Thanks for the advice. I actually left for the weekend before reading it, so I went ahead with 1-4. I use balanced ZEN with 12 of the major indexes (excluding splitting 10s) I don't track Aces separately. The casino is southern California (PM me for the name) and it was very nice, they welcomed me with open arms as my green chipping action was not unusual because they get a lot of it. They casino hosts were so nice and comped my food and room. I lost on day 1 but won on day 2 and left with a net $500 win (keep in mind I bet for the dealer a lot so it eats into my profits, but I like to do it) I get the feeling I could play here for a long time. The players were also very nice to me. They all seem like regulars there. There was one guy who made a comment when I spread two hands but he wasn't rude, he just left the table.
The penetration was consistent b/c they had the plastic tray with the mark on it, but it was good b/c the mark was at 68% and the tables had 4 to 5 people so when there is one or two cards left before the cut card they would deal another round which penetrated to about 75%. Late surrender was nice to have. I surrendered only about 8 times though but most of the time it was the right move. I highly recommend this casino even if you spread 1 to 8 because they are very friendly and very loose.
My regular casino (which is closer to where I live than this one) does not take late surrender but they don't use the plastic tray marker. The dealers put the cut card very deep and most of them deal out 75% to 80%. So I guess this makes up for not having late surrender???
This casino that I went to this weekend has a $100 minimum game which you guys will drool over because it's SINGLE deck with the same rules (i.e. late surrender, DAS, double any two, H17). But I would be more careful about spreading at these tables. Maybe use "depth charging". It looked like decent penetration (66% to 70%) If anyone wants me to play with you at this game (I'll be the friend who shows you my cards and asks you what to do). I always asks people what they have and most of the time they show me. I run into a lot of card "trackers" who don't really count but they try to get a feel for the amount of high cards that have been played so I flash them my cards and they flash me theirs and then the whole table starts doing it.
I get away with a lot b/c I'm a friendly, attractive asian woman. I like to laugh and have fun with the other players and dealers.