Best blackjack odds in Vegas

The single deck game at El Cortez has the best odds in Vegas with a $5 minimum. It is featured on five different tables. There are equivalent house edges on the strip but with $25 or $100 minimums. Wynn has an excellent game but it has a $500 minimum.
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The Las Vegas Blackjack Survey says the house edge is 0.18%.
1) Number of decks of cards used: 1
2) Dealer hits or stands on a soft 17: hits
3) Player can double after a split: no
4) Player can double on: any first two cards
5) Player can resplit to: The survey does not specify but assume 4 hands
6) Player can resplit aces: no
7) Player can hit split aces: The survey does not specify but assume yes
8) Player loses only original bet against dealer BJ: The survey does not specify but assume yes
9) Late surrender allowed: no
10) Blackjack pays: 3 to 2



But using the Blackjack House Edge Calculator as follows you get:
1) Number of decks of cards used: 1
2) Dealer hits or stands on a soft 17: hits
3) Player can double after a split: no
4) Player can double on: any first two cards
5) Player can resplit to: 4 hands
6) Player can resplit aces: no
7) Player can hit split aces: yes
8) Player loses only original bet against dealer BJ: yes
9) Late surrender allowed: no
10) Blackjack pays: 3 to 2

Optimal results:0.02166%
Realistic results: 0.17336%
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= The optimal results are based on perfect composition dependent strategy and the dealer shuffling after every hand, which benefits the player.
= The realistic resuts are based on total dependent basic strategy, like the tables on this site, and the use of a cut card, which favors the dealer.
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Their is a discrepancy between 0.17336% and 0.18%. The wizard cautions The Current Blackjack Newsletter is the source, [for the house edge in the survey] and may differ slightly from my Blackjack House Edge Calculator. It is not that one of us is right or wrong, but that blackjack is a difficult game to analyze, and differences in methodology can play a minor effect on the results.

I think that these are the same rules that go back to when Jackie Gaughan purchased the El Cortez in 1963. If the dealer had to stand on a soft 17, or was permitted to double after split the house edge would pretty much go to zero. Most other casinos that have single deck games have many more rules that hurt the player so that the edge is actually worse for the player than the multi-deck games.

I have to quibble with your results. I don't think the El Cortez allows drawing to split aces. This make the house edge .15176% optimal and .30306% realistic.
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In fact, the best 21 game for the "realistic" blackjack player (one who uses basic, total-dependent strategy and doesn't count) is at the Longhorn/Bighorn casinos with an edge of .25%

Stanford Wong's Las Vegas Blackjack Survey has 7 different blackjack rules while Shackleford's
Blackjack House Edge Calculator has 10 different rules.
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I believe that two of them are relatively common defaults
Player can resplit to: 4 hands seems to be the default rule
Player loses only original bet against dealer BJ: yes seems to be the default rule

But if the answer to third is
Player can hit split aces: no

then the final expected value in the Las Vegas Blackjack Survey seems like it is way too low (as teddys pointed out).

I am questioning the accuracy of the survey. There is also what looks like transcription errors (for instance one Wynn game is listed as 0.16% which seems to make no sense).

If the Wizard sees this post could he comment?

I've never seen a casino that allows hitting split aces, and I've played at a LOT of places. You always only get one card. I must assume this is the default rule.

No Double After Split(DAS)on the two deck games, all are H17.(hit soft 17) I'm fairly sure the same applies to the single deck game.

Can you re split 3 or 4 times? (non Aces) negligible. I didn't ask.

No RSA No HSA .

Last I played there they had a three dollar two deck table as well. I think it was last November. I won on that. Am I to understand they only have $5 dollar single deck there now?

see the house edge calculator click link in above post

http://wizardofodds.com/blackjack/house-edge-calculator.html

Cortez has $3 tables once in a while.

The expected values in the Las Vegas Blackjack Survey seems to be wrong.

Edit -- deleted.

Quote: pacomartin

The expected values in the Las Vegas Blackjack Survey seems to be wrong.

I wrote my own simulator in C++ a few years back to do blackjack analysis.

My most recent simulation of 1 deck, NDAS, NRSA, H17, DOA (standard game at El Cortez) was for 451,200,000 hands (dated 10-28-2009). For this number of hands, my simulation gave a house edge of 0.1802%.

Regarding the house edge, the Wizard states this disclaimer in his survey:

Quote: Wizard

The Current Blackjack Newsletter is the source, and may differ slightly from my Blackjack House Edge Calculator. It is not that one of us is right or wrong, but that blackjack is a difficult game to analyze, and differences in methodology can play a minor effect on the results. Both sets of figures are good enough, in my opinion.

I personally feel that a simulation of sufficiently many rounds, using basic strategy, is the most accurate method.

--Dorothy

Quote: DorothyGale

Quote: pacomartin

The expected values in the Las Vegas Blackjack Survey seems to be wrong.

I wrote my own simulator in C++ a few years back to do blackjack analysis.

My most recent simulation of 1 deck, NDAS, NRSA, H17, DOA (standard game at El Cortez) was for 451,200,000 hands (dated 10-28-2009). For this number of hands, my simulation gave a house edge of 0.1802%.

Regarding the house edge, the Wizard states this disclaimer in his survey:

Quote: Wizard

The Current Blackjack Newsletter is the source, and may differ slightly from my Blackjack House Edge Calculator. It is not that one of us is right or wrong, but that blackjack is a difficult game to analyze, and differences in methodology can play a minor effect on the results. Both sets of figures are good enough, in my opinion.

I personally feel that a simulation of sufficiently many rounds, using basic strategy, is the most accurate method.

--Dorothy

Don't Quibble, just play and have fun.

The Wizard of Odds is the ultimate authority on gambling.<-

Quote: BenJammin

Don't Quibble, just play and have fun.

It seems that a great many gamblers do want to carry things out to four decimal places and always try to gamble under optimal mathematics. I would more be interested in just knowing the approximate house edge so as to avoid situations wherein I might play roulette at 5.26 percent house edge when a 2.7 percent house edge wheel was also available a few feet away or across the street. I would truly hate to be playing at a 6:5 table in a casino that also offered 3:2.

ElCortez is downtown and if you are already downtown, I imagine its worth it to go to the El Cortez for the better edge.

I assume that fatigue, alcohol and mistakes will alter the four decimal place figures anyway.

I might sometimes like to do BigRed at 11.67 percent. The critical factor is that I know what I am doing. And I make an informed choice about it. Passline is 1.414 percent. It gives me enough information to know that its 1.4. The extra decimal places are fun to know and will never hurt to know, but for me it won't be a deal-breaker. If the field bet pays extra, I'd like to know about it, but its probably not going to be a deciding factor and I'm not going to trek all over town for some digit all the way off to the right of the decimal point.

For those who truly enjoy carrying things out to four decimal places... good luck. Maybe I'll be there at the El Cortez with you some day.