6 and 8 deck games

I live in the state of Florida, and here there are only two land based casinos with Blackjack and both mostly use 8 decks. Is that a winnable game with about 1 1/2 deck penetration? What spread would I need to use?

With the 6 deck game in other areas of the country, what is the best spread to use? With the 8 & 6 decks games, I usually play with two hands with minimums of $20 or so each. Thanks a lot for your suggestions and observations.

If you're getting 1.5Dk penetration on 8Dk you are getting major heat. You can't beat that game by just counting. You probably mean that the penetration is 6.5 decks.

Penetration is to 1 1/2 decks being left.

For example, CBJN indicates penetration by how many decks are cutoff at the shuffle.

if it's s17 with other good rules then you can beat the 8 decks with 1.5 cutoff but you will have to table hop a lot and be aggressive with your betting. If it's h17 you're really just wasting your time unless the casino has some very strong mail coupons and other comp type stuff working in your favor. Many more waiting bets with eight deck.

BP

PS, six deck is much better. While basic strategy expectation is only a few tenths of a percent better for six deck, the count has much more variation and those variations are where you get a chance to get an edge. Eight decks, especially with more than 1 deck cutoff, tend to stay between -1 and +1 True Count much more of the time and during those counts the casino has an edge. H17 is really bad for 8 decks because the house edge is magnified at 0 True and in negatives the house edge, with it's head start, gets really bad really fast.

Thanks for that.. however most would interpret the word as to how deep you can get into the deck. At least when I think of penetration I want to know how far I can go before she stops me.

pen�e�tra�tion (pn-trshn)
n.
1. The act or process of piercing or penetrating something, especially: (8-decks)
a. The act of entering (8 decks)a country or organization so as to establish influence or gain information.
b. An attack that penetrates(8 decks)enemy territory (a casino) or a military front.
c. Insertion of the penis into the vagina or anus.
2. The power or ability to penetrate.
3. The depth reached by a projectile after hitting its target.
4.
a. The degree to which a commodity, for example, is sold or recognized in a particular market.
b. The extent of influence that one culture (BJ Advantage Players) or nation has on another. (Casinos)
5. The capacity or action of understanding; insight.(Knowing your advantage at all times)

I have BCed these games for hours and the variance is HUGE. I've had miserable results. That said the only way to play is to Back Count. Your EV will be about 1/3 of a Maximum bet per hour assuming you play two hands in positive counts. Just remember the variance is wicked.

You would be much better off frequenting the offshore casinos. They generally offer a much better game than the Seminoles.

They are lousy, but beatable. The 8D isn't the killer, but the penetration is often lousy, and there is no surrender.

You will have to be extremely aggressive, wong in and out regularly, and have a big spread.

A typical spread would be 1-2-4-8-12-16, but you'll probably want to do something like 1-2-4-8-16. If you are playing two hands, your total bet should be about 150% of the single bet as listed above.