No doubling down on soft hands at Casino de Barcelona?

Played a bit at the Casino de Barcelona last night and was surprised to find out you can ONLY double down on 9s, 10s, and 11s. What other casinos have these rules? What does this do to my odds?

Its not that uncommon.Check out this site for specfic costs of a rule

http://www.wizardofodds.com

Common rule in UK and most other European casinos!

Most games (HE 0.62%):

- 4-6 Decks
- S17 DAS RSA
- No dealer hole card
- Only hard doubles on 9,10,11
- No soft doubles
- 2 burn cards

Also (UK ONLY):

Prior to September 1, 2007, splitting fours, fives, and tens was not allowed. This only affected the basic strategy player with fours, increasing the house edge by 0.003%. The new law allows all splits and doubling on any first two cards although implementation is at the casinos discretion.

These rules aren't that common in the UK anymore, a few casino's still offer them but most now offer DOA and split any 2 cards. This is because these rules are +EV for the casino's as the average joe plays them wrong. ENHC still applies though.

What are the chances of them introducing a hole card to the UK? Pretty low I'm guessing.

It lowers HA and I can't see it leading ploppies into making more basic strategy errors.

It may also stop ploppies from jeopodising their hand for the sake of 'stopping the dealer getting a picture' or some rubbish like that. Even though a element of that exists in hole card games too.

The only reason I can see UK casinos introducing it is if it attracts more ploppies to the tables. Is that likely to happen though?

Would be interested to hear if anyone else has any thoughts...

Also, does anyone know if such a transition has occured in any other countries?

I don't think UK casino's will ever introduce a hole card game, I see ploppies doubling & spliting against dealer A's & 10's all the time, why would a casino give up this extra cash and make their game more vulnerble in the process? Also, most ploppies wouldn't know a good game if they saw one. The only hope is with the UK Gaming Commision, they could made a hole card game standard if they felt that ENHC is an unfair disadvantage to the punter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them.

Casino in Barcelona

I found this place atrocious.

CSM's everywhere even in the supposed high roller room which was full of the dumbest ploppies.

Ploppies in every direction.

Wouldnt play here ever. Spent my time at the beach instead and took a 50 euro flight to Prague where you can count, get good pen and double any two cards.

AN AP would never play in Barcelona.

I am from Spain and i can tell you that there are not many places to play with a decent advantage here.

Anyway, if you want to know where you can do that, just ask.

suck... Gran Casino

Charles Wells said:

I found this place atrocious.

CSM's everywhere even in the supposed high roller room which was full of the dumbest ploppies.

Ploppies in every direction.

Wouldnt play here ever. Spent my time at the beach instead and took a 50 euro flight to Prague where you can count, get good pen and double any two cards.

AN AP would never play in Barcelona.

Click to expand...

Hi Charles, well comment.
Since 10 years our families , my brother , my mother went to Spain near
Tarrogona.
Fist I was at Casino Sitges, played only Roulette.

After that they opened The Gran Casino, I went there because I knew a
little about counting and was exited about the Blackjack opportunities.

Many handshuffled tables no 1-2-6, trackable , sequenceble, I thought
that's like a Candy Store.
And my dream was, go there , live there by an income of BJ.

But every time often twice a year I came there the opportunities detoriated,
the shuffle was more complicated, first only a few 1-2-6 appeared, then
always more, very sad to see.

On the other hand, the tables are full, full of plopps.
The casino can do that.

Eh.