The Rules at Walkerhill in Seoul, Korea
Walkerhill has horrible rules. No double after split. No surrender. They only have 6-deck shoes. There are no single deck or double deck or even 4-deck shoes games there. They don't let you bet in increments of five. That is, you can bet $10 or $20, but you can't bet $15 or $25. They have CSM (Continuous Shuffle Machines) at a few of the tables. Though there are still shoe games available too. They have a few tables where the minimum bet is $10 and the maximum is $500. There are no $5 tables. They have a lot of $50 to $1000 tables and there's a $100 to $3000 table open on the weekends. They don't let you play head to head with the dealer. (If you're playing by yourself, they tell you you have to play 2 hands.) They only let you split ace's to two hands and of course you can't hit after you draw the second card.
I went in there one day and they only let me split 8's to two hands. My friend and I were trying to figure out why this was. We think there's a rule there that if you get a pair of 8's and split them and then you draw another eight that you can split that hand. If you draw an eight on the second hand though that you're not allowed to split it. It's not just for splitting eight's either. It goes for splitting 2-10's. Walkerhill's the only place in the world I know of that has this stupid rule. The point is that when you should be able to split to up to 4 hands, Walkerhill tells you that you can only split one time to a total of 2 hands. This can make a very big difference if you have a big bet out.
Koreans with Korean citizenship aren't allowed to gamble at Walkerhill. Most of the players at Walkerhill are either Koreans who have citizenship in other countries, like China or the US or they're Japanese. Most of the players there are horrible basic strategy players.
On a Friday or Saturday night you will probably have to stand for at least an hour before you can get a seat, and it's really noisy then, so expect to make mistakes. Also, people come in and out a lot, often times just for a few hands, which may affect the cards you get.
I've lost thousands of dollars playing at Walkerhill. I met a card counter who had lost a lot more there. I wouldn't recommend playing there to anyone and I no longer do.
The only good things about the rules at Walkerhill is that the dealer stands on soft 17 and they use the United States Original Bets Only hole card rule. But the dealers use some kind of device to check for blackjack to make it impossible for you to sneak a peak at the hole card.
I heard a rumour that they're building a Vegas style (lots of tables) Hilton in Seoul that should be up and running I believe sometime next year. Unless Walkerhill makes it's rules better, then it will no doubt put Walkerhill out of business.
