Blackjack At Foxwoods

Blackjack at Mohegan Sun. Blackjack is one of the most popular games at the Mohegan Sun and that is reflected in the number of tables. Namely, this casino features 116 Blackjack tables, with different wagering limits, designed to suit the needs of every player. Check the table’s blackjack rules. Before you start playing at a table, it’s important to find out how you will be paid for a blackjack. If you get a natural blackjack, a 21 on the first two cards dealt to you, a table may pay you 3:2, which is $3 for every $2 wagered. Others will pay you less, such as 6:5, and should be avoided.

$1 blackjack has arrived in my neck of the woods, Foxwoods, so I’ve been reading postings here and on other forums about the game which apparently has infested casinos everywhere. The 25-cent ante fee for Foxwoods tables was all I needed to hear to know the game is a MAJOR rip-off, but how bad is it? Specifics are hard to come by. Zoomie posting at BlackjackInfo.com estimates a house edge of nearly 19% for the 25-cent ante fee flavor. Can anyone provide the house edge for at least some of the many variations? Given the popularity of the game it might warrant some information on the Wizard of Odds site.
I saw something curious two weeks ago - an idle $5 table at Mohegan Sun at 10 am Saturday morning and empty seats at some of the other four tables. I haven’t seen idle $5 tables there since they closed the 12-$5-table pit years ago. I think the low-level players migrated to the $1 tables at Foxwoods. We like!
Serious players curl their lips at the game and they should. However, if I were to take a noobie pal to Foxwoods I think the $1 table would be great fun. For about $25 dollars he (or she) could play a real casino table game for an hour! They could get FREE DRINKS! Never mind they would be getting screwed far worse than playing slots. Playing just like the big boys *cough* would be a great memory.
So, can some of the forum members with better math skills than I give us some stats on the $1 blackjack games being offered? My apologies if this has been done already and I missed it.

So, can some of the forum members with better math skills than I give us some stats on the $1 blackjack games being offered? My apologies if this has been done already and I missed it.

It just depends on the Rules. Just take the Expected Loss for x amount bet by multiplying:
(House Edge Expressed as Decimal) * (Amount Bet) = Expected Loss
And, after you do that, add a quarter. After adding the quarter to the Expected Loss, you can then do:
(Expected Loss)/(Amount Bet) = New House Edge
Okay, so let's say it's eight-deck, dealer Hits S17, DAS, Double Anything, Resplit to Four Hands, No RSA, No HSA, No Surrender, Blackjack Pays 6:5
These rules yield a House Edge of 2.00291% with Optimal Play, so the expected loss on a $1.00 bet is obviously $0.0200291. If you add that quarter ante, the expected loss is $0.2700291 and the House Edge is 27.00291%.
If you bet $3 and must still pay the ante:
.0200291 * 3 = $0.0600873 Expected Loss
Add in the quarter, and it is $0.3100873, which means:
.3100873/3 = .1033624333~ or a 10.33624333~% House EdgeThanks Mission146! Your logic is easy to follow. Makes me feel like I should have kicked the problem around for a few days to see if I could have come up with something on my own. Accounting for the ante factor was throwing me. Most of the other variations can be addressed with the Wizard's calculator, I think.I don't like the free drinks argument because you should be tipping. If you are unwilling to pony up $80 more to cut down an extra 25% then obviously $1 is significant. (call them cheap drinks) . But thats not the only reason. You can get cheap drink service playing 1 penny at a time on something or a .25 BJ machine.
The question is.... are you willing to toss a quarter in the trash evry few minutes for entertainment? That's really what you are doing for the privilege of usiusing real cards and real chips to geg more hands. If you cant muster up $100 buy in to hit the $5 level instead. I'm thinking you probably shouldn't be playing In the casino.
If its just a matter of just not wanting to risk the money I say find a .5/ .25 BJ machine or nickel VP machine. You can play as slow or fast as you want.
ploppys can do as they wish with their own money and no one should berate them(without them we wouldn't have casino's) but if you have any influence in guiding someone on a path, I say discurrage them from commission BJ.

ploppys can do as they wish with their own money and no one should berate them(without them we wouldn't have casino's) but if you have any influence in guiding someone on a path, I say discourage them from commission BJ.

I agree, but still feel $1 BJ with ante might be a worthwhile introductory experience for a novice, something easier to 'sell.' When suggesting a 10-hand session just to give it a try the possibility of losing [ignoring possible DD/splits] $12.50 would be far more acceptable than $50 or $100.
Tip of the hat again to Mission146 for his insight in calculating the effect of an ante on house edge. Based on what I learned from him, here's a table I came up with for Foxwoods' $1-wager/25-cent-ante game:

Blackjack At Foxwoods

Here's that data in graphic form:
Clearly the game sucks big time. For what it's worth, kicking up the wager to $3 lowers the HE to slot level. Whoopie!
Thanks to all for comments. I have me answer to the question 'HOW bad is $1 BJ?' At least for the game at Foxwoods.BTW, the cell formula could have been expressed as =B$1+B$2/D2, so the house edge is increased by the ante divided by the wager. That's just a simpler way to state the effect of the ante on the house edge. Doesn't reduce the suckage one iota.

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Connecticut Blackjack Report

by Bill Burton

Bill Burton is a best selling gaming author and columnist. He has been playing blackjack in casinos for 25 years. He started using the Hi/lo count and tried several others throughout the years. He attended one of the first Golden Touch Blackjack courses to learn Speed Count and now uses it exclusively because of its simplicity and ease of use. Bill shuns the high roller pits preferring to 'fly under the radar' and is more than content to walk away with small profits. In his career as a player he has never been barred using this tactic. Burton is also the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com located at: www.casinogambling.about.com. He is the author of '1000 Best Casino Gambling Secrets' and 'Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold'em'(the latter available at 10% discount in the BJI store). He is also an instructor for Golden Touch Craps: www.thecrapsclub.com

Connecticut Blackjack

Once again summer has arrived in Connecticut. The dead giveaway is not so much the soaring temperatures, as it is the soaring table limits at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos. During the winter months you can usually find a five- dollar game early in the morning on weekdays but when the summer tourist season arrives, these games disappear faster than an Ice Cream cone in the hot afternoon sun. I visited both casinos early on a Thursday morning and only found a few $10 games but if you plan to visit at night on the weekend you probably won’t even find a game at this level. You are more likely to find $15 or $25 as the lowest denomination game.

Foxwoods

Blackjack At Foxwoods

Of the two Connecticut casinos, Foxwoods is better for card counters. They offer an eight-deck game with about 75 percent penetration. In the Newport high roller casino they offer a six-deck game. Foxwood’s rules are: DOA, DAS, S17 and they are now offering late surrender. The only negative is that you can’t re-split aces.

Mohegan Sun

Craps At Foxwoods

Blackjack games at the Mohegan Sun have gone from bad to worse. In fact, the Mohegan Sun is a wasteland for counters. They used to deal a six-deck game at all tables with two decks cut off giving you only around 66% penetration. Now, however, continuous shufflers have replaced many of their six-deck games and the rest have been switched over to eight-deck games. The rules at the Mohegan Sun are the same as Foxwoods, however, at the Mohegan Sun you are not allowed to split tens if you so desire.

The Mohegan Sun is actually two casinos: The original Earth Casino and the newer Sky Casino. One thing the Mohegan Sun casino lacks is consistency in the number of decks and their mid shoe entry rule.

You can still find a few six-deck games in the 'Spring' section of the Earth Casino and in the high roller pit near the Fall section. In the Earth casino they do allow mid shoe entry on their six-deck games. However, over in the Sky casino you will find six-deck games in the high roller pit and in the adjacent pit # 22. The six-deck games in the Sky casino have No Mid Shoe Entry even though the penetration is terrible.

Comps

The comps at the Mohegan Sun have also been tightened more than they were before. Foxwoods is by far the more liberal of the two casinos when it comes to scoring a comp. Both casinos use the same comp system. Each point you earn is equal to $1, which can be used in the restaurants, retail stores or to pay your hotel bill. The Mohegan Sun also has a gas station and you can use your comps there as well.

As of June 1^st Foxwoods is offering same day cash back to their slot players. With the new cash back program players can redeem half of their points for cash at the rate of 50 cents per point. For example: If a slot player earns 20 points for the day, they can redeem 10 points for $5 in cash and the other 10 point remain on the players card.

Poker

The Mohegan Sun closed their poker room a few years ago and claim they have no plans to re-open it any time in the near future. Foxwoods expanded their poker room last November and now have a World Poker Tour branded room with 114 poker tables.

Video Poker

Unfortunately, Connecticut is a video poker wasteland. Foxwoods has three, old Double Jackpot machines in the old Bingo Hall. These are the only three full pay machines in the casino and I think they are there by mistake. They used to have full pay Pick’em poker, but they recently changed the pay table so 3-of-a-kind pays 4 instead of 5 coins. Most of the JOB are 6/5 machines and all of the deuces wild games are short pay as well.

The Mohegan Sun still has a six or seven full pay Pick’em games in the old poker room. All the others have been lowered to pay 4 coins for 3-of-a-kind (they way Foxwoods did). There are no other playable video poker games at either casino.