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Beating The Double Deck Game - Part 3

We'll wrap up the double-deck series with a comparison of a six-deck game versus a DD game at the same casino and then I'll list some casinos in various parts of the country that offer good DD games. As you'll recall, our "core" game has the following rules: 2 decks, double on any first two cards, double after splitting pairs, dealer hits on A-6 and surrender is not available. The casino's edge is 0.41% with these rules and we have already determined that deeper penetration is much more valuable to the counter than more liberal rules, like the dealer standing on soft 17. As I said before, many casinos treat these games as "premium" games, so they feel they can tighten the rules and raise the table minimums and yet still do just as much business as they would with rules like they have in their six-deck games, for example. The sad thing is, they do.

Unknowing players (those who don't make regular visits here) are not aware that a six-deck game is often a better choice than the double-deck game; they think the fewer the decks, the better the game. A perfect example is Bellagio. Their double-deck game was, once upon a time, one of the best DD games in Las Vegas and many pros rightly played it. Today, the six-decker is actually a better moneymaker, if it's played properly. How do I know that? Well, the software that I use to evaluate games told me. Let me show you how it works.

The six-deck game at Bellagio has these rules: Dealer stands on soft 17, you may double on any first two cards, double after splitting pairs, re-split Aces and late surrender is available. The DD game has these rules: Dealer stands on soft 17, you may double on any first two cards and double after splitting pairs. You may not re-split Aces and surrender is not available. The six-deck game offers 75% penetration, whereas the DD game is dealt to the 60% level. The casino's edge on the DD game is just 0.19% and it's 0.26% on the six-deck game. Obviously, not a big difference there, so if you're not a counter the DD game would be the better choice, but is that true for us counters?.

Bellagio is definitely a "high roller" establishment, which is reflected in their table minimums, $50 for the DD game and $25 for the six-deck game. But let's pretend that money isn't an object and we can afford to use a 1-8 ($50-$400) spread on the DD game and a 1-12 ($25-$300) spread on the six-decker. Because Bellagio has 32 tables of six-deck games, we'll have no problem leaving when the true count drops to -1 or lower. We have always agreed that such a strategy isn't feasible with a DD game, so in the simulation I ran, I "play all" at the DD game. Using all this data in a sim, we find that the six-deck game yields an overall player edge of 1.28% and the average bet is 1.537 units. A sim on the DD game shows an overall player edge of 0.91% and the average bet was 2.13 units. Remember when I talked about SCORE in a previous lesson? As a reminder, it's a uniform way of comparing different Blackjack games. The SCORE for the six-deck game is 54.64 and for the DD game, it's only 31.69.

Okay, point made. Hopefully you won't play a DD game just because it's there in your local, friendly casino. You need to rate the game by using the information I've shown in this series before sitting down at the table. But maybe I can help a little by telling you about some good games that exist at this moment in time. I want to stress that conditions can change in the blink of an eye, so what I'm presenting here may be obsolete by the time you read this. For an accurate listing of current conditions, head on over to Stanford Wong's site, www.bj21.com and purchase the latest edition of Current Blackjack News. It covers every major U.S. jurisdiction and will give you enough information to determine if a DD game at a particular casino is worthy of your consideration.

Here are some good double-deck games that existed as of January, 2003:

  • Las Vegas, Nevada: Cannery Row (This is a new casino, so the game they're dealing now probably won't last long.), Casino Royale.
  • Laughlin, Nevada: Golden Nugget, Colorado Belle, Flamingo Hilton.
  • Biloxi, Mississippi: Beau Rivage, Imperial Palace, Treasure Bay.
  • Tunica, Mississippi: Bally's (it won't last.), Horseshoe, Sheraton.
  • Atlantic City: Fuhgeddaboudit! No DD games here.

Good luck with your double-deck play and I'll see you here next time.


  

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