Just leaving Vegas now. Man - the nights this week were COLD. Good to see the city pretty much all the way back. Biggest shock to me was how difficult it was to find a regular blackjack table. Played at Planet Hollywood for convenience and there was one double deck blackjack table open. $50 min. One. All the other table games were progressive games with multi bet action. Lots more poker games, pai how etc. I asked about it and the regular blackjack went to a theatre type set up with everyone playing machines. I’m still pissed that they increased the house edge with the BS 6-5 blackjack payouts. First they said it was to offset drinks. Only at lower limit tables. Higher limit paid 3/2 still. But now it’s all 6/5. Rip off
Noticed this Bigly downtown.
$5-10 daytime or $10-15 nightime PLUS Mandatory $2 Progressive bet
(IF You hit blackjack the digital wheel will spin and almost always land on $20 or $30..... with a rare $40, $50 or uber rare $70 hit. There were lots of 3 digit, 4 digit and progressive ($10-20k) spaces but they never ever hit in prob 100-125 spins that I saw. I don't know what that house edge add would be... but it's enough that I still played $10-15/hand on $5 min table just to offset that fixed $2 hit a little.
Noticed one bizarre variation : LUCKY CAT Blackjack.
Lucky Cat Blackjack at Golden Nugget now requires a $2 side bet. We estimate the house edge on this game to be 8.95% when making the minimum $7 bet.
vegasadvantage.com
Cliffs Notes:
+$2 Progressive Bet above
FREE Bonus : IF the dealer busts on exactly 22, they pull out a gold cup and roll 4 dice. You're paid a multiplier based on how many cat faces show up. 0x for 0 faces... 2x for 1 face...etc. I think I got 15x for 3 faces.
THE CATCH: AT one point some poor ******* went "all in" for $125. Got 8/3 and his buddy spotted him the $125 to double down.
He got 20! YAY!
Dealer Hit 22. **** Yeah! We all cheer... chanting "Roll the cats!"
No faces. 0x.
No biggie... he still gets paid for his win right?
No.
Dealer was a ***** so figured she was wrong. Called the floor over. They insist. Dude gets NOTHING. Basically a Push.
The lucky cat faces are on one of 6 sides. 4 dice. You do the math.