First time poster, but I've been lurking for a while. I just want to lament the lack of a reputable online casino with table winner format. The only place to play is Global Player and let's face it, they are a bit sketchy as posted in the other thread. Their regular blackjack has an unsually low payout compared to crypto and microgaming casinos. In addition, they claim that their blackjack has actual penetration that with a decent size bet spread would be conquerable given their double points freaky fridays. I've read some threads over at BJ21 and some players have actually attempted to Card Count and they all experienced an unusual loss in the 5% tile. I don't dispute that tournaments are fair, but the unusual blackjack payout would be enough to dissuade me from playing at any casino. If they're untrustworthy about one area, it's possible that attitude permeates everywhere else. The only place to play right now is the Net Entertainment and Crypto tournaments and those can be awfully similar to playing the lottery. If only Party Poker were to offer blackjack tournaments...
First Time Poster pCubed, It sounds like you are making assumptions without any actual 1st hand experience at the online casino you are condeming. "Lets face it" as you state, 1 post by another does not make that post correct. You need to do a little more homework, Global shuffles after every hand except in shoe dealt games. As far as card counting it is possible if you pay attention to the discard tray in shoe games, if not shame on you. I have played their regular BJ games but doubt you have, you're post seems to be based on 2nd hand opinions which you take as gospel. Try the games yourself and then report 1st hand your results and opinions, don't be so positive in your opinion based on others posts.
I certainly understand how you could think I have not experimented with Global Player. As a matter of fact, I do have a global player account and I have experimented with them and yes I do know about the lack of a card in the discard tray to signify a reshuffle. Doing accurate research about casinos can be as effective as playing them first hand. In fact, it can be better than playing them first hand as you can avoid obvious crooks like the Oyster, Cassinova, and a few Playtechs. Would I want to put my own dollars just to see first hand at these places? Nah, I trust the statistics and experiences. I can see how by looking at my post number of an enormous sum of 1, now 2, it might seem I am inexperienced. Regardless of how inexperienced I may appear, I can assure you the gentlemen over at BJ21 and Arnold Snyder are not inexperienced. They are about as close to blackjack demi-gods as it gets. I would not dispute their logs and record of results, especially since more than one other person experienced the same 5% tile distribution loss. I am not speaking for Ken, but in his BlackjackInfo threads, he wonders how such a relatively juicy game has not been burned out yet. "Since they use proprietary software, it seems almost troubling that this game still exists. Is it fair? I don't know. There are a lot of bad blackjack players out there, but are there enough to offset the skilled players of this game? On the reassuring side, I played a lot of video poker there before they removed the 100+% games, and I hit several $4000 royals." -Ken- So all-in-all, I still wish a site with more credibility offered table tournaments.
Lately there have been more and more percentage-based tournaments popping up, along with several of the accumulation-style events online. Obviously nothing can compare to true multi-player table-style events though. Hang in there, I've seen the new UBT-style software that should be launching fairly soon, and it's worth the wait. More details should be forthcoming quite soon.
Loosen up Pcubed If you have an account with Global why don’t you play a few tournament games? You can play everyday on the Sit & Go in or the main tournament every Wednesday (I’m sure you already looked it up). Test it out for yourself. Enter the chat room whilst you play and you will get to know some of the regular players and I am sure that they will make you welcome. Good luck and welcome to the site. Andy
Several $4,000 VP Royals and still no credibility??? pCubed, I am not questioning your research, only your conclusions. Global Player Casino has dozens or more of regular or daily players that have complete faith that GPC runs a fair online casino including me that has played there for over a year. None of the regulars have ever had anything except praise to say about Global. For someone that states they have hit several $4,000 VP royals (which I doubt unless you have played thousands of VP games there or are the luckiest SOB on their site) you are condeming a site as unhonest where you made a ton of money. Come join us to form your own personal opinion without outside influence, after all with several $4,000 VP wins as you stated you can afford a few 15/1 BJ sit and go's. As the new groom said to the priest about sex "You no playa the game you no maka the rules".
Actually rookie, the quote about hitting several $4K royals was mine, from a post over at BJInfo. If you'll look at pCubed's message again, you'll see what I mean.
"Quote" Ken, thanks for the explanation. I missed that because it was made in a separate paragraph and became disconnected from his reference to you. I didn't notice the quotation marks and it appeared to me when I read it as a 1st party statement. pCubed, my apology for putting words in your mouth.
I don't know if it is appropriate to answer in this thread, but after all it concerns me directly: I have written the Global's BJ software. Can I ask anyone who has anything to complain about these games to contact me via Global? It is very unfair to post such numbers without giving us a chance to verify and clarify. For instance, our shoe games are configured very tightly - you can win a little when you count and make no mistakes but since most of the players do make at least slight mistakes, the games are still profitable. Losing 5% is next to impossible unless there is an error somewhere. I cannot say that our software is 100% without errors, no program over 100 lines is, but if no-one complains, it is quite difficult to find out; still the most likely explanation for such figures is a wrong way to gather the data or a bad will. The average payouts of all our games, which you can find at http://www.global-player.com/pages/03_payout_percentage06.html are live figures from our games, 95% for blackjack would be something I would immediately spot and research, so far this was never the case. Of course you don't have to trust these figures, but what about giving us a fair chance?
Global I posted a ramble sometime back on this, so I'll be brief. Maybe. I believe the sit n go BJ tourney's, the Wednesday tourney's and the special TX Cruise Sunday tourney's are worth every dime invested. If! there is a negative skew somewhere it all washes out in the tourney's. And in the tourney's there is deck penetration with discard tray observation for the reshuffle. I've played some of the regular bj games and have done ok. far ahead of expectation, but I don't play them often and only while waiting for a tourney to start. My predeliction, but most are constant shuffle or 6-deck, who knows pen? Wouldn't play them regularly expecting a big ev, cause I also wouldn't play "Slots of Fun" regularly, if at all. Don't know the numbers, or care to find out, or waste my time tyrying to calculate them on VP or roulette, not my games. Some play for the bonus. But you've got to have the bankroll. Also don't like the gamemaster format, so I've never done that. BUT, the other tourney's are GR8. And as I posted earlier, the CUSTOMER Service at Global far exceeds ANYONE on line or site live.
In response to Micha The people who are in the know and probably most accessible are the gentlemen over in BlackjackForum. Try contacting them. http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/ That website pretty much says GP is iffy. "Reliable reports of statistically significant negative results on their software indicating possible non-random software. Research is ongoing." I would love for GP to clear up any misconception and have it's reputation come out cleaner for it. I like playing at any honest casino with good games and good rules.
FWIW pCubed.. and anyone else interested. I've been playing at GP for a few years now and have never had any reason to doubt their honesty. But after reading some of the negative comments about their blackjack game, I decided to resolve the issue personally by documenting a sample of hands to determine the payback. I did not know what sample size would be sufficient, but was prepared to play a few thousand hands at various dollar amounts. I played the 6 deck AC game and bet based primarily on the running count. Bets were either $1, $10, or $25. As I said, I was prepared to play a large number of hands. But after 528 hands, the data was so close to expectation (actually slightly above), I was satisfied with the integrity of the game and discontinued play. The numbers were, 235 wins (44.5%). 249 losses (47.15%). 44 ties (8.33%). The breakdown by bets of $1; 135 wins, 160 losses, 26 ties. For $10; 70 wins, 65 losses, 10 ties. And $25; 30 wins, 24 losses, and 8 ties. Net profit of $228. I realize this is a relatively low sample number. However, if the game were so biased as proposed, it would be quite noticeable even with this small number of hands.
I do not understand the intention of your post. 528 is not even remotely close to a decent sample size. So why mentioning it?
Does that mean that GP is countable? Walt - You said that you based your bet size on the RC. Does this mean that counting is a worthwhile activity at GP i.e. You get an advantage over them? Cheers Reachy
You are correct in stating that proving the game is fair would take a much larger sample. I think Walt's point is this... If the game were substantially skewed, then a small number of hands could be a decent sample size. That is, if they are cheating in a big way, it would not take that many hands to see the effect. Instead, Walt's small data shows a nice profit at the larger bet amounts.
Dondon's answer Dondon, I mention this for two reasons. First of all, it shows there is not a major bias in the game. But I thought it was also worth mentioning because of the several posts that have insinuated that GP is cheating. They did so without any substantiation other than they read it or heard it. The information in my post is at least based on actual experience. Now if you'd like to give me a number that would represent a suitable sample, I'd be happy to split the work with you.
