26/11/2000 Edition No. 3

Star City Casino

LATEST:

Is Star City a ‘playable’ casino for Blackjack? Since their laughable policy of cutting off around 3.5 decks in an eight deck game came about, the ‘good players’ have left Sydney and moved to Melbourne (I suspect management are scratching their heads as to why takings have actually fallen - but at least they got rid of those pesky counters!!). With the advent of Crown Pontoon, some continuous shuffle machines and a counter at nearly every table, Melbourne has become a very painful place to play, so with this in mind, we decided to re-examine Sydney.

We wrote and ran a simulation program based on 1000 shoes with a range of different cuts. The percentage of play received at true count +2 through to +6 was recorded.

For 1.5 decks cut off: +2=7%, +3=4%, +4=2%, +5=1%, +6=1% (15% total).

For 3.5 decks cut off: +2=5%, +3=2%, +4=1%, +5=0%, +6=0% (9% total), but also..

1: There are a large number of Blackjack tables constantly available at Star City with only one or two non-counting players.

2: New shuffles can be found most of the time for those willing to put in the legwork. You will of course need to be aware that casino surveillance may be on the lookout for table hoppers.

For beginners and those who need the practice, this week we include a Basic Strategy summary for Australian conditions, written in a non-table format which we find is easily memorised. By using just this, Blackjack is being played at 0.5% disadvantage. Click here

LAUGH:

Insurance offered by a nervous dealer inundated with counters in a +7 true count situation. I had two hands each totalling 16 and a big stakes back bettor on me. My backer asked "How much do I have out there?" and the dealer replied "Ahh...$1400" (2 X $700 bets), so he proceeded to place $1400 on the insurance line announcing "I’ll insure for the full amount then!" (obviously he is really only allowed to bet up to half his wager - $700). I proceeded to bust both hands, but insurance won, so somehow this guy had managed to win $1400 when the house had pulled Blackjack!!

"A dealer’s two is as good as an Ace"
Work out the maths for yourself. If the dealer pulled two every hand, the Casino would go broke in record time.

Best of Betting!
‘CC’

News 19/11/2000

White Knight Blackjack Coaching will help you achieve your goal of beating the casinos with easy to understand courses:
Group and Individual.

Weekend Courses Australia Wide
Individual Classes - Melbourne

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