Antes in Blackjack

[DoubleDown27]

It seems more and more States are adopting antes in Blackjack. I heard California card rooms now play blackjack with a $1 ante for bets under $25 and $2 antes with bets over $25.

Indian casinos in Oklahoma are requiring a 50 cent antes per hand on $5 minimum games and casinos run by charities are requiring 25 cent antes per hand on $2 minimum games.

How can these games be beat, regardless of the other rules in force, such as when you can double and split?

 

[Blue Efficacy]

It seems more and more States are adopting antes in Blackjack. I heard California card rooms now play blackjack with a $1 ante for bets under $25 and $2 antes with bets over $25.

Indian casinos in Oklahoma are requiring a 50 cent antes per hand on $5 minimum games and casinos run by charities are requiring 25 cent antes per hand on $2 minimum games.

How can these games be beat, regardless of the other rules in force, such as when you can double and split?

Short answer is they cannot be beat.

 

[bjcounter]

The correct answer to the question is always this:

"By NOT playing them, they CAN be beat."

When no one plays these games, they go away. They are a plague like 6:5. When people don't play them, they will go away.

 

[Blue Efficacy]

That's unrealistic, though. Sadly, some people will play the ante games no matter what, since they're the only game in town in some instances.

 

[irobinson]

The CA card rooms are banked by some corporation and not the house.

At any rate, ante games are usually there because of some state regulation. CA Indian casinos used to have an ante when the state made them have it (something like they were not allowed to make money at the game or something like that - I supposed the ante helped them pay for the game. They used to have crazy promotions like 3 blackjacks in a row wins $1000.00 and other stuff).

Anyway....

 

[Pro21]

The games in the CA card rooms are not blackjack. You might be able to beat them some by banking the games.

 

[DoubleDown27]

The games in the CA card rooms are not blackjack. You might be able to beat them some by banking the games.

Pro21, what do you mean by "Banking the Games"?

 

[moo321]

It seems more and more States are adopting antes in Blackjack. I heard California card rooms now play blackjack with a $1 ante for bets under $25 and $2 antes with bets over $25.

Indian casinos in Oklahoma are requiring a 50 cent antes per hand on $5 minimum games and casinos run by charities are requiring 25 cent antes per hand on $2 minimum games.

How can these games be beat, regardless of the other rules in force, such as when you can double and split?

You could get a tiny advantage back-counting and slamming bets down at high TC's. And when I say slamming, I mean you should probably be betting table max.

$200 bet at +5 is about break-even depending on the rules.

Not at all worth your time if you have to money to beat it.

Playing-all, you probably can't even get an edge spreading min to multiple hands of max.

 

[Pro21]

Technically the casino is not allowed to gamble so they can not bank the game. The players bet among themselves and the house charges a fee for each hand. Some people have formed corporations to sit on every table 24 hours per day and take the "bank" so players have someone to bet against, but every player is allowed to be the banker when it is his turn. You take the bank position as often as you can, and bet as little as possible (or sit out hands) when someone else has the bank. You might make some small money doing this, but if you have a big BR and try to do this in a serious way the corporation will have you thrown out. The corporations have agreements with the casinos, and are often kicking back money.

 

[Cardcounter]

A game with an ante is impossible to beat long term especially antes of a $1 for a $25 bet that is 4%. Gambling is choice not a necesity so you could always avoid the game by not playing it even if it is the only game in town.