Table Games Best Low Minimum Blackjack

Hey all,

I'll be hitting Vegas and looking to gamble for a bit for the first time next week. I'd like to play $10-15 hands but am considering $25 (I've read that if I play for 10 hours on $5-10 tables with bad rules, I'll end up losing the same amount as I would on a $25 table with the best rules).

So I need some direction: Where is the best place to play more in that $15 range?

I'll $25 if I absolutely have to, but is there a place that will stand on 17, let me double after split, double down anytime and split anything while betting $15?

Just curious about where to take my business.

 

If you want to venture downtown, El Cortez has a single-deck game that pays 3-2 and probably has about the lowest house edge in the city.

For the Strip, here's Wizard of Vegas's listings as of mid-March.....if this is accurate, you can find $15 S17 games at MGM and Bellagio. The rest of the S17 games seem to have astronomical mins.

http://wizardofvegas.com/guides/blackjack-survey/

 

Monte Carlo has a $10 min that has a house edge of 0.00% is there a catch there?

 

Thanks for that helpful chart. That Wizard of Vegas chart has a game at the Monte Carlo with a 0% house edge. Is that right? Possible? real? haha I'm just incredulous that such a game exists. Why shouldn't I just go play a really long time at $15-25 there? Might run through quite a bit of play. I feel like I have to be missing something.

 

This isn't as accurate as one would hope. I think the availability/limits of most casinos are quite dated.

It's probably a typo. The rules look the same as the game below it which is listed at 0.50%.

One of the better games I am aware of at the $15 level that is available consistently is the Margaritaville game. 0.57% house edge. Hoping for S17 for anything outside of high limit is nearly laughable on the Strip now. Your first concern at lower limits is finding a 3:2 game.

 

You're not going to find a S17 game with DAS for less than $25, unless Golden Nugget still has their 6-deck shoe with those rules at $10 or $15.

(but I think theirs is $25 now as well).

MGM may still have their 8-deck shoe, $15 min, 3:2, S17, DAS, RSA & LS.

I've never played it, but the last I read, they have one such table.

If you're willing to give up on S17, Gold Coast has a great 2-deck game that allows DAS ($5 & $10 min.)
Downtown, the only 2-deck games with DAS under $50 are at Plaza, LVC & ElCo. I've read that DTG has one too, but I did not see it when I walked through.
(Be warned about the ElCo single-deck game - I believe it's double on 10 & 11 only...and it's H17 like everywhere else.)

 

Back in the late 90s, you had single-deck games at the Westward Ho and Slots-A-Fun where the player had the edge over the casino, assuming perfect basic strategy for the rules. Nearby Circus Circus had a SD game with a miniscule house edge. Of course, back then, every blackjack table at Binion's downtown was single-deck 3/2, many times with $3-5 minimums.

When Atlantic City first opened, reportedly they allowed early surrender, which enabled players to surrender before the dealer checked for blackjack. This also gave players the edge off the top.....don't know how long early surrender lasted there.

The OP seems to have done his/her homework, but I think its important to ask what your bankroll is.

 

The El Co single deck game is double on any two cards.

 

OK...my mistake...then it must be 'no DAS'. I know there's a reason I always play the double-deck game there instead of the single-deck.

 

Yes the no DAS sounds right for single deck.

 

Keep in mind, although the $25 game has better odds, you will need a commensurate increase in your bankroll to account for the variance. With the same bankroll as a $10 lousy (don't play 6?5!!!) rules game your $25 risk of ruin increases due to less ability to ride out bad stretches over those hoped for 10 hours.

 

I have played the Monte Carlo game as recent as January and it's a very good game. I don't know how many decks, but it's definitely S17, DAS, RSA, surrender, and it's low minimums during the day (methinks $15) and only $25 at night on the weekend. And, it's a shoe game, not a CS game.

Very good rules. The WoV Blackjack Survey is obviously wrong when it says zero house edge and no S17 for the Monte Carlo game.

I stay at Aria but I hate the CS games there (you pretty much have to play $100 to get a shoe game there). I hear CS machines should be a better game, but I always feel like I do much worse on them and I tend to avoid them as a result.

 

This past September I played mostly at MGM and Monte Carlo.

MGM had $5, 8 deck shoe game 3:2, H17, DAS, RSA every weekday in the morning until about 10 or 11am. it then went to $10 until about 4-5pm, then to $15 at night and there were always 2-3 tables that stayed at $15 the whole night. On weekends they just started out at $10 in the early morning and go to $15 much sooner.

Monte Carlo had a $10 6 deck shoe game 3:2, H17, DAS, RSA at all times and then $15 on weekend nights.

 

The last time I was in Vegas (November) NYNY was advertising a 24/7 $5 BJ table does anyone know what the rules are at this table?

 

i can tell u they hit soft 17 , that all i know

 

Anyone play lately @ Mandalay during the graveyard/early morning hours? My friend used to always make me play there with him for 1-2 hours a day before I could play the limits that I wanted to play. This table was a 6 deck shoe with stand on all 17s and had a $15 min during these times. I think that they had at least 2 if not 4 tables like this ...

 

The few times I've gone they had a whole pit of $5 tables, ALL 6:5. And ALL jam-packed.

 

NYNY only has four 3-2 tables outside of the high limit room. Two of them are double deck $25 H17 tables, two of them are normal six deck H17 shoe games in the same pit as the Paigow Poker tables. Everything else is 6-5.

 

According to the Wizards Blackjack house edge chart, the single deck with no DAS has a slightly better return than the double deck with DAS.

Go figure? Well, the Black Jacks are more frequent. Dealer shuffles around 60%.

http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/calculator/

.

 

Definitely an Advantage Player's Point of view. Agreed.