"Side bet" at the Golden nugget

Was going to play over the 4th of July holiday, bought in at a $15 table and set my bet. Dealer "asked"

if i was going to put my side bet for the BJ wheel (get a blackjack, spin the wheel). Told her i dont play side bets. She told me it is not optional. i colored back up and went across to Binions, where i played switch but

i noticed the same BJ wheels there as well. is this common place now? knowing that you are likely to get a 

blackjack every twenty hands or so, and those wheels almost always pay 5 to 10 when spun, you are basically paying the casino $10 to $15 for every 20 hands you are playing. Is this the new way to fleece the players?

 They have the same set up at the Four Queens - needless to say, I don't and won't play blackjack there or at the Golden Nugget. Apparently it seems that every time a casino changes their Blackjack games ( 3/2 to 6/5 blackjack payout, for example), after seeing that the uneducated public are willing to sit and play these games,  other casinos then join in to reap the increased profits they make with these changes. Don't be surprised if this new type of fleecing becomes widespread.

Yeah, I was not happy. Stayed three nights there and did not give them a dime on table games. On the other hand, Blackjack Switch was the only table at Binions that wasn't packed. I played twice and kind of liked how it is a bit slower, kind of fun with the switching aspect. Even money and push on 22 sucks but i doubled up my buy-in both times I played it, and no mandatory side bet. Not sure if I will ever play it again but it was a nice change of pace. Binions has my approval (for now). 

 If you want to play blackjack downtown I suggest you play at the EL Cortez. Great old time payouts (3/2 for blackjack) and they have single and double deck games. Also while playing, if you are a beer drinker, they have iced down bottle beer free for the asking in the pit - I always tip, but tipping is up to you.The table minimuns are $5, $10, $50- I am not sure if there is a $25 minimun table. They also have a small High Limit room that has blackjack.

I have played Switch for years, never saw the wheel/side bet version.  I am flabbergasted that a side bet would be mandatory on any game.  Glad you walked away.  Could that dealer have been misinformed?  I might have called for a "ruling" (LOL) from the pit.  That sounds like a fleecing for sure.

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Be very very careful of the game. The push on 22 rule is an absolute gut-crusher, and you can only adjust for that by learning the basic switch strategy COLD. Many of the switch decisions are not obvious. For instance, 109 and A8--do you switch to make a 20 and an 18? Would it help if I told you the answer depended on the dealer's upward?

Since a non-obvious switch decision comes up about one in three hands, knowing what to do in each of the hundreds of possible scenarios is critical. I doubt that one in ten thousand recreational players knows proper Blackjack Switch strategy. And if you don't, the game will kill you. Consider yourself very, very lucky to have booked a profit.

Stanford Wong, the Wizard of Odds, and several others have developed a sound basic strategy for this game, and you should learn it before you play again. Also consider that while the game moves more slowly than conventional blackjack, you're betting twice as much.

I have played many a night at the El Cortez but this was a family trip so was trying to stay close to the

Nugget. Kevin, I dealt this game in San Diego so am pretty damn familiar with it. The 22 only came up once

in the two hours I played, so that is probably why I had such luck. Normally it will hit a bit more than that.

O2bn, no I was looking around and it looked like the norm. I think she may have said the 6/5 tables did not have it, and possibly the high limit. The Nugget sent me an email about my stay, so I let them have it in the kindest way possible. 

Well, you may have dealt the game, but do you know its peculiar basic strategy?

No biggie one way or the other. But playing Switch without knowing the proper Basic Strategy is actually worse than playing 6:5. And yeah, the dealer making 22 only once was very unusual; it should actually happen about once every eleven hands (of course, it doesn't cost you a bet every time; you may already have busted).

i was there in march and the el cortez does have a 25 dollar minniumum table along with a 10 15 dollar one its really the only hotel i like to play bj at or maybe the cal

Kevin, maybe I just had a knack for it, but overall I've loved to play Switch and done decently well on it.  It has gotten hard to find, but that's another topic. 

Again maybe just dumb luck but I seldom if ever saw a gross overage of dealer 22s (unlike the very often overage of dealer 21s and blackjacks with 'regular' blackjack, which is truly gut crushing).  Occasionally a tired dealer or one who didn't normally deal Switch would forget that his 22 was a push and would pay the players.  Some players wouldn't realize they just got lucky on that hand.  Others of us just kept our mouths shut.  LOL.

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