Double for Less
why is that even mentioned as an option...all casinos allow it as it's to the houses benefit.
Dude, you have $5000...game #2, even if wonging, is not an option for you. Your only choice here is the 8 deck game spreading $10-2x$100 and wonging out at TC = -1. Don't bother sitting down until you get a good shoe and buy-in only for very small amounts.
Finally, percentage penetration is a worthless measure...what you want to know is how many decks are cutoff. 75% pen at six deck is a mediocre but playable game, 75% at eight deck is almost worthless. The standard for a good game is about 1 deck cutoff from a four, six, or eight deck game...mediocre is 1.25 to about 1.5. Any cut worse than 1.5 is unplayable unless great rules (surrender) are present.
Surrender is worth about 1/2 of a deck of penetration, s17 is worth about 1/4 of a deck of penetration. So an s17 das ls six deck game with 1.75 decks cutoff is worth roughly the same as an h17 das (no surrender) game with 1 deck cutoff. Not that you'd find any, but as penetration gets better than a deck cutoff rules rapidly become irrelevant.