Choosing a table

Counting cannot beat most blackjack tables in most casinos, so choosing the table is worth as much as everything you have learned so far. The wrong game turns a perfect count into unpaid work.

Two rules disqualify a table outright. 6:5 blackjack adds about 1.4% to the house edge, more than a good counter's entire edge, so no count beats it. A continuous shuffle machine (CSM) returns cards to the shuffler after every round, so the shoe never develops a count. If either is on the felt, walk.

Among real games, penetration matters most. Penetration is how deep the dealer cuts before the shuffle. High counts sit in the back of the shoe, so a dealer who cuts off two of six decks removes most of your opportunity. 80% or deeper is where counting pays. Watch a shoe before you sit and see where the cut card goes. Rules come next. S17 beats H17 by about two tenths of a percent. DAS and late surrender each help. Fewer decks help, because the same count swings harder in a smaller shoe, which is why double-deck games with fair rules are prized. Check the felt and the placard before you sit. The house-edge page has the measured cost of every rule.

The crowd outranks most rule differences. A full table deals you perhaps 60 hands an hour. Heads-up with the dealer, 200 or more. Your edge is per hand, so triple the hands is triple the earn rate. A mid-week morning at an uncrowded casino beats Saturday night at a famous one.