pit boss seemed to say when I asked him what it payed at El Cortez, where I was staying in the downtown area. The tables only had signs that stated they were blackjack tables, and the only rules on the felt were that a dealer hit soft 17s and insurance paid 2:1.

It's possible I could have misunderstood him, but I didn't bother playing there - I went to a neighboring casino with 3:2.

I DID browse through several of the big names on the strip, and to the best of my recollection, every single-deck game I saw had the 6:5 blackjack rule.
 
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