6 to 5 Blackjack

Ten year old Motley fool post :

If I were running Ameristar, I'd consider doing the following: Replace the atrocious 6:5 game with a couple of brand-building 3:2 single-deck games. Market that you have the real thing. It doesn't have to have the best rules: Hit on soft 17, allow doubling only on 10 and 11, and take a 0.35% or so edge. If you keep the tables full, forcing a shuffle after every round, you won't have to worry about anybody beating it. And once in a while, when the game is shorthanded and beatable, don't worry about it: You're investing a couple of dollars at a couple of tables to have the best game in town.
http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2004/12/14/when-competition-hurt-the-game.aspx

Yes, is has been 10 years ! How is that boycott working out ? ? ?

Funny thing is, the ploppies are pretty much lining up to play these games. Heck, on busy nights you can see ploppies playing 8 deck 6:5 games! They don't know the difference. I'll admit, at first glance 6:5 doesn't seem like a big difference...until you sit down to do the math. But do you really think gamblers care about math? They can't even take the time to look up basic strategy! I don't think I've ever encountered a person who has played soft 18 correctly.

6-5 as the standard multi-deck blackjack standard is not too many years away. It's a very easy way to cover rising expenses when the economy is not growing enough to keep up.


ZCore13

If 6 to 5 blackjack is not available in your casino, fear not. It soon will be. Including new states like PA, just as soon as the honeymoon is over.

OLD JOKE : Do you know how to tell when the honeymoon is over ?

Don't say it Bab's darlin' !

It's over the first time you pretend she is somebody else.

I wish there was a better way to educate people on just how much that "little" change really changes the odds. I almost make it a mission to walk up to 6:5 pits and ask them if they have 3:2 tables because 6:5 is way to much of a house game where I lose my money too quickly (loudly enough of course so any near by tables can hear me).

All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line "don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off" and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.

Quote: Romes

All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line "don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off" and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.

Ya know, I doubt this is even true.

Over on another message board I once referred to people who play 6:5 blackjack as "idiots" and that was met by a plethora of responses such as "I play 6:5 blackjack! Am I an idiot?!" Their reasoning was that they like to play $5 games or they "don't want to walk far to find a 3:2 game."

Even people who know what a bad thing 6:5 is still play it. There is just no curing this disease.

Quote: ams288

Over on another message board I once referred to people who play 6:5 blackjack as "idiots" and that was met by a plethora of responses such as "I play 6:5 blackjack! Am I an idiot?!"

The correct response to this is simply "Yes, you are an idiot." If they chime in about walking to find the game ask them this... If the blackjack game at the front door was play $10 a hand, and if you win you win $1 (no matter what), if you lose you lose your $10. Would you walk to the middle of the casino for a normal game now?

I feel like it's still barely reversible if there was any kind of big leverage against 6:5, but there doesn't seem to be any... which is what will probably make the 6:5 takeover unstoppable =/.

Quote: Romes

All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line "don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off" and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.

They'd still play it for the side bets. The house wouldn't offer the really juicy* sidebets on the 3:2 games.


*14% HE.

" All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line "don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off" and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game. "


WRONG.. Ploppies play for the 5, not the 6. As long as a casino offers 6/5 on the lowest limit tables, ploppies will play. PERIOD.

Why don't people understand that ? ? ?

Back a half dozen years ago, when I was still located on the east coast, playing mainly AC (PA had casinos but not yet table games), I feared this very subject, that between 6-5 BJ and CSM's, blackjack games would all become unplayable at just the time my professional blackjack career was kicking into high gear.

I relocated to Vegas 5 years ago, and my fears just have not been realized here in Vegas during that time. Yes, there was a much talked about change @ Venetian earlier this year to 6-5 at low limit games, but for the most part 6-5 only exists in one area here in Vegas, the strip (mostly Caesar's entertainment properties) low limit games, where players are more interested in drinking and partying than blackjack conditions. Elsewhere in Vegas, where players are a little more educated, blackjack games even at low limits all remain 3-2. And during my time here, I have seen several places even roll back from 6-5 to 3-2, like "the D" downtown, a few years back when the switched from Fitzgerald's to "the D".

As for CSM, these too are regulated to low limit games and at just a handful of properties. There are actually fewer CSM tables now than when I moved here 5 years ago. It is my understanding that these machines must be leased, which is fairly expensive and when you combine that with the downtime and maintenance costs, it just doesn't make sense financially, as the expense outweighs the benefit of less shuffle down time.

In the last month, one property in my regular rotation even added last surrender. :) So at least here in Vegas, and especially if you get off the touristy strip, I just have not seen much movement towards those worse conditions that I feared. Probably the biggest negative has been the movement towards side bets, with many BJ games now comprising of some sort of side bet with a big house edge, which slows the games down considerably for me.

Now, again, I am speaking of only Vegas, I can't speak for other areas. The other jurisdiction that I am somewhat familiar with is PA, having moved from there and still return there twice a year to play and visit friends. As most know, Pa has some of the better rules in the country with S17 and late surrender. Many have thought this would only be temporary and conditions would begin to tighten, and maybe they will, but so far Pa gaming has resisted allowing these changes even though they have been petitioned by different casinos. If they won't even allow casinos to have h17 blackjack, which they recently denied again, then 6-5 seems fairly far off down the road.

Not saying 3/2 will disappear, just that 6 to 5 continues to grow. In 2006 there were over 300 6/5 tables in Nevada. Wonder what that number is today ?

PA has only had table games since 2010. Still a honeymoon period. But casinos already whining and trying to get 6/5 games.

Of course with the integrity of the political process involved, the citizens have nothing to fear.


LOL