Blackjack in the Philippines

Pagcor casinos play with a 6 deck shoe, ~75% penetration, stand on soft 17, double down on 10 and 11 only and one weird rule: They don't check for blackjack on an ace until after players hit. If the player gets 21 and dealer has blackjack it's a push. Also there is early surrender except when the dealer has the Ace.

My question is how does this affect basic strategy and does this rule favor the house or player? I assume it's never good to split or double on an ace here.

I would imagine that for aces only the strategy for the European no hole card rule would apply. The 21/BJ push rule strikes me as favouring the player slightly, but I have no idea how to work this out, or if it is even right.

Quote: baloney

Pagcor casinos play with a 6 deck shoe, ~75% penetration, stand on soft 17, double down on 10 and 11 only and one weird rule: They don't check for blackjack on an ace until after players hit. If the player gets 21 and dealer has blackjack it's a push. Also there is early surrender except when the dealer has the Ace.

My question is how does this affect basic strategy and does this rule favor the house or player? I assume it's never good to split or double on an ace here.

We need a bit more information. Do you lose only your original bet when the dealer has a blackjack? Can you double after split? How many hands can you split to? Can you hit split Aces? Does the dealer check for blackjack on a 10?

From the wizard's page on blackjack: 21 vs dealer bj is a push is worth +0.37% and the early surrender against an ace is worth +0.39%. You'll lose -0.18% for the doubling on 10,11 only.


This game could have a +EV, depending on the answers to the above questions. Even if its not +EV, its still a really good blackjack game that could be exploited by counting cards. Unless, of course, there is something we are missing, like ties lose or there are no 10's in the deck.

Quote: cardshark

Do you lose only your original bet when the dealer has a blackjack?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You would win an insurance bet obviously...
If you double down and don't make 21 you lose it all to the dealer's blackjack. Same with splits.
You can double after splits (10,11 only).
You can split up to 4 times (I believe).
You cannot hit split Aces.
The dealer does not check for blackjack on a 10.

I don't think I explained the surrender very well. You can surrender early to any up card except the Ace which you cannot surrender to.

For the sake of thoroughness, some other facts:
They hide the discards.
Other players and spectators sometimes make side bets on your hand.
Table limits are $6-$125 (translated into US dollars).
The dealers are very slow. at least 2-3x as slow as vegas.
There's no comps.

Thank you for the reply.

Quote: baloney

Quote: cardshark

Do you lose only your original bet when the dealer has a blackjack?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You would win an insurance bet obviously...
If you double down and don't make 21 you lose it all to the dealer's blackjack. Same with splits.
You can double after splits (10,11 only).
You can split up to 4 times (I believe).
You cannot hit split Aces.
The dealer does not check for blackjack on a 10.

I don't think I explained the surrender very well. You can surrender early to any up card except the Ace which you cannot surrender to.

For the sake of thoroughness, some other facts:
They hide the discards.
Other players and spectators sometimes make side bets on your hand.
Table limits are $6-$125 (translated into US dollars).
The dealers are very slow. at least 2-3x as slow as vegas.
There's no comps.

Thank you for the reply.

Ok, I understand. So you will gain +0.37% for the push 21 vs dealer bj. You gain +0.24% for early surrender against anything except an ace. (see here: https://wizardofodds.com/blackjack , middle of page)

This is just rough, because there is some correlation that can't be taken into account without actually running a simulation, but using the wizards house edge calculator (see here: https://wizardofodds.com/blackjack/house-edge-calculator.html), I get a house edge of 0.71%. Then, we subtract the 0.61% from above and you get a house edge of 0.1%.

While not +EV, at a house edge of 0.1%, it is an excellent blackjack game! Since the game plays slowly, counting cards would be pretty easy. However, with a $125 limit, you can't get rich playing this game.

I don't know what the consequences of counting cards is in the Philippines and what legal recourse you might have if the casino physically threatens you. If its similar to some Caribbean countries, it could be dangerous.

Sorry, I didn't realize your question was on strategy, not house edge. The strategy for early surrender can be found on the wizard's site (https://wizardofodds.com/blackjack/strategy/european.html). Unfortunately, the table doesn't give the details for when to surrender. It would only be against a 10, maybe 16 vs 10? I'm not sure. It says to split Aces up to 10, and hit the pair of aces if the dealer is showing an ace.

As for the 21 pushing blackjacks, that would only change the strategy if the dealer has a ten or an ace. I'm not sure exactly how it changes the strategy, maybe someone else can comment on it. You would continue hitting three or more card 16's, but maybe 17vsA, too?

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Thank you, your reply was very helpful. After browsing around through those links I realized that the blackjack here is similar to macau which the wizard has already made me charts for! Great site.

Hey if youre still alive(account), Can you inform me about the casinos lately. Do they still have hand shuffled decks? Resorts world/okada and newer dont have those anymore.