The quality of blackjack games in Las Vegas has declined over the past 15 years. The availability of strategy information over the internet has forced casinos to drop some of the more liberal rules. Casinos first started hitting on soft 17. Some stopped offering surrender or re-splitting aces in shoe games.
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- May 07, 2010 Detroit area casino reviews NB: This entry is as complete as I can make it. If you have any comments, suggestions, or additions, feel free to add them below. History: There are four full-service casinos in the Detroit area. All are within three miles of each other on both sides of the Detroit/Windsor international border.
- The house edge against a basic strategy player in a 3-2 single-deck game is a function of the mix of playing rules. The best single-deck games have h17 (dealer hits soft 17), and allow players to resplit aces. The house edge in this game is a meager 0.13%. Second best is an h17 game without resplit aces (house edge: only 0.18%).
The biggest rule change that goes against players was rolled out first at single deck games. This terrible rule started paying players 6:5 on a blackjack, as opposed to 3:2. This means that a $10 blackjack would pay $12 instead of $15. Once the casinos got away with this at single deck games, the 6:5 rule started infecting double deck and shoe games.
While some Las Vegas casinos offer terrible rules on blackjack these days, there are still several places where a good game may be found. Some are even on the Las Vegas Strip, although some of the better ones are located downtown or in the locals market. All of the games mentioned below pay 3:2 on a blackjack.
Best Las Vegas Strip Blackjack
Treasure Island is the best Las Vegas Strip casino for blackjack. Players will find $10 games with great rules. The shoe games offer surrender, re-split aces, and double down after splitting. The double deck games allow double down after splitting. These low limit games hit a soft 17.
Players willing to move up to $50 can move to the high limit salon. They will get a shoe game with double down after splitting, re-split aces, and surrender. The dealer stand on all 17’s in this game. The high limit double deck starts at $50 and allows double down after splitting. The dealer stands on all 17’s.
SLS Las Vegas spreads good $15 blackjack dealt from a shoe. Players can double down on any two cards and after splitting. Surrender and re-split aces are also permitted. The dealer hits soft 17. This game is offered in the high limit salon for $100 where the dealer stands on all 17’s.
Blackjack Games Casino
Aria, Mirage and MGM Grand offer the same games hot on soft 17 games as SLS Las Vegas for $25. For $50, MGM Grand and Bellagio offer it where the dealer stands on all 17’s. It is $100 at Mirage and $200 at Aria and Mandalay Bay.
A $100 minimum will get a double deck pitch game at Mirage and MGM Grand where players can double down after splitting and the dealer stands on all 17’s. Aria and Bellagio have this game for $200.
Best Downtown Las Vegas Blackjack
El Cortez offers the best blackjack game in downtown Las Vegas. It is a single deck that pays 3:2 on a blackjack. Players can double down on any two cards and the dealer hits soft 17. The minimum bet is usually $5. Be careful in this game as the pit bosses will sweat large action or bet spreads.
Downtown Grand offers the best shoe games downtown. For a $5 minimum, players can double down after splitting, re-split aces and surrender.
Plaza offers regular $5 blackjack that pays 3-2. Players can double down on any two cards and after splitting. This game can also be found at Golden Gate during slow periods.
Best Las Vegas Locals Blackjack
The competition in the off-strip blackjack market is fierce. Players will be able to find shoe games that start at $5 or $10 where double down after splitting, surrender, and re-split aces at are allowed at Cannery, Eastside Cannery, Rampart, Aliante Casino and Arizona Charlie’s. All Station Casinos properties offer this game without re-split aces. The dealer hits soft 17 in these games.
M Resort offers a $50 double deck game where players can double down before and after splitting, as well as re-split aces. This game stands on all 17’s This is the best blackjack game in Las Vegas. There is also a six-deck shoe game that adds surrender.
Station Casinos properties offer double deck blackjack where players can double down after splitting. M Resort offers the same game. The dealer hits soft 17. Suncoast, The Orleans, Gold Coast, South Point and Silverton also spread this game.
Best Blackjack Online Casino Usa
Best Video Blackjack in Las Vegas
El Cortez offers the best video blackjack machine in Las Vegas. It hits on all 17’s, allows surrender, and splits up to three hands. Double down on any two cards and after splitting is permitted. The minimum bet is just $1. This El Cortez game also accepts a players card for comps and points on this machine.
The ten worst blackjack games–and the casinos that (have the nerve to) offer them
By Henry Tamburin
In the May issue of Casino Player I revealed the ten best blackjack games in the country, and gave kudos to the casinos that offer them. This month, I’ll turn the tables and tell you the ten worst blackjack games, and which casinos offer them.
As I did last month, to compile this information I used the database of blackjack games in Stanford Wong’s Current Blackjack News (with the editor’s permission, of course). CBJN uses paid reporters to visit casinos throughout the country and record the rules for blackjack games. This information is tabulated by region and summarized monthly, and the electronic newsletter is emailed to subscribers around the globe.
The primary factor that determines whether a blackjack game is “bad” is the house edge. The latter represents the percentage of the initial amount wagered that a player should theoretically lose.
Generally, blackjack games that have a house edge of half a percent or less for basic strategy players are good games. A blackjack game with a house edge greater than half a percent is considered a bad game. Surprisingly, ten blackjack games in this country have a downright terrible house edge of 1.90% to 2.90%. You are about to learn what the rules are for these games, which make them so awful–and which casinos have the gall to offer them.
It shouldn’t surprise you that these horrible games have one common rule: they all pay 6-5 for a blackjack, instead of the normal 3-2. Many times I’ve written and preached about how bad 6-5 blackjack games are for players, and I encourage you to never play this rip-off game. However, if you insist on throwing your money away, I’ve got a list of nearly 30 casinos in the table below that will gladly take your money on their 6-5 games.
It’s bad enough that many casinos in this country are ruining the game of blackjack with their 6-5 single-deck games, but it really takes cojones to offer 6-5 payouts in a six- or eight-deck game. Oh, and how about this for even bigger cojones: two casinos have the audacity to pay only even money for a blackjack (no, I’m not kidding).
Here’s a summary of the worst blackjack games and the casinos that offer them, from the tenth worst to the #1 worst game. As you will see, the list includes a variety of single-, double-, five-, six-, and eight-deck games.
Notes:
- I abbreviated the rules … see the Table of Abbreviation for details.
- The house edge is as reported in CBJN.
- Some games have slightly different rules but the same house edge (e.g., the eight-deck and six-deck games in #9).
- This study did not include blackjack games that charge a fee per hand.
TEN WORST BLACKJACK GAMES
| Number | House Edge | Decks | Rules | Casinos Offering Game |
| 10 | 1.90% | 2 5 | h17, 6-5 h17, 6-5, ds, rsa, csm | Fitzgeralds, Downtown LVTropicana, LV Western, Downtown LV Buffalo Bill’s, Primm, NV Primm Valley, Primm, NV Whiskey Pete’s, Primm, NV Roadhouse, Tunica, MS |
| 9 | 1.92% | 8 6 | h17, 6-5, ds, ls h17, 6-5, ds, rsa | Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, LVFour Queens, Downtown LV Stratosphere, LV |
| 8 | 1.94% | 8 | h17, 6-5, ds, rsa | Harrah’s, Reno, NVMontbleu, S. Lake Tahoe, NV MGM Grand, Detroit, MI |
| 7 | 1.99% | 6 6 | h17, 6-5, ds h17, 6-5, ds, csm | Fitzgeralds, Downtown LVFlamingo, LV Hard Rock, LV Harrah’s, LV Sahara, LV Excalibur, LV Hard Rock, LV Imperial Palace, LV |
| 6 | 2.02% | 8 8 | h17, 6-5, ds h17, 6-5, ds, csm | Bally’s, LVBinion’s, Downtown LV Fitzgeralds, Downtown, LV Golden Nugget, Downtown, LV Harrah’s, LV Luxor, LV New York New York, LV O’Sheas, LV Harvey’s, S. Lake Tahoe, NV Binion’s, Downtown, LV |
| 5 | 2.12% | 6 | h17, 6-5 | Western, Downtown LV |
| 4 | 2.15% | 6 | h17, 6-5, nrs | Hooters, LV |
| 3 | 2.39% | 1 | h17, 6-5, d11, nrs | Prairie Band, Topeka, KS |
| 2 | 2.50% | 1 | h17, 21e | Poker Palace, N. LV |
| 1 | 2.90% | 6 | h17, 21e, ds | Grand Sierra, Reno, NV |
In defense of the casinos on the above list, let me add that they may also offer a good blackjack game alongside the bad ones (e.g., Roadhouse in Tunica has a very good single-deck game with a measly 0.18% house edge, and a very ugly 5-deck, csm game with a 1.90% house edge). This is why it’s important to scout the blackjack tables in a casino, and play only games that have the best rules with the lowest house edge.
If, by chance, you happen to be in one of the casinos that offer terrible blackjack games (not to play them, I hope), I encourage you to get the attention of the pit boss and tell him about his atrocious game. Tell him that you and your friends will be playing blackjack elsewhere, where they offer a fair game to players. (Say it loudly so that the poor suckers who happen to be playing these games will overhear you.)
As for why a casino would offer such a terrible blackjack game, a casino manager at a gaming conference in Las Vegas once smugly told me: “If the public is going to play these games, why wouldn’t we offer them?” (This same casino boss encouraged his peers at the conference to “push the envelope and offer 6-5 payouts on six- and eight-deck games.”)
Blackjack players have only themselves to blame for these horrible games. Trust me, if players “walk the walk” and stop playing these horrific so-called blackjack games, they would disappear from the casino floor. Unfortunately, as long as players keep playing them, casinos will continue to offer them.
Until next month, play (only) good games, and I wish you good cards.
Acknowledgement
I want to acknowledge my son Kevin who painstakingly ranked all the casinos in the different regions by their house edge from the database in Current Blackjack News.
ABBREVIATIONS
| ABBREVIATION | RULE |
| h17 | Dealer hits soft 17 |
| 6-5 | Untied blackjacks pay 6-5 |
| ds | Player may double down after pair splitting |
| rsa | Player may resplit Aces (usually to a maximum of four hands) |
| ls | Player may surrender his initial two-card hand provided the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack; known as late surrender |
| csm | Cards dealt from a continuous shuffling machine |
| nrs | Respilts not allowed |
| d11 | Double down allowed only on two-card 11. |
| 21e | Untied blackjacks pay even money |
Tamburin’s Tip of the Month
One of the most frustrating hands in blackjack is a 12 against a dealer’s 2 upcard. If your 12 happens to be a pair of 6s, you should always split against a dealer’s 2 with this exception: in a multi-deck game, hit if the rules specify “no das.” If your 12 consists of 10-2, 9-3, 8-4, or 7-5, your best play is to hit against a dealer 2. However, many players balk at hitting because they are afraid to bust.
Here are some percentages that will reassure you that hitting is the better play. (I’ll use a six-deck game with s17 as an example.) Your average expectation over all two-card 12s (except the pair of 6s) for standing against a dealer 2 is –29%, and for hitting, it’s –25%. The expectation for hitting is 4% less negative than for standing; therefore, you will lose less money in the long run when you hit 12 against a 2 rather than stand.
Surely, you’ll bust some of the time when you hit a 12, but at the end of the day, you’ll wind up losing less than if you chickened out and always stood on 12 against the dealer’s 2.
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Henry Tamburin is the editor of Blackjack Insider Newsletter (www.bjinsider.com), Lead Instructor for the Golden Touch Blackjack Course (www.goldentouchblackjack.com), and host of www.smartgaming.com. For a free three-month subscription to his blackjack newsletter, go to www.bjinsider.com/freetrial.com.