Whats the deal with this single deck? it seems that this game is completely different than multiple deck games. Is there some other way to play it rather than playing multiple deck games? i know ro6, rounds, 1 or 2 hands, and it seems im having a hard time pleying it. whats the secret to this entirely different aspect of blackjack?
Don't play bad single deck games, or under bad conditions. See link below for as general guide.
What people consider a "good game" today is far inferior to what people considered a "good game" 10 - 15 years ago. TS had a single deck game even off the top (S17, no DAS), 4 rounds to three, 3 rounds to four, fixed. That was a "good game". A great game, actually. Then, when casinos realized their average sucker didn't care, they came out with the Rule of Six, a far inferior game. People, because they had nothing else to play or feared multiple decks, said "Hey...that's not a bad game," and after a while the Rule of Six became the de facto "good game".
The same thing happened with multiple decks. 65% pen in a 2 deck game wasn't necessarily an automatic play 10 - 15 years ago. Better could be found. My best legitimate 2 deck game was dealt out of a shoe, H17, DAS, multiple resplits, the cut card anywhere from .25 deck (or better) to .5 deck. My best not legitimate 2 deck game was at the Golden Nugget, Las Vegas. The rules were "Just let me know when you want me to shuffle". The dealer whispered to his relief and he dealt the same game. Then, when casinos started offering 50% pen at best, suddenly 50% pen was "quite playable" and eventually became a "good game" to the less picky. Most astute counters I knew wouldn't count 4-6-8 deck with more than 1 - 1.25 decks cut off. When casinos went to 2 (or worse) decks as the standard house cut, multiple deck games with 65 - 75% pen suddenly became "beatable" because, again, they were the only game offered.
I learned early on just because it's a blackjack game doesn't mean it's a profitable game. I used to subscribe to CBJN and fly around the country to games that met my criteria for a "good game". It was a lot of work, time, and my nut for a trip ran anywhere from 600-900. I figured my first day of play was expenses. I was happy with my results. As for single deck, even with a superb game, you get rocked by variance. It only gets worse when the quality of the game goes downhill. In my experience multiple deck games were the way to go. More consistent win rate, less heat, less variance. Add in backcounting on occasion and it was a no-brainer to me. When the games stopped meeting my criteria I went on to other, more lucrative forms of advantage play rather than play the current crop of "good games".
Current conditions? I was playing poker in Pennsylvania a couple of months ago and in that casino the 6 deckers were very well cut by certain dealers and the rules were good. Given a choice between those games and a Rule of Six single deck game with good rules, based on my experience I would play the six deck game without further thought. More than met my criteria. Blackjack games come and go. It's an opportunistic endeavor and you have to take advantage of profitable situations when they arise and before they're gone. Get some simulation software and generate some win rates for different games available to you. I burned out 2 laptops in my early years running simulations but it was well worth the effort and expense.
