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?
