Double-deck procedural question

Has anybody seen this procedure? I find it kind of humorous...

Harrah's Council Bluffs offers a terrible DD game... H17, Double on 10,11 only, Double first two cards only, no DAS, no RSA, No Surrender, BJ pays 6:5. They pitch the game, which is unusual for the area.

The dealer takes the cards out of the shuffler, they CANNOT hand shuffle this game. The player cuts the card, and the dealer sets the cut card at about 60% penetration. The dealer does NOT burn a card, and instead the first card up goes to the player. Play continues until the dealer has about 5 cards UNTIL the cut card, where they spread the deck, show where the cut card is, and burn the rest.

I've played at places that don't burn cards for dealer changes; I've seen places burn two cards... I've seen casinos have different procedures on a shoe game when they reach the cut card. Single-deck games don't usually have a cut card, so it's dealer discretion as to when to burn the deck... but I've never seen a dealer not burn the first card, then finish the deck about 5 cards before the cut card.

Any thoughts? My discussion with the dealer was a way to prevent counting, which he agreed with me was silly since no card counter is playing that game with those rules anyways.

I think you are combining two things that the casino isn't really putting together. The first is the bad rules. They are simply putting in the rules that they think will make the most money. The second is to make sure the game isn't countable. The idea that a counter isn't going to play it doesn't matter to them.

I'm also assuming that if they had other DD games at this casino, they would use the same shuffling rules. Harrah's doesn't have good blackjack rules so it doesn't matter much, but I'm sure it is helpful to have the same DD shuffling rules no matter what table the dealer is on.


This is the first I've heard of a game where they don't deal until the cut card comes out.

Quote: soulhunt79

I'm also assuming that if they had other DD games at this casino, they would use the same shuffling rules. Harrah's doesn't have good blackjack rules so it doesn't matter much, but I'm sure it is helpful to have the same DD shuffling rules no matter what table the dealer is on.

Harrah's CB barely has table games anymore... they have cut back severely, leaving most of the action to go over to Horseshoe. Horseshoe has a DD game in the high limit room that isn't ugly, but it's dealt from a shoe.

Quote: soulhunt79

This is the first I've heard of a game where they don't deal until the cut card comes out.

I know. I've played DD a lot of places, and I've never seen another casino do that... pitch, out of a shoe, whatever. On a dealer change, they do pass the deck if they have enough cards, but they do that in Tunica as well.