Online blackjack game
November 10th, 2020 at 9:13:52 PM
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About a year ago I found a blackjack game online. It’s your typical online game, stand 17, double any 2, split once. So about a half percent game. Soon after playing I discovered that it had 2 rules that were different and you wouldn’t know about till you played it. The first is that you can hit split aces. I’m sure that value can be easily determined. The second is the interesting one. The dealer does not check for blackjack when they have a 10 up. In fact when they have an ace in the hole it does not even count as a blackjack. So any blackjack that you have is immediately paid 3:2 even if the dealer flips an ace. Also if you draw to 21 and the dealer flips an ace, you get a push. I have played thousands of hands and this is definitely how it plays out. I don’t know how to calculate the value of this. My rough guess is that each of these happens about every 300-400 hands. So overall I was guessing that worst case it was a break even game and at best perhaps about a third of a percent player edge. Certainly with bonuses it would be positive. I just play basic strategy except I don’t double 11vs10 and I hit 88vs10.
I signed up with the deposit bonus. Initially I did ok. I ran slightly positive in addition to the bonus. I rarely played for awhile but then started playing more. My records show I was up about $4800 last year. Most of that was bonuses however. This year however I am down significantly, probably in the $20k range. This was on about 2 million of coin in. I usually play one hand of $15-60 or 3 hands of $15-40. The loss includes a few thousand in bonuses. So playing straight up it was even worse.
What gets me is not that it’s not positive or break even or even what a traditional blackjack house edge is, it’s that my loss has been over double the house edge, even with bonuses and freeplay. In addition they give 1/10% cash back of coin in. In the long run the loss always seems to be just over 1%.
The odd thing is that there is another casino that I have played at heavily as well, over a million coin in. It has the same game. I am up almost as much as I’m down at the first one, not quite even overall though. Although this one has given more bonuses. Without bonuses, I would be down, probably a lot.
I have played a lot online the past 3 years. I am up I guess you would say a good amount. Although this year it really seems like the EV has not been there. This is mostly always done with some sort of promo. I just keep thinking without a bonus playing online is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. You have zero chance of winning whereas blackjack in a casino is pretty much a break even game.
Any thoughts or stories of your experiences online are greatly appreciated. Thanks
I signed up with the deposit bonus. Initially I did ok. I ran slightly positive in addition to the bonus. I rarely played for awhile but then started playing more. My records show I was up about $4800 last year. Most of that was bonuses however. This year however I am down significantly, probably in the $20k range. This was on about 2 million of coin in. I usually play one hand of $15-60 or 3 hands of $15-40. The loss includes a few thousand in bonuses. So playing straight up it was even worse.
What gets me is not that it’s not positive or break even or even what a traditional blackjack house edge is, it’s that my loss has been over double the house edge, even with bonuses and freeplay. In addition they give 1/10% cash back of coin in. In the long run the loss always seems to be just over 1%.
The odd thing is that there is another casino that I have played at heavily as well, over a million coin in. It has the same game. I am up almost as much as I’m down at the first one, not quite even overall though. Although this one has given more bonuses. Without bonuses, I would be down, probably a lot.
I have played a lot online the past 3 years. I am up I guess you would say a good amount. Although this year it really seems like the EV has not been there. This is mostly always done with some sort of promo. I just keep thinking without a bonus playing online is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. You have zero chance of winning whereas blackjack in a casino is pretty much a break even game.
Any thoughts or stories of your experiences online are greatly appreciated. Thanks
