New to Blackjack. Is my nearby Casino any good?

Hello Everyone,

First post! I've been reading a lot of articles and threads on this site and decided to become a member. :)

A couple of weeks ago I learned about pro BJ by talking to a friend a mine about people who learn the probabilities and technical side to the game. Being a poker player I've always seen BJ as a game grossly in favor of the house and preferred playing poker in a tournament setting where I have a fair chance of beating the other players with skill. Since then I've been reading a lot of online information from multiple sources and practicing card counting. I also have a set of basic strategy charts on my phone that I'm memorizing. I'm making a list of books that to start reading up on. **I've read all the stickied guides here and they were very informative thanks**

Today I went down to my local Casino (walking distance from my house) to check out what kind of games they had. They have 6-8 deck shoes with 75% penetration or more. They even have the Asian card dealers that you can't understand. However, it seems like all their BJ tables are some kind of derivative version of BJ such as Blackjack Tie, Luck Stiff, Free Blackjack and Spanish 21. I don't think they have just regular blackjack and the description I've read for most of them seem to be unfavorable aside from Spanish 21 which has its own issues (Spanish deck).

My question is... when I'm ready to hit the felt, is this a suitable starting point? I was hoping for a double deck table or some basic BJ tables. For someone who wants to get their feet wet, is my local card Casino a viable place for me to get some experience in? If not, I'm going to find other Casinos that still have double deck tables. I've heard we still have them in my state but I don't where yet.

If anyone has anything productive to say otherwise feel free~

Welcome to the forum Acender!
I'm sure some of the BJ experts will chime in but I could help you locate a casino. Where are you located.

Hi PorkerGrinder,

I'm in WA state.

You have a ton of casinos in Washington. Go to Casinocity.com, they have most of the casinos in Washington and descriptions of what games they offer. Also you can use MoGH (museum of gaming history) which has a really good directory system as well. Which casino did you already go to? I don't think I have ever seen a casino with tables that didn't have normal BJ.

It's a hole-in-the-wall casino chain called Casino Caribean. I didn't see default blackjack on their website but just called them and it sounds like they have normal BJ after all, they just don't advertise it. Sounds like they allow double down after the split... dealer hits on a soft 17.

Looking at the site you linked... seems pretty thorough. I totally forgot about some of these places! Quite a few are in a short drive's distance of me.

Quote: Acender

It's a hole-in-the-wall casino chain called Casino Caribean. I didn't see default blackjack on their website but just called them and it sounds like they have normal BJ after all, they just don't advertise it. Sounds like they allow double down after the split... dealer hits on a soft 17.

Looking at the site you linked... seems pretty thorough. I totally forgot about some of these places! Quite a few are in a short drive's distance of me.

Yes they have normal BJ. Blackjack Tie and Lucky Stiff are just side bets.

I have yet to see a casino or card room that calls itself a casino in WA not have BJ. I have been to most.

Quote: miplet

Yes they have normal BJ. Blackjack Tie and Lucky Stiff are just side bets.

agree, I think you are just seeing them with these names but they are just advocating side bets that you can and should ignore

BJ does not heavily favor the house btw, the main exception being where a natural pays 6:5. I note it sounds like you want to count cards, yet are a newbie. That's fine, but the advice always is to concentrate first on learning Basic Strategy till it's second nature. That'll mean negative expectation for a while, so what you may find is that it is not the house edge that bothers you, but the low variance flat-betting. You might want to use free trainers a lot till you get the BS down, like:

https://wizardofvegas.com/games/blackjack/

Quote: odiousgambit

I note it sounds like you want to count cards, yet are a newbie. That's fine, but the advice always is to concentrate first on learning Basic Strategy till it's second nature. That'll mean negative expectation for a while, so what you may find is that it is not the house edge that bothers you, but the low variance flat-betting. You might want to use free trainers a lot till you get the BS down, like:

https://wizardofvegas.com/games/blackjack/

Don't even give a second thought to counting until you've mastered BS. You can't count away bad strategy decisions.

Quote: odiousgambit

agree, I think you are just seeing them with these names but they are just advocating side bets that you can and should ignore

BJ does not heavily favor the house btw, the main exception being where a natural pays 6:5. I note it sounds like you want to count cards, yet are a newbie. That's fine, but the advice always is to concentrate first on learning Basic Strategy till it's second nature. That'll mean negative expectation for a while, so what you may find is that it is not the house edge that bothers you, but the low variance flat-betting.

Yup, like side, I'm not even going to touch the felt until I've got everything down by heart.

I hope I didn't give people the misconception I'm going to head out tomorrow and play without having the basics down. I'm not a big gambler just someone who enjoys figuring stuff out.

Quote:

You might want to use free trainers a lot till you get the BS down, like:

/games/blackjack/

Can't seem to get that game to work despite the browser I use but I've been practicing with my own sets of cards. I got just about all the columns memorized so far.

Quote: Acender

Yup, like side, I'm not even going to touch the felt until I've got everything down by heart.

I hope I didn't give people the misconception I'm going to head out tomorrow and play without having the basics down. I'm not a big gambler just someone who enjoys figuring stuff out...

Hey Acender, and welcome to the forums.

As others have pointed out I'm more than confident they too have "regular" blackjack. One thing I want to mention to you is the games that are variants of blackjack, such as freebet, blackjack switch, etc, are in fact DIFFERENT games. Whist counting could be used to beat them, they require a little bit different strategy/approach because the rules are slightly different. So when you learn to count and play, that's more than likely going to be for "regular" blackjack and that doesn't make you qualified to play these other games just yet... FYI.

Next, I'm glad you have the approach of learning fully before jumping on the tables. A lot of players are a bit too overzealous in their approach and as soon as they learn +1 and -1 they jump right on the tables with no concept of bankroll management, RoR, heat, and so many other topics. There isn't anything (in my opinion) that's too difficult in regards to counting cards, but it is taking a bunch of little concepts and putting them all together... Which takes time and practice.

A good place to start (I hope lol) would be the following 3 articles I created in the Articles section of this site:
https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/A-to-Z-Counting-Cards-in-Blackjack/
https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/A-to-Z-Counting-Cards-In-Blackjack-2/
https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/A-to-Z-Counting-Cards-in-Blackjack-3/

These should cover everything "A to Z" that you need in order to have a winning game... Where you can sit down at a blackjack table, know what your hourly Expected Value (EV) is, and know how to play in order to attain it. After reading, and re-reading these, if you have any further questions just post them here, on the articles, in the A to Z thread, or PM me!

Hello Romes,

I actually read every word of your three part guide and it's what ultimately lead me to take card counting serious. Before that I kept encountering websites that wanted to charge membership fees for training which made me have my doubts. You did a fantastic job of breaking down the finer details and I've started reading all the books that you suggested. I'll probably have a lot of questions to ask the forum when I'm done reading but for now they are very informative.

Glad to hear you found them quite helpful as that was their intent! Feel free to ask questions on them, in the A to Z thread, or PM me.