Thanks for your reply, but your comment was neither constructive nor informative.
But more importantly, not accurate.
There’s more to advantage play than mere numbers and rules, and you seem
to have a lot to learn.
I do play 8 decks regularly. However, I prefer the higher frequency of count
fluctuations in 6 decks.
Also, if the 8 deck nose-dives into the abyss, you have to wait a very long
time before the shoe ends, and therein lies the crux of my argument.
The time issue! In a day-trip, I usually arrive at the casino (or the area)
around 10:00 AM or 10:30 AM. I eat lunch around 1:00 PM or so.
I continue on until a dinner break around 7:00 PM or so. I try to drive out
around 9:00 PM. Over-night trips are different, obviously. When you
consider the time issue, the 6 decks gives a much higher frequency of
advantage situations than 8 decks. I would give up the small advantage of
surrender to save time. That’s where you missed my point. I traded the
surrender advantage for time because my time is very important to me.
Atlantic City has a handful of casinos that offer 6-decks, but I can’t play
there all the time or I’ll burn them out, so I reluctantly play 8-decks to
spread myself thin. I frequent Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun as well.
I don’t want to contradict myself, and I’m not, but I prefer Foxwoods over
Mohegan Sun, and the reason is because of the penetration, which is a
whole another topic all together.
When you play 6 or 8 decks, most of your winnings come from bet variations
when high-value cards pour out of the shoe and paint the table.
The contribution of rules, although not insignificant, can be overcome by
other factors. If you can put a dollar value to time, then I would much
prefer 6 decks that give you greater frequency of advantage situations.
Here’re some numbers for you to consider.
6 deck: -0.54 %
8 deck: -0.57 %
Surrender: 0.08 %
-0.57 % + 0.08 % = -0.49 %
0.49 % - 0.54 % = -0.05 %
When you consider the fact that each true count raises/lowers the
advantage by approximately 0.5%, the 0.05 % becomes negligible when
the time is taken into the equation.