State calls Bloomy bluff, gloms OTB; Takeout up 1%

[ShadowRoll]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

A blackjack game can be "better" for any of these reasons:

1. better rules (see response to CS).
2. better penetration (more cards dealt before shuffling)
3. clueless pit/surveilance personnel (can't identify card counters)
4. tolerant pit personnel (not overly worried about card counters)

--Dunbar

When I was in college, I spent one summer "down the shore" (Atlantic City) with the intention of being a card counter. In preparation, I bought a decent book on the subject, taught myself how to count and practiced with fair regularity. Just before I moved down, they changed the game there rather significantly, increasing the number of decks in the shoe and changing some rules, the most significant of which was eliminating "early drop," without which the player lost a large edge he previously enjoyed. I decided that grinding out a profit under the rule renovations at my level of skill (or lack thereof) was so tough, that instead of card counting, my time was better spent working a crappy job during the day to get money and going to the bars in Margate at night to get drunk.

So, yeah, there are certainly ways for some games of blackjack to be "better" than others.

I did get pretty good at getting drunk, though.