Las Vegas blackjack survey

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Las Vegas blackjack survey

The Wizard Of Odds blackjack survey, which lists the rules, house edge and minimum bet of most (all?) Las Vegas blackjack games, is a good resource for anyone heading out there with a view to playing decent value blackjack. At the time of writing this the last update was in January 2016.

The notorious blackjack 6:5 rule, previously limited to single deck, has now metastasized and can be found in all games; the high end “Aria” casino has an eight-deck game with BJs paying 6:5 with a house edge with perfect play of over 2%, which actually is not a blackjack record. The Mirage and Monte Carlo both have six deck games where blackjacks pay even money. How they justify even calling this “blackjack” is a mystery to me. The house edge, with perfect play, is a record-breaking, wallet-annihilating 2.8%.

At the other end of the scale, the Mirage has a six-deck game with excellent rules and a house edge of just 0.28%, which I think also might be a record. The downside is that the minimum bet is $100, which actually makes the Aria game, with its $10 minimum for that wretched 6:5 offering, a slightly better proposition for anyone playing the minimum bet. Bally’s, slightly off-Strip, has the same game with a $25 minimum.

On the main Strip area you won’t find a game with the typical approximate 0.5% house edge with a minimum bet lower than $25, although the Excalibar has an eight deck game with reasonable rules starting at $15. For genuine (non-6:5) double deck games on the strip, the lowest minimum bet is $50.

To find decent games with low minimums you have to move well away from the Strip. The top prize goes to El Cortez, which offers a genuine single decker with restrictive rules (H17 and no DAS) but full 3:2 payments on blackjacks, with a house edge of 0.3% and $5 minimums. There are marginally lower house edges elsewhere but that minimum bet is remarkable, costing an average of just 1.5 cents per hand with perfect play. This is about as good as it gets anywhere. I suspect that these tables are routinely packed, in which case you’ll need to master the art of long waiting followed by an agile nip into any seat which becomes available. You can find the exact basic strategy for this game in my 1 deck, H17, DOA, no DAS chart - remember that single deck basic strategy is a little different to the generic game. El Cortez won the Las Vegas Review Journal’s “Best Of Las Vegas” 2016 category for table games. They appear to have won this award in past years, which suggests that the property markets itself in part on its good blackjack games, which in turn suggests that this quality offering will be here for the foreseeable future.

If your minimum bet sits around the $100 region there are almost no games you don’t have access to. The Mirage, MGM, Mandalay Bay, Aria and Bellagio have double deckers with house edges of 0.25% and minimums starting at that level. If you’re a medium to high roller it makes absolute sense to take advantage of these quality games: a healthy two thousand hand weekend of -0.25% double deck blackjack with see you losing an average of just five hands. Given the volatility of the game, you’ll take home some serious wins along the way if you play accurately.

For myself, if and when I go back to Las Vegas I'll be heading for El Cortez.

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