Table Games Tell us it ain’t so, ElCo! No more single deck blackjack

John Mehaffey reports that it actually went away April 28: https://vegasadvantage.com/el-cortez-single-deck-blackjack/

 

Interesting observations by John. Indicates right before covid you could play $2 live roulette and $5 live craps at ElCo. Now, according to him, the normal mins at ElCo for those are $10 and $15. A good number of downtown places charging $15 for dice really sucks.

On one of the Twitter threads he said the Fremont blackjack game didn't offer DAS. I thought topcard indicated that they have recently offer DAS there.

 

Yeah, he saw my tweet about this thread and went down to confirm. Sad days

 

Honestly, anyone who was winning (counting or not) pretty much got backed off anyway, so… I’m not heartbroken.

 

Exactly.

 

El Cortez taught their dealers how to count? I don't think I've ever seen a single blackjack dealer anywhere that I thought was remotely competent in the game.

 

I kind of agree with that, but somehow at ELCO they figured out a way.

 

Preferential shuffling in a single deck game is trivially easy. Look at the cards on the table after the first round. If there are more low cards than high cards, the count is positive and you should shuffle. If there are more high cards than low cards, the count is negative and you should deal another round. No need to figure an exact count, or remember the count from round to round, or do a true count conversion, or any of the other skills that actually make card counting a bit challenging. I haven't seen El Co dealers deal more than two rounds in a single deck game with more than one player at the table in many years. Trust me, the 1D game going away is no great loss. As I mentioned above, their obsession with limiting bet sizes and spreads coupled with lousy penetration and preferential shuffling made the game truly unplayable. The 2D game at El Co has been a far superior (albeit not great) opportunity for many years.

That being said, I'm certain several of the dealers at the El Co (and a number of other properties) can count, at least on a basic level. It's not as difficult as many people think. Counting cards is the easy part. Getting away with it for an extended period of time for large stakes is the challenge.

 

I have to agree with @vegaskid74
The physical act of counting is incredibly easy
Strategy changes,bankroll management and remaining undetected while getting a decent spread are the hard parts
None of which the dealers have to do

 

Ah, I didn't realize it was that trivial in single deck.

As for dealers, I don't think I've talked to a single dealer who even knows actual basic strategy. If I have, it's a handful out of hundreds.

 

That's definitely true. It's certainly a small minority of dealers who can actually count (more than just looking at the spread on the table and eyeballing whether the count went up or down that round), but I've run across a number of them through the years.

 

Sure seems like most dealers are very ignorant regarding the more unusual "basic strategy" plays, but a surprising number of them even advocate taking 'even money' when you have a blackjack against their Ace.
I can't remember the actual numbers on that hand, but I do know that you give up a ton of EV by doing that.

Now, with that said, there are definitely times when I vary from 'basic strategy' - typically, based on the cards already dealt, and especially when I have a hard 16 in a double-deck game, and a handful of 4s & 5s are already gone - I stand.
I've also been known to double 10 against a dealer Ace - I call it the "no fear" play!

 

There have been so many times that I have heard a dealer say "the book says......" and quite often they are absolutely incorrect.

 

No! I am gutted to hear that news! What's the table minimum for their 2-deck game?

 

Yes. For at least two decades they have been notorious for this, sweating even small spreads (as sited in another post), and being the easiest place to get backed off or banned, so it is surprising to see this end of single deck viewed as a significant loss.

And as far as the comments about how can they do preferential shuffling if the dealers don't know how to count cards, they judge by the players upping their bets as they deal deeper into the deck, and assume it is due to the count. "Oh, you are increasing your bet from $15 to $50 now that I am down to the end of the deck...again? Okay, time for a shuffle. Let's see if you keep that $50 bet still up on the new shuffle"

 

On a weekend in March most 2D tables were $15, they would have $10 some mornings and even had 1 (packed) $10 at night.

 

Yep, this back-and-forth can get pretty ridiculous and even a bit fun. Oh, you want to shuffle every time I raise my bet? I'll just raise my bet as soon as the count goes negative to get you to shuffle away the bad count. Of course, after a while the whole thing becomes extremely tiresome, and when you realize they're going to blow a gasket every time you go above $100, you leave and never come back. Which I suppose is what they wanted in the first place. I've known counters who tried to survive 10 or 20 hours at El Co without getting backed off as a badge of honor, but I've never known anyone who tried to make significant money there over an extended period of time. At least not through straight counting.

 

The keyword here is "significant"!
Over the years, I've done OK at the El-Co, playing their $10-$15 double-deck tables, spreading 1-to-4 units.
So, no - not any significant money, but wins nonetheless!

I think that modest spreads (such as mine) garner very little scrutiny - especially with the table-minimum being the base-bet.
Certainly, even at my level, I've noticed my play being "carefully" watched by pit-critters, but I've never been backed-off or flat-betted.

 

A rare El Co success story!!! You must be pretty smooth with your bet changes, because tons of folks have been backed off there for much less. How long is a typical session there for you?

 

Typically, any given session is 2 to 3 hours, assuming that I’m holding my own.
That might occur twice during a gambling day, especially if I don’t do well at other downtown properties.

My session wins are usually quite modest, but then so are my losses.
My usual session bankroll is $200, and my typical win is $75-to-$150. I think I win about 60-70% of the time.
When I lose, it’s usually $100 even.
Like I said- not significant, but still bankroll positive for me on most visits there.