Blackjack at The Palazzo and The Venetian

A little more research for my trip to Las Vegas brings me to blackjack.

Blackjack on the Las Vegas strip over the past couple of years has gone from paying out 3:2 to 6:5 for blackjack in many casinos. For example; the Harrah’s properties seem to exclusively only pay out 6:5 on blackjack.

I look for any advantage I can get so I look for 3:2 blackjack.

On a small scale this isn’t much of a big deal, but the house edge increases about 1.5% when only paying out 6:5. One of the reasons people play blackjack is that the house edge is so small that money lasts for a while.

You can check house edge based on different rules with the calculator on Wizard of Odds.

Sometimes to offset a 3:2 blackjack game casinos will use a continuous shuffling machine (CSM). I don’t like playing these kind of tables because every hand is like the first hand being dealt from a shoe. There is no counting cards with a CSM and no predictability of the upcoming cards. I don’t count cards, but I pay attention to face cards and usually know when the deck is heavy or light with face cards.

Until this research I thought the CSM decreased player odds a lot. I never looked at the math behind a CSM. The CSM actually decreases house advantage. This surprised me, but it’s hard to argue with the math. This only changes my mind a little. I still don’t want to play a game with a CMS, but with this knowledge I hate it a little less.

On to my research for my house casino(s) – Palazzo and Venetian. I found that they both have plenty of blackjack that is hand hand shuffled and dealt from a shoe and pays 3:2. After my last trip where I saw only 6:5 games at Caesars Palace this is nice to see. I didn’t play any blackjack on that trip. Onward and upward!