Blackjack- I went ten years between hands. My first experience did me in for a decade. May 1993, bought in for $40 for my virgin BJ experience. I had a clue about BS. Wiped out in ten minutes at the El Rancho (roacho). Did not play regular BJ until 14 months ago. Promos-I found BJ a way to get drawing tickets besides VP. When you figured it out it was the cheapest way sometimes. GNL had a BJ only promo last summer with daily and end of promo drawings that were too strong to ignore, so I got hooked on BJ. GNL took down the Carribean Poker table and had a progressive Jackpot they had to get rid of, so the $10 value/BJ promo. Tourneys-Started doing the daily at Colorado Belle. That is a different animal but usually positive with the $300 guaranteed money ($500 saturday). Elvis showed up at the Edgewater. I still havn't stepped up to a real tourney yet, but the invite came in the mail today. Harrahs-L had a promo Jan 2- Feb 15. I played their crummy Wheel of Madness DD game to get suited BJs, which earned drawing tickets. They pulled 5 out daily for their $28k invite tourney for next weekend. Comped room/rules-reception/banquet. Time to step up. (No clue about format either) Hope the heart can take it!
how did i get here? well unless you're playing at a "land-based" casino, there's not much chance to get a reply...i played some games in college and found success in vegas. i'm entering a tournament at the tropicana in july because it's comped (so easy to get comped at the trop) and my college buddies are coming in to party...why am i here? i was an econ major in college and took some intensive math classes...blackjack turned out to be a practical application no one ever mentioned. thanks to those which compiled the information on this site.
Stay away from blackjack side bets! Of course, Wheel of Madness is only crummy if you play the optional $ side bet every hand waiting for a BJ. Otherwise it is regular blackjack. Let me tell you about a REALLY crummy (+ any disparaging adjectives you can think of, including vulgar ones!) game. For about 2 years now at Mohegan Sun they have had $5 minimum game called “Blackjack Bonanza†with a mandatory $1 side bet. So it’s actually a $6 minimum. A special 8-deck set of cards has a dollar amount, such as $10, $25, $100, $???, up to $2500 printed on each of the Aces and 10-value cards. The cards are dealt from a shoe and regular house blackjack rules apply. When you get a BJ, if the dollar figures on the Ace and T match, you get a bonus of that amount in addition to the regular 3/2 blackjack payoff on your base bet. If they don’t match you get $5 as a bonus. If you don’t have a BJ the $1 side bet is immediately whisked away into the dealer tray. So, for 20 of 21 hands on average, you fork over a 20% premium (at the minimum $5 base bet) in the hopes of hitting it big on the blackjack when it finally comes. How’s that for a ripoff?! I’ll bet the hold on this game beats 6/5 blackjack. I don’t know how many of each denomination for the bonus amount there is, but you can be sure that most of them are $10. I did find out from a dealer that there are only 2 Aces and 2 Kings with the maximum $2500. I would never play this game, but the fact that it is still there after 2 years tells you something about those who do. --jr
Blackjack Bonanza has just enough of the big-jackpot appeal to likely be very successful. You're right, it's probably a big money-maker for the Mohegan Sun. Side bets are usually brutal, but there are occasional exceptions. I like seeing new sidebets introduced, because there have been a number of exploitable ones in the past. One of my favorites was a side-bet called "Hedge Bet" which was offered for only a few days at Boomtown Biloxi. It was a side bet where you could bet that the dealer's hand would be pat, requiring no drawing. There was extra money if it was a dealer 20 IIRC. The nice thing about this was that in profitable situations , much of the risk is that the dealer will have a nice hand as well. Despite the large starting house edge, the vig on this bet was highly variable, and often strongly favored the player. Thus this bet was indeed an excellent "hedge". It was profitable, low variance, and regrettably short-lived.
Lady Luck side bet I actually enjoy the Lucky Lady Blackjack game. The side bet is if the Player makes 20 on their first two cards. Everything else is just normal Blackjack. I know Hardrock, Green Vally Ranch, and Stardust have the tables. When the time is right I've played up to $25-$50 on the side bet before. What will drive you crazy is I won...LOL. Payouts are: "MUST BE ON YOUR FIRST TWO CARDS" 20 pays 4-1.........................10-Q, K-J, 9-A Same suit: 9-1.....................Q of Spades & King of Spades Matched suit 19-1................Jack of Diamonds and Jack of Diamonds Queen of Hearts 125-1...................................Two Queen of Hearts And Queen of Hearts with Dealers BJ 1000-1 Hardrock deals from 6 deck shoe (6 Queen of Hearts in each shoe). I have hit the 2 Queen of Hearts twice with $5 bets ($625), Once at the Hardrock the Dealer was showing an Ace, but didn't have it ($5 would have won me $5,000). Stardust has higher odds on their double deck game. Last April I friend I introduse to the game hit the 2 Queen of Hearts at the Stardust with $5 and won $1,000, (200-1).
TX, you probably should edit this post (player instead of dealer) All us experienced players know there is some kind of error here. (can dislexia apply to whole words? LoL. But to anyone who has not seen this side bet, it would be very confusing as to what is going on. I too have seen this game with higher odds on a DD game...I think it was at Sunset Station. Like insurance, there needs to be a preponderance of T's to make it worthwhile. --jr
Dislexia to say the least...LOL Thanks Jackaroo, playing a game were you side bet on the dealer getting 20 is pretty tough...lol. Thanks for catching that, I owe you a drink next time were in Vegas.
