What strategy for Pharaoh's Casino single-deck?

[FredMSloniker]

I'm trying to get the right basic strategy engine chart for Pharaoh's Casino's one-deck blackjack, since the ad for it at the bottom proclaims A basic strategy player has an advantage of 0.11% in this game! However, I can't seem to find a chart that actually gives me a 0.11% advantage. I put in "Single Deck, S17, DA2, DAS, OBO, No surrender", which appears to correspond to the rules at (Dead link: http://www.pharaohscasino.com/help/multiplayer/odbj.html) _their website_, but I get told that the house edge is -0.15%. (Is that the same thing as a 0.15% advantage for me?) Trying "No DAS" (the only rule I'm not sure of from my reading) changes that to -0.02%. Has Pharaoh's Casino changed their rules since the ad blurb was written? Am I pushing the wrong button? And on an unrelated note, why does the boss suggest Sands of the Carribean instead?

 

[hiimdoug]

I went to the site, and I didn’t see anything that proclaimed an .11% advantage… could ya point me to the ad, or to where they state you have a .11% advantage. Thanks - douglas

 

[KenSmith]

Why the Engine says 0.15% instead of 0.11%

The Strategy Engine assumes that you are able to split up to 3 times, making 4 hands. At Pharaoh's you may only split once. That's the reason for the discrepancy between the edge displayed.

The correct number: A player at the Pharaoh's single deck does has an advantage of 0.11% over the casino.

I hope to make some time this summer to play that game extensively and blog about the experience. I'm too buried with other projects at the moment to commit the time to it.

If you're looking for the link, it's at the bottom of this page: http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bjbse.php

 

[FredMSloniker]

The light is shed. Thank you much!

 

[downunder_dan]

So, for strategy at Pharoahs we should be using

Single Deck, S17, DA2, DAS, OBO, No surrender

?

Regards,
D

Also can someone xplain Pharoahs 25x (deposit + bonus) playthrough to me?
Does this mean if the initial deposit it $50 + $30 bonus that you simply have to bet $2000 on the game ($80*25) BEFORE you can withdraw?

 

[KenSmith]

Correct

Dan, that is the correct rule set for the strategy.

As for the bonus rules, the new description of the terms on their site is pretty confusing. But I'm pretty sure that once you've wagered 25x deposit+bonus (the $2000 in your example), you're all set, and the entire balance is yours to withdraw whenever you would like. Note that wagering on single-deck blackjack doesn't count for the requirements.

If I were a first-time depositor, I think I would play through the required amount at regular blackjack before switching to single-deck, even though their terms say you can play single-deck with your deposit money prior to meeting the bonus requirements. What is unclear is what would happen if you ran out of your deposit money and had only bonus money left at single-deck.

If you want to play single-deck before meeting the requirements, I'd ask them for clarification on how it really works.

 

[downunder_dan]

What would be the best "betting strategy" to play on a game such as Pharoah's ?

( i know what I'm doing doesn't seem to be working )

D

 

[raymondc]

tricky part of wagering requirement at BossMedia casinos

Ken,

I am about to begin playing at the BossMedia casinos: Pharoah's and Cowboy. However I have the same doubt as you mentioned.

I just deposited the minimums (minimum amounts to get the most bonuses) of $30 to Pharoah's and $75 to Cowboy and got the maximum of 100% match bonuses they offered. According to their terms and conditions, the wagering requirement for withdrawing bonuses and all winnings made by bonues are 25 times and 15 times respectively. So the wagering requirements should be 25x($30+$30) = $1,500 at Pharoah's and 15x($75+$75) = $2,250 at Cowboy respectively.

With the small sums of $60 and $150 on my Pharoah's and Cowboy accounts it's really risky to lose them all playing the normal games. So I plan to play the One Deck Blackjack first hopefully build up the balance to say $500 before I go on to play other normal games to satisfy the wagering requirements. Then I'll come back to play the One Deck Blackjack again hopefully to win more (I have tried this with the Practice mode for some time and am pretty confident in achieving it).

However after I have read their detailed Terms and Conditions today I became quite confused and lost the confidence I had before. The Terms and Conditions of Cowboy Casino state this: "At Cowboy Casino certain games are excluded from reaching the wagering level required. The games are: Mini Baccarat, One Deck Blackjack and Craps. Any winnings on these games before you have reached the wagering requirement will be considered a deposit for the purpose of calculating the wagering level and must be wagered according the the terms of the bonus before you can withdraw the bonus."

The Terms & Conditions of Pharoah's Casino are even more unclear. They only say that playing One Deck Blackjack does not count towards the wagering requirement.

So what does that mean? If I successfully run the balance from $150 to $500 by One Deck Blackjack at Cowboy Casino, does it mean that I have to further wager 15x$500 = $7,500 instead of the original 15x$150 = $2,250 before I can withdraw the bonus and the winnings due to the bonus?

I think the online casinos are trying to gloss over this detail and mislead people into mis-calculation and making mistakes.

 

[KenSmith]

That's a bad addition to the terms at Cowboy Casino, and I wouldn't wager a dime at Single Deck until I had finished my requirements.

While I understand your point about wanting to play single deck to build up your balance, there's another issue. Last time I played the single deck, the minimum was $5, while at the 6-deck game the minimum was $1. If you're willing to put in the time at $1 per hand, your risk of ruin will be much lower at the regular blackjack because of the smaller bet size.

My recommendation is to play regular blackjack both places until you've met the requirements. Then you can switch to single deck with no worries.

 

[raymondc]

confusion of wagering requirement in general

I found most online casinos do not clarify their qualifying wagering requirement for bonus withdrawal clearly.

Most of them say that wagering requirement is a certain times of (deposit + bonus).

There are always upper limit on those percentage based match bonus.

So for example, say at Pharoah's Casino, the welcome bonus is 100% up to a maximum of $30. And the bonus wagering requirement is 25 times (bonus+deposit). Which means that:

deposit $10 get bonus $10 (total: $20; wagering requirement: 25x$20=$500)
deposit $20 get bonus $20 (total: $40; wagering requirement: 25x$40=$1,000)
deposit $30 get bonus $30 (total: $60; wagering requirement: 25x$60=$1,500)
deposit $40 get bonus $30 (total: $70; wagering requirement???)

If players get $30 bonus whether they deposit $30 or $40 or $100 or $1000 but the wagering requirement is calculated on all of the deposit+bonus, is it unfair to the players?

The case becomes even more complicated if you make further deposits after the initial one before reaching the wagering requirement. Plus the excluded games consideration it looks like that the subject of meeting online casino wagering requirement is more subtle than the subject of Blackjack card counting. But the online casinos deliberately gloss over such subtle details in their Terms and Conditions.

IMO, the casinos have the right to set unfair terms for players but they should have explained it clearly and accurately instead of glossing over them to trick the players into false perceptions.

 

[raymondc]

Answers from support

I just emailed the support of both Pharoah's and Cowboy.

They replied me BRIEFLY as follows:

Thank you for contacting Cowboy Casino support.

With regards to your email I will have to inform you that the wagering requirements are what you are encountering depending on your deposit.

15 x deposit + bonus.

If there are any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best regards,

Maria
Casino Support Representative

The reply from Pharoah's was nearly the same. Interestingly the replier was also called Maria.

From the reply it seems that the worse case (for the player) is true. And unfortunately they did not answer me on the One Deck Blackjack question (whether winnings by one deck blackjack are added to the principal to calculate the wagering requirement.

I can't help but assume the worse case is true, and follow Ken's recommendation to not touch the Single Deck before satisfying the wagering requirements.

 

[KenSmith]

Rule Number One in Playing Online

Ken's Rule Number One in Playing at Online Casinos

If a rule is vague and ambiguous, you can safely assume that whatever interpretation is most beneficial to the casino will be used.

Well, it's nearly always true at least.

As for the 'Maria' at both places, many of the casinos use a single customer support center, so it could be that you're interacting with the same person. However, I've always treated the names on any correspondence from online casinos as basically fiction.