{"id":50047,"date":"2018-05-09T12:17:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T19:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=50047"},"modified":"2023-06-22T15:00:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T22:00:58","slug":"playing-the-blackjack-variants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/playing-the-blackjack-variants\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing the Blackjack Variants by Lone Wolf"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently had the pleasure of appearing on the \u201cGambling with an Edge\u201d radio show, and I spent some time talking about playing variants of blackjack. Although we talked about some of the advantages of doing this on the show, I wanted to summarize some of these advantages. Here are several reasons to play other versions of blackjack found in the casino.<\/p>\n

To begin with, you are far less likely to be caught counting while playing a blackjack variant. Many of these games are located in carnival pits, with no blackjack games around them. Typically you are surrounded by games like War, Let It Ride, and Four Card Poker. In this situation the pit and the dealers are not likely to be looking for card counters. On top of that, your play itself is counterintuitive to most dealers. There tend to be very few of these games available in the casino, so the dealers do not know the correct plays for these games. Take for example the game of Spanish 21. This game elicits correct plays that just seem wrong to the average player. It is quite common for me to be sitting at a table, asking the dealer to give me a card, while all the other players at the table are saying \u201cNo, don\u2019t hit!\u201d, and the dealer is asking me \u201cAre you sure?\u201d. Of course, if I bust first and then the dealer busts as well, everyone else at the table gets paid and I am considered the village idiot. At this point, both the dealers and pit bosses assume my play is of no threat to the casino.<\/p>\n

A second advantage of variants is increased payment errors. Many of these games have special rules: blackjack pays even money, or late surrender, or a slew of funny payouts for specialty hands. It is not uncommon to get paid 3 to 2 on an even money game, or to be offered even money before the dealer checks for blackjack on a game that should only pay even money after the dealer checks for blackjack. Late surrender is also a dying breed in many casinos. So, when a variant offers late surrender, many dealers don\u2019t know the actual rule. Frequently late surrender in these games becomes early surrender because the dealers just don\u2019t know the rule properly. The payment errors on specialty hands are random, but add significantly to your expected value.<\/p>\n

A third advantage of playing blackjack variants is the comps. Casinos comp players based on their average bet, the time played, and the expected house value of the game. Most variants have a higher expected house value than a regular blackjack game. Therefore, casinos comp players more for playing a blackjack variant than they do for playing a regular blackjack game. This means nicer rooms, more meals, and in terms of expected value (EV), more free play opportunities. When I switched to playing more blackjack variants, the increased comps were very noticeable. The matchplay coupons that I received tended to be of much higher value and I tended to get more of them. This definitely adds to the EV of playing these games.<\/p>\n

A final advantage to playing the variants, is that you can play longer sessions and spread your bets more. Although the theoretical expected value of playing blackjack tends to be higher than playing the variants, the practical expected value of the variants can easily beat blackjack. When the casinos see a player playing these games and they think that you are playing poorly, they pay very little attention to you. This allows for much longer playing sessions and allows you to spread your bets without worrying about heat. One of the most extreme cases of this for me was when I played at a table several years ago for over eight hours and spread my bets from $5 a hand to $400 a hand multiple times over the length of that session. There is no way that I would ever sit at a blackjack table for eight hours spreading my bets 80 to 1. The increased playing time and spreads produced an expected value that I could never hope to achieve at a regular blackjack table.<\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t dismiss these games because you think they\u2019re no good. In the end, you might find them to have more value than you thought.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently had the pleasure of appearing on the \u201cGambling with an Edge\u201d radio show, and I spent some time talking about playing variants of blackjack. Although we talked about some of the advantages of doing this on the show, I wanted to summarize some of these advantages. Here are several reasons to play other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[686],"tags":[54],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying the Blackjack Variants by Lone Wolf - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/playing-the-blackjack-variants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing the Blackjack Variants by Lone Wolf - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently had the pleasure of appearing on the \u201cGambling with an Edge\u201d radio show, and I spent some time talking about playing variants of blackjack. 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