DD with 85% pen... wow.

I've been hanging at a local A m e r i s t a r property with a "high stakes" area seperate from the main floor that has a DD green chip game. For years it's consistently been the usually lousy 50% pen, and I've only spectated there. Both the DD and usual 6D had AC rules (H17, DAS, split and resplit any 2 cards, no surrender) with the 6D game having the usual 75% pen 1.5 deck cut-off.

Well, I swung by there today, and noticed that for some reason the DD game had jumped up to an average of about 70% pen, with all the dealers putting the cut card 70 to 80 cards into the deck. One particular dealer was CONSISTENTLY putting the cut card 90! cards into the deck, for a pen of 85%!

I thought there had to be a catch. Did they remove all the 10s? Nope, the sign clearly said "double deck BLACKJACK". Was it 6:5 BJ? Nope, Blackjack still paid out 3:2. Were they using a mechanic? The cards were being dealt out of a shoe, and it's A m e r i s t a r, so I can't imagine so.

H17 AC rules are pretty marginal, but such a deep pen seems to more than make up for it. The only reason I didn't jump in right there is because it was a green chip table, and my acceptable bankroll is only $2000 (which, even with red chips, is pushing it in terms of ROR).

And, of course, there's also the issue of heat, which as a red chip player I've never really had to deal with.

What do you guys think? Did I just see something really rare? Or is it just a good (but not OMG exceptional) game, and I'm just jaded from the prevasive AC rules and marginal pen everywhere I play?

You said that in a DD-game one of the dealers put the cut card consistently 90 cards into the pack.
This would leave only 14 cards after the cut card.
If all the spots are covered and the cut cards comes out among the first cards of the round, you would CONSISTENTLY run out of cards before completing the round.

Francis

There was only one guy playing, though (at first there were two, but one guy hit a losing streak and left about 5 minutes after I started watching). Like I said, green chip table on a Wednesday.

I specifically kept track of the number of cards played, because to my disbelief the pile after the cut card kept coming out ridiculously thin. And the cut card always came out 88-90 cards into the decks. I saw the dealer do this 5 times in a row. Granted, it was only this one particular dealer who was cutting so deep, but he was doing it consistently (and he even did it a couple times while the pit was standing over his shoulder joking with the guy playing, like it was nothing).

I assume the dealer would have stopped cutting so deep if the guy had started swinging his bets wildly, or if a bunch of other players had sat down.

Still, it was a heck of a thing to see with my own eyes.

The one player who was being given this deep pen' wss NOT winning much (or anything).

Correct ?

I've played there twice recently. I only bet medium green so I don't get much heat. The double deck pen was always around 0.8 to 0.9. If the pen has improved, I'm sure they will cut the shoe in half or even 1.1 or 1.2 the minute you go to heavy green or black. That is probably the most watched game in the entire casino. It's their High Limit double deck! You should play mainly their shoe games instead, that's what I did. A LOT less heat.