Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy
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- Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy For Dummies
- Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy Tactics
- Star City Sydney Blackjack Rules(PDF).
- Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy Games
- Crown Casino Blackjack Tables - Lifestyle
Just remember that you are learning basic strategy for the particulars of this blackjack variation (6 deck shoe etc) which will be slightly different to other variations (most other live blackjack games are dealt from an 8 deck shoe for starters). Below is a short recording of a deal at Fairway Casino. Hope this helps your blackjack game! Blackjack is one of the most popular card games within Australia. While the amount of different variations of the game is abundant, it is important to try and play with the more traditional rules when following basic blackjack strategy. For instance, Melbourne's Crown Casino has recently in.
Crown casinos in Australia are the wonderful casinos and entertainment venues having casino in Melbourne, Perth and now soon in Sydney. Crown Melbourne was opened in 1997, and is a large integrated resort and has Australia’s largest casino, three hotels, function rooms, award winning restaurants and world-class shopping and entertainment facilities.
On 3 November 2014, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) amended the Melbourne Casino Licence to give effect to the agreement reached between Crown Melbourne and the Victorian State Government. Crown Melbourne is licensed to operate 2,628 gaming machines and 540 table games, with a casino licence that extends to 2050.
Crown Perth opened in 1985, and is Western Australia’s premier integrated resort with world-class convention and gaming facilities, three hotels, the newly-opened Crown Towers (with 500 rooms), the award-winning Crown Metropol (with 397 rooms) and the award-winning Crown Promenade (with 291 rooms), spa, resort pools, restaurants and bars, nightclub and 2,300-seat theatre. Crown Perth is also a significant tourist attraction in Western Australia. Crown Perth is licensed to operate 2,500 electronic gaming machines and 350 table games.
Crown Sydney is another upcoming casino by Crown offering world class, luxury six-star hotel resort, which incorporates VIP gaming facilities, at Barangaroo South, Sydney.
Blackjack tables at Crown Melbourne
Crown Casino has over 500 table games and 2,500+ pokie machines (including slots and video poker. Pokies machines betting limits start as low as one cent, with some VIP machines allowing bets of up to $5-$10 per spin. The major casino table games on offer include roulette, blackjack, craps, poker, pai gow, baccarat, casino war and sic bo, with other smaller gaming activities including the electronic version of roulette (Rapid Roulette), the big-wheel, tia to, and the electronic Vegas Star Roulette and Rapid Baccarat.
The casino area is huge with the numbers of Blackjack Tables as follows:
$10-$500: 16
$15-$700: 4
$25-$1000: 18
$50-$2000: 15
$100-$4000: 3
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At first it would appear that Crown now has some of the best conditions for card counters with one and a half to two decks being cut from the 8 decks in the shoe, and not a continuous shuffling machine in sight. Although there are no $5 tables for blackjack you should have no trouble finding a $10 table at any time of the day, especially in the upstairs gaming floor where they actually advertise ‘$10 blackjack tables available 24hours’.
However, on these $10 tables the maximum bet per box is only $200, which makes for a very poor spread when those high true counts come in. When you do need to make those big bets, one way around this restriction is to bet the maximum on more than one playing box, as the $200 maximum applies per box, not per table. This means that you could actually bet up to $1400 on a high true count hand.
Back betting is allowed up to three hands per box. Knowledge of basic strategy of the general player is quite good so this could be a good strategy. Also Crown has a sidebet called Perfect Pairs. It is based on the first two cards that are dealt to your hand. A mixed pair pays 6 to 1, a same coloured pair pays 12 to 1 and a perfect pair (two cards are exactly alike including colour and suit) pays 25 to 1.
Crown Perth offers lower priced tables of Blackjack and Roulette and you can experience the thrill of playing tables games with more $2.50 Roulette and $5 Blackjack Plus. So this is another variant of Blackjack available to play and it is known as Blackjack Plus. Blackjack Plus tables began to appear at Crown around 2011, and have since replaced most low-to-medium limit 21 games on the casino floor.
The game rules of this game have plenty to benefit the player:
- Natural blackjack pays 3/2
- All 21 hands are paid out straight away
- All five-card hands under 21 are paid out straight away
- Dealer stands on soft 17
- Players can double down on any hand of two or three cards
For starters, the 3/2 payout on a natural 21 is a significant improvement on the 6/5 return found in many Australian blackjack games. The fact all 21s and five-and-under hands win immediately but all these player-friendly rules are made redundant by one thing that the dealer cannot bust with 22.
If you are thinking how does the 22 rule affect the house edge then note that the original Crown Blackjack game bore a theoretical return of around 99.44 per cent – i.e. playing with good strategy, and you could expect to regain about $99.44 of every $100 wagered. With Blackjack Plus, that figure sinks as low as 97.14 per cent when using a full shoe of eight standard decks. In the blackjack world, where the casino’s mathematical advantage is often less than 0.50 per cent, a house edge of 2.86 per cent is extremely high.
Therefore if 1,000 punters gambled an average of $100 each, Crown could statistically expect to rake in over $28,000 –and that’s assuming every player is clued up and using basic strategy, which is incredibly unlikely. In the old 6/5 blackjack, that figure would be under $6,000. Finally understand that, Blackjack Plus is a gross perversion of the game of 21 and should be avoided and so as you can’t afford to bet $100 per hand, you may find that your options at Crown Casino are very limited.
Other Blackjack games at Crown Casino
You may find a few low-bet tables of Blackjack, but as a general rule you should expect to pay a minimum wager of $50 or more per hand.
Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy For Dummies
Crown Blackjack: This game varaint uses conventional Australian rules, with a 6/5 payout on natural blackjacks, no hole card for the house, and the dealer hitting all soft 17s. The house edge for Crown Blackjack is around 0.56 per cent.
Vegas Blackjack: If you are one of the high rollers like in the Mahogany Room, you might just find a halfway decent Vegas Blackjack table. This is as close to Nevada rules as you will get in Melbourne. The dealer takes a hole card as is standard in the US, splits and doubles are allowed, and you have the option to surrender half your initial bet when the house’s upcard shows 10 or Ace.
Crown Pontoon: As you know that this is distinctly Aussie blackjack variation, and probably your best chance of finding a low minimum bet limit outside Blackjack Plus. Crown Pontoon uses up to eight modified decks with all face-value Tens removed (i.e. there is no Ten of Clubs, Ten of Spades, Ten of Diamonds, or Ten of Hearts, for a total of 48 cards per deck). Naturals pay 3/2, and there are various bonus prizes for hands of 7 7 7 or 6 7 8 – including a Super Bonus of up to $5000. Crown also offers 6 to 5 Pontoon, with a decreased payoff for naturals.
Blackjack Sidebets in Crown Melbourne & Perth
Few of Crown’s blackjack games will offer side bets. These wagers are independent of your initial blackjack bet, and can be made on a specific set of incidental outcomes that might occur within the player’s hand.
Here are a few sidebet options you might find on any of the available 21 games at Southbank or Burswood. Note that these wagers come with a big house edge, so unless you are well versed the game or are sure shot lucky then only play this bet.
Crown Suits: Wins at 2 to 1 odds when your first two cards are of the same suit. If the dealer’s card is also of the same suit as your first two cards, the wager pays 5 to 1. This is one of the more winnable blackjack side-wagers out there.
Perfect Pairs: Pays off when your first two cards turn up a pair. Exact payouts vary depending on the number of decks used and the specific form of 21 being played. In Crown Blackjack with eight decks, a mixed pair (different suits and colours) pays 6 to 1; a coloured pair (same colour, different suit) pays 12 to 1; and a perfect pair (same colour, same suit) pays 25 to 1. The house edge here is 4.1 per cent, but it can go as high as 12 per cent in Crown Pontoon.
Magnificent Sevens: One of the most tempting blackjack side-bets, with a maximum payout of 16,000 to 1 when you draw three Sevens in the same suit. You can also salute with off-suit Sevens (50 to 1) and suited Sevens (150 to 1) on your first two cards, as well as 7 7 7 in mixed suits (up to 950 to 1).
Blackpot: A semi-electronic blackjack variant, where players can place side-bets on a two-hand progressive jackpot using digital betting devices. If you draw a hand of 6 7 8 (pays 100 to 1) when playing the side-bet, you can then press the wager into the next hand and play for up to 20,000x your initial wager.
Crown Rewards for blackjack players
At Crown Casino there is loyalty rewards program which is free to sign up for either online or through the help desk at the casino which grants members points for every transaction made within the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne and Crown Perth, if you play the games of Blackjack. You can use your card while playing blackjack at the tables, electronic blackjack or any other table game or pokies machine and you will gain points, which, when saved up enough, can be redeemed for freebies and experiences like get Crown gift cards, movie tickets, free parking, birthday offers, hotel discounts, grand final experiences and helicopter tours.
Basic strategy for online blackjack games
If you don’t know basic strategy, you don’t know how to play real money blackjack. Without it, you cannot expect to enjoy the lowest possible house edge. Let us show you how blackjack strategy works, complete with play charts for some of the best online 21 games at Australia’s top real money casinos.
Best casino sites for online blackjack
Each of the online casinos above is officially licensed, fully regulated and 100 per cent legal for Australian blackjack players over the age of 18. They support numerous AUD banking methods for instant deposits and fast withdrawals, including VISA, MasterCard, POLi, Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard and direct bank transfers. All games on offer at these sites, including both RNG-based digital 21 and live dealer blackjack tables, are audited and tested several times a year by third-party regulators such as eCOGRA (eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance), so there is no need to doubt whether they are safe, fair and honestly run.
What is basic strategy in blackjack?
Many casino games don’t offer players the scope to improve their odds of success through skill and smarts. Popular pursuits such as online baccarat, real money roulette and especially the pokies are beasts of pure chance where all a punter can do is put down a bet and hope for the best.
In blackjack, however, players can control their destiny to some degree by choosing when to stand, hit, double down, split, or surrender. It is still a game of chance, and there is no way to completely overturn the house edge (besides counting cards, which is a pointless ploy when playing online), but knowing the right move for each and every scenario means we can give ourselves the best possible odds of winning.
That’s what basic strategy is: a list of preset plays that describe what to do for any given situation in a hand of real money 21. Each move is calculated to provide the most likely route to success in accordance with the specific rules in play and how they affect probability, expected returns and true odds. All we have to do is read the charts, memorise the plays and put them in action.
Best strategies for online blackjack games
While most Australian, American and European blackjack games have much in common, the vast array of rule variations in 21 means the ideal strategy can differ from game to game. That being said, blackjack strategy sheets are not hard to find – a simple Google search will do the trick – and there are a number of strategy calculators on the web that will show you the right plays for any set of rules.
Below are the proper basic strategies for some of the most popular online and mobile blackjack games, all of which are available at our approved safe casino sites for Australians. These charts were formulated with the assistance of the excellent blackjack strategy calculator devised by gambling guru Michael Shackleford (Wizard of Odds).
Strategy key:
S = Stand
H = Hit
Dh = Double down if allowed, hit if not
Ds = Double down if allowed, stand if not
P = Split pairs
Rs = Surrender
Microgaming Gold Series
House edge = 0.13 per cent
Soft hands
Pairs
Vegas Strip Blackjack
Microgaming Gold Series
House edge = 0.35 per cent
Hard hands
Soft hands
Pairs
Single Deck Blackjack
NetEnt Pro Series
House edge = 0.48 per cent
Hard hands
Soft hands
Pairs
VIP Live Blackjack
Evolution Gaming
House edge = 0.49 per cent
Hard hands
Soft hands
Pairs
(Same as Vegas Strip Blackjack)
How to read blackjack strategy charts
If you have never seen a basic strategy chart before, it might look a little complicated at first glance. There is no great mystery to it, however, and it becomes pretty straightforward once you get a handle on how things are laid out.
Most strategy sheets are divided into three parts, each of which details the different plays for a hard hand (one with no Ace, or where an Ace can count only as one point), a soft hand (one with an Ace that can count as either one or 11 points) and a pair that can be split to form separate hands. Charts are displayed as tables upon which the player’s possible hands are listed on the left and the dealer’s possible up-cards are listed across the top. Each cell on the grid shows the correct move for X (the player’s total) in the event of Y (the dealer’s card).
Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy Tactics
For example, let’s say we are holding a hard total of 10 and the dealer is showing an Ace. If we find the row labelled ’10’ on the left of the chart and follow it to the column labelled ‘A’, the cell where those two intersect will tell us the correct play is to hit (‘H’).
Perfect strategy for real money 21
Star City Sydney Blackjack Rules(PDF).
Simple, effective and repeatable, basic strategy is all most players need in order to enjoy a low house edge on 21 games. As shown above, it can keep the casino advantage well under 0.50 per cent when you play real money blackjack online. That’s much better value than you will find at any land-based Australian casino in this day and age, never mind the obvious convenience of playing via Mac, PC, smartphone or tablet.
However, there are other, more complex play charts available that take into consideration not only the hand totals and whether they are hard, soft, or paired, but also exactly which cards are on the table, the number of cards the player has drawn and other such specifics. This type of play is known as perfect composition-based strategy, or optimal strategy, and it provides the lowest blackjack house edge possible (without executing a flawless card count).
Crown Casino Blackjack Basic Strategy Games
In most cases, the difference between basic play and perfect blackjack strategy is minute. In Vegas Strip Blackjack Gold, for example, a mere 0.0055 per cent separates the theoretical returns for basic strategy (99.64701 per cent) and optimal play (99.65251 per cent). So while the hardcore high stakes blackjack players might miss that extra five-and-a-half cents out of every $1000 wagered, most punters will give up little to nothing by sticking to basic strategy 21.