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'Tis The Season To Be Jolly

GameMaster's note: Monday morning Dec. 4th From all the data I received, there's no doubt in my mind that this game was, once upon a time, exactly as I describe below. However, within hours of this article being posted here, the game was shut down by the casino. That's certainly understandable, since what casino in its right mind is going to offer a game where the player has a 3+% edge? Now the game is back, along with the same great rules and it just doesn't add up.

A reader who had shared some data with me prior to publishing this article had nearly quadrupled the initial deposit at the game and s/he was convinced it was on the level. Well, that reader went back to play some more after it was put back up by the casino. S/he played 400 hands, lost 180 bets and now feels that something is wrong. Of those 400 hands, s/he won only 122. But that's not the "telling" statistic in this adventure. What's important is the number of hands the dealer got that totaled 21. I'm not counting "Blackjacks" here, just those hands where the dealer had to hit and ended with 21. The "expectation" for that is 7.8% of the hands. In this 400-hand sample, the dealer received 54 which is 13.5%, nearly twice what's expected. Now please understand that such a thing can happen in a sample size this small, but it sure makes you wonder, doesn't it? Admittedly, the number of dealer Blackjacks was 'normal', as was the number of player Blackjacks.

But you've just got to ask yourself why any casino would offer a game with such a large player advantage. Of course, it may just be that they don't know it yet (as sad as it makes me, I do understand that not everyone in the world visits this site on a regular basis), or it could be that the game was taken down from the 'Net and altered. I can't prove anything, but I think there are a lot other choices out there which you should consider before playing this game.

GameMaster's note: As of early morning on Sunday, December 3rd, it looks as though this game is no longer available. But you might want to check for yourself, so have a go at it. We'll update you as soon as we find out anything, so check our OnLine Gambling Message Board for the latest news.

A new gambling software company, Clock Media (www.clockmedia.com), is in the process of setting up casinos and, as you may know, I like to visit new operations to see if there are any favorable "glitches" in their software. The casino using Clock Media's software that I visited is called "A Sure Bet Casino" (www.asurebetcasino.com). This is a very nice Shockwave-powered operation that requires no download and is available for real-money play, but I tried it only in the play-money mode. To make a long story short, they have a game of Blackjack that is simply unbelievable. If you've read the "Edge" reports at the GameMaster Casino Directory, you'll know that some casinos have a "juiced" game in the free-money mode and the real-money game bears no resemblance to it. That isn't the case here, because I was able to get verification of the rules as of the date above.

The game I'm referring to is what they call "Bare All Blackjack", which is their version of Double Exposure Blackjack. This is a variation of the game where the dealer shows his hole card, but in return for that, the dealer wins all ties and other restrictions usually apply. At this casino, the dealer wins all ties but most of the usual restrictions don't apply. Here are the rules, as of the date above:

Single deck shuffled after every hand, dealer stands on A-6, double on any first two cards, split all pairs, including unlike 10s one time, a Blackjack pays 3 to 2, a tied Blackjack pays 3 to 2, no double after split and insurance is not offered (even though they say it is.) According to Stanford Wong's "BJEdge" software, this game has a player advantage of 3.07%. That is not a typo. In addition (as if that wasn't enough), the game has a glitch in it that allows the player to double at any time (three cards, four cards, etc.) and a few "extras" tossed on the pile are that split Aces may be re-hit and tied Blackjacks win. A conservative estimate for all this is a 3.40% player advantage! The minimum bet is $1.

If you want to try this game, but have never played Double Exposure before, rush out right now and get Stanford Wong's book, "Professional Blackjack" because it has a chapter on the game, complete with the proper Basic Strategy. If you think that people who split 10s are nuts, then this isn't the game for you. Also, if you would never in your life hit a hand of 17 or higher, this isn't the game for you, either. The strategy for "Bare All" Blackjack is considerably different than anything you've seen, so don't think you can win just because you're "card-savvy".

One of my local, friendly casinos used to offer Double Exposure Blackjack, so I've played it quite a bit and you need to know that the swings in your bankroll at this game are considerable. Since the most common hand in any Blackjack game is a 20, you'll often find that you have one and the dealer has one. Because the dealer wins all ties, you're forced to hit yours and pray for an Ace. Well, you're not going to get it very often, so don't be surprised if you lose eight or ten hands in a row. I promise you this: you will, at some point, swear that this game is "rigged". It may or may not be, but you'll certainly see a lot of losing streaks, since such a big part of the playing strategy involves the player holding lousy hands in the hope that the dealer breaks. You will quickly get very tired of hitting your stiffs and busting, not to mention doubling your perfectly good A-9 and consequently losing the hand.

The casino is currently offering a 35% sign-up bonus (maximum bonus is $100) and if you decide to try this, you had better figure that you'll need about 100 betting units, assuming the game is honest. My recommendation is to just flat-bet, but remember that any decision you make to play this game is yours. I don't want any whiners coming back with tales of losing the rent $$$. Those who act on this information do so at their own risk.

Just so you know, this is not some fancy promotion for A Sure Bet Casino. To be totally honest, if the laws in my state clearly allowed me to gamble at Internet casinos, you would have never heard about this from me. At the same time, I also want you to understand that I have no proof that this game is honest, nor do I have any proof that it isn't. I think the game is available because the software developer simply doesn't understand Blackjack very well. What they basically did was to take their "regular" Blackjack (a good game on its own, with about a 0.50% player advantage) and set it up so that the dealer wins all ties. That was either a mistake or the perfect "hook" to catch some fish. I'll let you decide for yourself which one it is.

See you here next time.

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