Hey guys,

I recently came across a BJ game that runs at a casino I visited.
6 deck, dealer stands on soft 17, about 5 deck penetration, pretty good overall and not a lot of heat around there.

The game is generally for people who want to take 50 bucks and have a couple hours of fun. It's in the non-smoking area so some serious players play in this game for that reason, but not really.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this game for a card counter. In a hypothetical situation, with an unlimited bankroll and no fear of being backed off, wouldn't it make sense to play at this game?
You play the $1 with ante when the TC is below 0 and then can blast it up when TC rises? Maybe you don't win *more* but you lose less.

Just something I was interested in. Thanks for looking.

It seems impossible to think the ante percentage, even at its lowest, could ever be overcome. I'll conceded that I've never played an ante game, but even $1 per $100 seems like it would be extremely difficult to beat.

Maybe they'll let you sit there and bet min/max spread and you're a perfect counter. I still feel like you're an underdog with an ante.

Can you clarify the ante? If you bet 1 and win, you win 1 (i.e. you keep the ante), and if you lose, you lose 1.25?

Everything is beatable with a high enough bet spread but the equivalent spread would be calculated based on how yhe ante works exactly.

The $0.25 ante is very bad for the player.

I simulated this game assuming the rules you didn't specify are pretty standard, where you are using the Hi-Lo count with full indices, betting $1 at TC <= 0 and $100 at TC >= 1. You're heads up with the dealer with consistent 5/6 decks penetration.

Without the ante you would make $37/100 hands playing perfectly with this strategy. The ante is costing you $25/100 hands, so you are making $12/h with with an extremely aggressive strategy. They would have to know you are counting and just not care for you to get away with this spread, and you're still making peanuts.

If you wong in/out you can make more, but it's still peanuts and I doubt the casino would tolerate such an aggressive strategy.

I'm assuming the ante is just a per-hand fee.

You have to pay $0.25 to play with a bet of $5 or less. You lose the ante 100% of the time. If you bet $6, you do not have to pay an ante.

There are other casinos around that offer a $5 min bet and no ante game, but I thought paying the $0.25 when the count is negative and bumping it up to $5 at TC 1.5 and $10 at TC 2 etc. would be better than betting the full $5-6 min bet.

Thanks for running that simulation!

I think the numbers would be a bit higher for me $/hand if i split the betting up. For instance, betting minimum ($1 + $0.25) in negative counts and then progressively increasing betting units at TC 1.5, 2, 3, etc. rather than $100 per hand at TC 1+, but I'm sure it would end up around the same anyways.

Thanks again!

A 1:100 spread is probably unreasonable, and also at $100 bets you don't pay the ante. But the analysis hits the main point which is that the ante really hurts you. With a standard ramp and a max 1:10 or 1:20 spread, you're unlikely to beat the game.

However this sounds like a great $5 min blackjack game.

That makes a huge difference! You're much better off betting $6 minimum than betting $1 and paying the ante. This makes it a pretty decent game to count. 5/6 decks penetration and S17 makes this a pretty good small stakes game. You can beat it without a particularly aggressive spread.

I ran a sim using the betting ramp:

I also sat out of the shoe at RC <= -10. This strategy wins about 2 units/100 hands, which is decent. You can be more aggressive if you think you can get away with it.

I am using CV software to run my sims. It was worth the buy and I recommend it.

awesome advice, thanks! i'm going on friday so I will stick with the six dollar bet instead of the ante. I have a game at a different casino that is the same rules with a $5 min bet so actually i'll probably just stick to that!

With a modest bankroll ($20k+) this turns out to be a $6 or $100 bet game, assuming the heat is light as OP stated.