{"id":330,"date":"2017-02-08T17:20:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T17:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blackjackclassroom.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2022-09-27T09:11:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T14:11:02","slug":"good-blackjack-rules-or-penetration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackjackclassroom.com\/blog\/good-blackjack-rules-or-penetration","title":{"rendered":"Good Blackjack Rules or Penetration?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Blackjack Rules or Penetration \u2013 Greater Impact on Card Counting?<\/h2>\n

There are many conditions in blackjack that make a game more or less profitable for card counting. Two of the most important conditions are the blackjack rules of the table and what is referred to by card counters as the dealer penetration. When counting cards in blackjack<\/a> you\u2019re looking for the best combination of the two in order to maximize the expected value of your play.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by defining what we mean when we talk about \u201cgood blackjack rules\u201d and \u201cgood dealer penetration\u201d. I will then go through a quick analysis of which condition is more important in maximizing your profit potential. As always, my main focus in blackjack is increasing profits.<\/p>\n

Good Blackjack Rules<\/h2>\n

H17 or S17<\/strong> \u2013 This refers to the dealer hitting or standing on Soft 17. We prefer the dealer to stand.<\/p>\n

DAS<\/strong> \u2013 This refers to a player\u2019s ability to double after splitting. If you split your 8\u2019s and get a 3 to make 11, you want to be able to double down on the 11.<\/p>\n

RSA<\/strong> \u2013 This refers to the player\u2019s ability to resplit aces after an initial splitting of aces. If you split a pair of aces and get a third ace, you want to be able to split that into a third hand.<\/p>\n

LS<\/strong> \u2013 This refers to a player\u2019s ability to surrender. Surrendering allows you to forfeit your hand and get half of your bet back without playing out the hand. This is commonly used when on a player\u2019s 16 versus a dealer showing a 10.<\/p>\n

These are the main blackjack rule variations you will encounter, but it\u2019s certainly not all of them. We\u2019re going to assume you\u2019re getting the full 3:2 payment on blackjack and you can double any two initial cards dealt.<\/p>\n

Preferred Rules: To get the best of these rules, you want the dealer standing on Soft 17 and you want to have the DAS, RSA and LS options available to you.<\/p>\n

Good Dealer Penetration<\/h2>\n

\u201cDealer penetration<\/a>\u201d is blackjack terminology used for describing how deep a dealer will deal into a deck (or multiple decks) before reshuffling. This is a critical concept in card counting. Penetration is determined by where the dealer places the cut card and it varies from casino to casino. A deeply placed cut card will show you a higher percentage of the cards in a shoe, therefore giving you more information to work with when tracking the count. It also causes high counts to occur more frequently and last longer. For basic strategy players, penetration really doesn\u2019t matter. For card counters, the deeper the penetration, the more profitable the game will be.<\/p>\n

Preferred Penetration: Typically a 6-deck game that deals 4 out of 6 decks is considered to have \u201cpoor penetration\u201d. Dealing 4.5 decks out of 6 before shuffling would be \u201caverage penetration\u201d. A casino that shows 5 full decks out of 6 before hitting the shuffle card has \u201cgood penetration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Therefore if Casino A is dealing 4 out of 6 decks before shuffling and Casino B is dealing 5 out of 6 decks before shuffling, Casino B is going to be a much more profitable game for card counting assuming the rules of the tables are similar.<\/p>\n

Greater Impact: Rules or Penetration?<\/h2>\n

Often the choice comes down to this\u2026 Do you go play at a casino that has all the best rules but poor penetration, or do you go for unfavorable rules with good penetration? Although you want the best of both, what if you have to decide between the two? Let\u2019s take a closer look at the relative performance under different rules and penetration levels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Blackjack Dealer Penetration<\/h2>\n

Here we see the relative profitability of three different sets of rules at four different depths of penetration. For this example I\u2019ve kept the parameters simple and consistent. I\u2019m using a 6-deck game with a Hi-Lo card counting system, 70 hands played per hour, 4 players at the table and an optimal betting ramp from 1-10 units with no back counting or backing out of negative counts. Manipulating any of these parameters will obviously change the chart somewhat. This chart would also look different if we analyzed a single deck, double deck or 8-deck game instead of this 6-deck game.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

You can see that if you have terrible rules on a game, you better have good dealer penetration if you want to make money. If you have great rules you can be a little more forgiving when it comes to the shuffle point. Then there\u2019s the middle ground of semi-decent rules and average penetration. The lesson to be learned here is that to be a successful card counter you really need to know how to analyze the quality of a game. There are also many other blackjack conditions to consider such as the level of casino heat you will get at different betting levels with different betting ramps. Hopefully I\u2019ll get a chance to cover some of these other issues in a future post. For now I hope this helps to clarify the decision between good rules and good penetration. Now go hit the tables and make some money!<\/p>\n

Also Checkout:<\/p>\n

BLACKJACK STRATEGY<\/a><\/p>\n

BLACKJACK TIPS<\/a><\/p>\n

CARD COUNTING IN BLACKJACK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Blackjack Rules or Penetration \u2013 Greater Impact on Card Counting? There are many conditions in blackjack that make a game more or less profitable for card counting. Two of the most important conditions are the blackjack rules of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGood Blackjack Rules or Penetration \u2013 Greater Impact on Card Counting?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BlackjackClassroom.com analysis of the importance of good blackjack rules versus deep dealer penetration. 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