| I am a floor supervisor in a casino in Canada and my Pit Manager asked me how we could increase the table game occupancy at blackjack. Do you have any ideas? How about this for starters: do away with CSM's so the game becomes theoretically beatable ("don't kill the golden goose"); have several dedicated "learning tables" to teach new players how to play with low table minimums and dealers that have been trained to instruct players on the correct plays; also offer "beginner's tables" with low minimums and the rule that any player who intimidates another player is booted from the table; encourage players on the learner's table to play on the regular tables by giving them match play chips that they can only use on the regular or beginners tables; more no smoking areas (not just tables) in the casino; better rules, especially having the dealer stand on soft 17 rather than hit; give players more opportunities for comps and cash back; welcome card counters with table limits that have max betting limit of $300 (i.e., $5 to $300); give players accurate strategy cards; fire unfriendly and intimidating dealers; do away with side bets; absolutely no 7 player tables; don't be afraid to "pay the table" if a dispute arises; offer slot players blackjack match play chips to play on beginner tables; more single-deck games; deal deeper for more hands per hour; have respected blackjack authors give "how to play seminars" to new and experience players; offer more blackjack tournaments aimed at the average player. Enough ideas? Many casinos have installed continuous shuffling machines (CSM) on their blackjack tables. These machines are a combination shuffler and dealing shoe that contain 4 (or sometimes 5) decks of cards. The dealer deals the cards from this device and then after one or several rounds picks up the discards and places them back into the CSM, where the cards are randomly mixed with the unplayed cards in the shoe (i.e., think of it as one shoe of cards that are continuously in play). This is quite different from the conventional manual or automatic shuffler where a cut card is used, most of the cards are dealt, and all the discards and unplayed cards are shuffled together. Two independent studies were recently done to look at the effect of the CSM on the casino's edge against the basic strategy player. Michael Shackelford (www.thewizardofodds.com) took the first crack at this and published his results in issue #8 of Blackjack Insider Newsletter (www.casino.com/newsletter/blackjack/archive/) and later published his result in an article in Casino Player Magazine (April 2001). This was followed by another study by Dan Catlin that appeared in the 2001 summer issue of The New Chance & Circumstance Magazine. This is what these mathematicians concluded from their studies. The average number of 10s per hand is slightly higher with a CMS game than with a game that uses a cut card. The probability of getting a blackjack is slightly higher with a CSM game than it is with a game using a cut card. The casino's edge over a basic strategy player is actually slightly less in a CSM game vs. a game using a cut card. Overall the player in a CSM game will stand to lose about 20% more money because they will be dealt 20% more hands per hour in a CSM game. |
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