No doubling down on soft hands at Casino de Barcelona?

[HarryLime]

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?

[shadroch]

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

www.wizardofodds.com

[SuperTrump]

Originally Posted by HarryLime

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?

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.

[HarryKuntz]

Originally Posted by SuperTrump

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.

[Percy]

Originally Posted by HarryKuntz

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?

[HarryKuntz]

Originally Posted by Percy

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.