? About BJ at Indian Casinos

[jgelona]

Here in Oklahoma, I've visited a few of the Indian Casinos. They have shoes and auto/continuous shuffle machines. I haven't played the shuffle machines, I really don't like them.

However, the shoe games are pretty standard. 6 Deck, DAS, DA2, resplit (even Aces) upto 4 hands, Dealer Stands on All 17. The only down side is they charge an Ante of 50 cents per hand that goes to house. Games are $2 to $100 min. How good/bad is this game. Is there a point, i.e. $25 per hand where the ante "doesn't hurt". Basically I don't tip the dealers like I do in Vegas to make up for it.

Any advice would be great.

 

[ihate17]

Too expensive

Here in Oklahoma, I've visited a few of the Indian Casinos. They have shoes and auto/continuous shuffle machines. I haven't played the shuffle machines, I really don't like them.

However, the shoe games are pretty standard. 6 Deck, DAS, DA2, resplit (even Aces) upto 4 hands, Dealer Stands on All 17. The only down side is they charge an Ante of 50 cents per hand that goes to house. Games are $2 to $100 min. How good/bad is this game. Is there a point, i.e. $25 per hand where the ante "doesn't hurt". Basically I don't tip the dealers like I do in Vegas to make up for it.

Any advice would be great.

The ante makes a decent game, horrible. If your average bet is $25, 50 cents is 2%, so it is like giving the house an extra 2% edge.
Look at it this way, as a non counter you are playing a game where the house edge is .33%. In an hour of play, at $25 per hand, playing 60 hands per hour, you would put $1500 into play. Losing at a rate of .33%, you should lose an average of $5 per hour, but you would also be paying an additional $30 in ante, making your loss 7 times what it should have been.

As a counter getting a 1.5% edge on this game, you should be making $22.50 per hour, but the ante would still make a loser ($7.50) out of you.

As a $100 counter, you should make $90 per hour but it would be reduced to $60.

The break even amount for a cardcounter who can get (and most will not get this edge) a 1.5% edge is about a $35 bet.

ihate17

 

[Preston]

The ante further cuts in because to beat this you are going to be using a 1-10 spread and I wouldn't play anything less than $5 a hand.. 50 cents on a $2 bet is ridiculous.

If the bet is over $50 (10 u) the ante goes up to $1.

It is actually best to avoid the games in Oklahoma. Just my opinion. The poker rooms are pretty juicy thouugh.

How close are you to Shreveport? Might be a better idea to head that way.

 

[NDN21]

About BJ

About the most I do at Oklahoma casino's is stand around and practice counting in a casino environment, estimate decks left, test my speed, etc..

Once in a while, about a month before I go to Kansas, New Mexico, or La., I will take about $80-120 and play for a bit. More to identify weaknesses than to try to win.

I am about $20 ahead with the ante, without I would be $320+ ahead. Over $300 of my winnings have been eaten up by that ante. '

But Oklahoma will get full casino gambling soon. Maybe within a year or two, with the massive shortfall of the Oklahoma budget the government is going to need all the $ it can get.

When that happens I will be prepared.

 

[Cardcounter]

The ante kills you.

They charge you a 50 cent ante? I have question if you bust is automatically a loser or could you get a push is the dealer bust also?
With the 50 cent a hand ante you will never be able to beat the game the price on your small bets will be as high as 10%. Using a betting spread will not help you enough to get over it. You could get similar rules in Vegas without an ante.

 

[NDN21]

About

The ante is there..............whether you win or lose.

No push if you and the dealer bust. You still lose.

It's a bad, bad game. But the other conditions are enough like a non-ante casino that I can go to practice to find weaknesses........once in a great while.

The ante is supposed to be what the casino makes their profit from, not the actual take from the player but just from the ante.

The state also gets their cut from the $.50 ante so I doubt it will be going away unless there is a change in the laws of the state.

Also there are supposed to no games of chance in Oklahoma but just games of skill.

Yet Oklahoma has the lottery and gambling on sports (oklahoma's governor and the Texas' governor bet on the outcome of the OU-Texas football game every year, it's illegal but the authorities do nothing about it).

18+ to play also.

 

[ihate17]

NDN21, do the casinos bank the game?

When the Indian casinos in California had an ante, I never played in them as the ante was more than enough to keep me away, so I really am not sure how they worked.
What I see in some poker clubs in California is a player banked game with an ante. The house makes money on the ante but are not banking the game. In OK if the casino is both banking the game (receiving the benifit of the house edge built into the rules) and also receiving the ante, they are doing very very well.

ihate17

 

[jgelona]

About BJ at Indian Casinos

Thanks for the replies. I figured it wasn't good, just not that bad. I'll probably just stick to playing tournaments at the Indian Casinos. Again, thanks for the answers.