My Casino doesn't know right BS

Well, I was in progress of a game and one of the players at my table was questioning a play. Thus, I told him what the Basic Strategy play was. I don't remember what exact hand situation it was but I do remember that the pit boss came over and gave one of those little basic strategy cards to the player. Later after my push out I went and took a look at the card to see if it was right. To my surprise it was wrong. The game was 6deck, DA2, DAS, H17, and split aces once. The Basic Strategy card had missed plays like DD on A,8 vs 6 and A,7 vs 2. Also, 11, vs Ace.

I guess it's not all that important to get the right BS card. Just thought I'd share.

A number of casinos, including Station Casinos and Mandalay Resort Group in Las Vegas, offer a small promotional package (worth only about $2.40), which includes a "Win Card."

The Win Card purports to be a blackjack Basic Strategy card, but it gives a lot of wrong information. You receive the Win Card in a package, along with some promotional chips, directly from the casino. Thus, it is obvious that the casino is deliberately giving out the false information.

The "gaming lessons" at many casinos are bad, too. Much superstitious ploppy voodoo nonsense is dispensed at these bogus "lessons."

Nothing surprising in any of this -- just typical casino dishonesty.

It's fun to watch them B S the ploppies with their BS. Then I tell them: "I think your right, on that." Then they love me forever. ;-)

We've been trying to promote our Blackjack 6-7-8 Strategy Cards anywhere we can, including casinos. I met with a person at the Cannery about carrying our strategy cards. That person told me that for now, they're going to stick with the Win Card included in their chip promotion. I said if it's the same Win Card I have, it provides poor advice (such as never split anything other than As & 8s; never double down on anything other than 10-11; never hit A,7). The person responded, "I'm sure the owners of this casino would never screw their customers." I know you can think of lots of retorts to that ignorant comment, but I just left the casino so as not to waste anymore of my time.

-Hal

Maybe it is okay that the "Win Card" is circulating. Ok for us, that is. It goes against my grain to allow people to be stupid about play strategy. But let's face it, the more there are ignorant players in world, the better the playing conditions will be. If everyone knew perfect BS, the playing conditions would be even worse. Maybe they would even completely stop offering the game. The casinos thrive on stupid people. Better players, and we, the AP�s must have ignorant losers out there contributing. Sounds ruthless, but that's the way it is.

Stealth Bomber

"the more there are ignorant players in world, the better the playing conditions will be"

In theory, this sounds correct. But it depends on the extent of the ignorance. If the casinos thought that most players didn't understand that a 6 to 5 blackjack payoff was poor, even at the "great" game of single deck, why not try 6 to 5 at every game. If it doesn't work, the casinos can always revert to 3 to 2. But if casinos can garner at least as much revenue from 6 to 5 at all games, then they solved their (perceived) problem of monitoring the tables for advantage players.

When the casinos changed their rules on Apr 1, 1964 in response to the ramifications of "Beat The Dealer", they then also responded to the "market", or lack thereof following the rule changes by reverting to previous rules. To prevent 6 to 5 from continuing and spreading, the ignorant players must become educated, at least in the area of blackjack payoffs.

-Hal

is, are the casinos going to allow calculators at the tables, 'cause, the majority of people nowadays can't add 2 + 2 without them, much less being able to divide 6 by 5. :)

Sorry...ROTFLMAO

cheers
bfb

You are correct. + 6 to 5 BJ is something that we need to combat. However, my point is that we probably shouldn't try to teach the ploppies how to play but just get them to not play 6 to 5 BJ and CSM's.

The way I see the industry is that there is us against the casinos. There is also us that can use the ploppies to our advantage. Just because they play on the same side of the table doesn't mean that we should be siding with them. We need them to contribute the $ that allows the casinos to offer the good games which we can take advantage of.

Stealth Bomber

The casinos that I have been in sometimes have a BS card. If player asked a PB question, she/he has to look at the card. Usually, these are: �generic BS� and not the strategy for that game. A common error is to have a non-DAS card, even thought all the games in the casino are DAS.

However, I wouldn�t be too hard on them for this. A lot of reputable BJ books only teach a generic BS. Some of these books are sold here. I think the KO book does this, and I think that is one of the best books for beginners. The cost to the player in using a generic BS is quite small.

Your �Win Cards� sound more serious, given what Hal said below. Question: do these cards give a strategy matrix, with the wrong plays listed? Or do they present a �Simplified BS� which lists a few simple rules to help beginning players. Like found at the start of MDB. If they label it �Simplified� strategy with an appropriate disclaimer, then I would find it less troublesome. Giving out a Matrix with Wrong plays, (not splitting 7s against a 6 is just plain wrong) is a lot worse. I would think that would be bad business.

Have you ever civilians mis-read their BS card? I saw one guy stop play when he had a pair of 9s against an Ace. He read his BS card and split them. The dealer said �The card said that?�. I looked at the card, and it said for �S� for stand.

There are good cards that have DAS exceptions in footnotes. Typically players don�t read the footnotes, and they insist that it is wrong to split 3s v 2, etc.

As far as any footnotes or disclaimers, this is what the Win Card states: "The BLACKJACK WIN CARDS clearly show POSSIBLE hit, stand, double down and split options. There are many ways to play. You do not necessarily have to follow this strategy. We offer it only as a reference for the beginner player. Once the basics have been learned, making your own decisions will be easier."

MathProf, with regard to your reference to "good cards" perhaps you haven't yet seen the Blackjack 6-7-8 Strategy Cards. For each card, there are 4 tables to cover the combinations of S17 / H17 & DAS / no DAS. This should be easier than having to decipher a bunch of footnotes to explain exceptions for different rules - just look at the table for the rules under which you are playing.

-Hal

"6 to 5 BJ is something that we need to combat. However, my point is that we probably shouldn't try to teach the ploppies how to play but just get them to not play 6 to 5 BJ and CSM's."

It was with some player understanding of the game of blackjack that caused the L.V. casinos to revert to their regular rules. E.g., the casinos forbade splitting Aces and only allowed doubling on 11 for a brief period in 1964. People found this to be a greedy plot on the part of the casinos, left the blackjack tables in droves, and caused the casinos to revert to per 4-1-1964 rules. Nevada casinos rake in $1.2 billion in annual revenue from blackjack. To a large extent, this is due to the perception that blackjack is a beatable game. If people, including ploppies, realize that 6 to 5 BJ and CSMs mean that blackjack is no longer beatable, enough people may dessert the blackjack tables to cause the casinos to revert to more favorable rules. After all, $1.2 billion a year ain't bad.

Also, not teaching the ploppies ... means that no blackjack software and books should be published because these resources are available to all. If this had occurred, only a handful of people would have corresponded among themselves to unlock blackjack's secrets. I prefer the current option: let the information freely flow in the market. Naturally, any person who discovers some great advantage technique is free to keep it to himself.

-Hal