Blackjack Conditions in Australia

Blackjack Tournament Strategy

Editor Note: This page is for historical purposes only. Last update1999.

By Mike Van Emmerik

See also my general Blackjack Notes, Australian Casinos, and BlackjackTournaments in Australia.

[Cut straight to the table]

In Australia, all casinos deal cards face up, and Double After Splits(DAS) isoffered. The dealer stands on soft 17 (S17). Surrenderis not offered.

In the following table, DOA means Double On Any two cards. D9means thatdoubling is permitted on totals of 9, 10, or 11 only. If D9is in force, you may double onAce-8 and Ace-9, but these are treated ashard 9 and hard 10 respectively (so if youreceive a 2 to Ace-8 you have11, not 21). D10 means doubling is allowed on hard 10and 11 only.
OBO stands for Original Bets Only, and is equivalent to 'nohole card',because on doubled or split bets, when the dealer has blackjack,the player loses his/herOriginal Bet Only. OBBO stands for Originaland Busted Bets only. This is anexpediancy measure - busted split handsdon't have to be kept to see if the dealer will getblackjack. I estimatethat this will cost 15% of the benefit of OBO for splits, but ofcoursedoubles are more common than splits, and they never bust. So OBBO has almostthe sameadvantage as OBO.
2 splits means the ability to split twice, for a total of 3hands.
RSA means the ability to resplit aces; some casinos do not allowyou to do anythingwith a pair of aces other than split them and take onecard on each.
O/U means the Over/Under13 side bet.
House Edge is the approximate advantage in percent that thecasino has over a playerwho plays perfect Basic Strategy (the correctstrategy varies with the house rules). Theedge is based on the followingfigures, fromTheory ofBlackjack.The figures are relative to 'Las Vegas Strip Rules', whichironically arealmost impossible to find these days, especially at the Las Vegas Strip.Theyare in terms of house edge, so positive figures are in the casino'sfavour. These figuresare not rigorous, because of the dependency of onerule to another.

In previous versions of this table, I did not include the -0.02% factorfor Las VegasStrip rules. This is because my simulation results (and theyagreed with simulation expertsfrom around the world) agreed that the resultfor this is closer to zero, but I include ithere to make the results consistant(i.e. all figures are now from Theoryof Blackjack, adjusted for 6 decks whereappropriate).

Remembering the issues dedicated to online blackjack tournament, in addition to craps, keno, poker and other games, a lot of time is spent improving the game, not just re-reading some useful manuals of professonal blackjack gamers like Stanford Wong who is considered to be a half-god of blackjack. An online blackjack tournament is a lot of fun, arguably not so much as those at casinos but the digital versions are the next best thing when you cannot get to Vegas or Atlantic City.You may also head for Tunica in Mississippi which is fondly known as the gambling capital in the south. You may partake in some blackjack tournaments at Biloxi in Mississippi, Palm Springs in California. The approach for how to play blackjack tournament games will vary from user to user. Online blackjack tournaments offering real money wagering can be easy if you know the rules. Tournaments of 21 are played by compiling points of each round of blackjack, with players amassing points based on a score earned from each hand played. Australian Live Blackjack Tournaments. Blackjack is one of the casino games where players don’t compete against each other, instead they are playing against the dealer. Regardless whether you play a version of Live Blackjack where it’s just you and the dealer, or a version where there are other players on the table, you are never concerned about the results of other players, unless, of course you’ve placed a. A Blackjack Tournament is a large event that’s typically held at a land-based casino or online casino between multiple players. Generally, tournaments run for 2 to 3 days. Upon signing up, players must pay an entry fee in order to compete in the tournament. Yet, there are a few that are actually free to enter. These are usually by invite though.

Figures for double exposure are from BlackjackSecrets.'Multideck' is a sort of catchall that respresents a basefor standard doubleexposure rules, including S17.

Example: Crown Casino regular blackjack. We start with -.02%, and add -.14%for DAS.Working left to right in the table below, we add +.64% for 8 decks,+0.09% for no softdouble, +.01% for OBBO, no penalty for resplits, nobonus for RSA, and this adds up to0.58%. Rather average; they used tobe the best in Australia. No Australian casinos aregreat by world standards;most authorities suggest that games with a casino edge worse than0.5%are not worth playing.

If anyone has update information for this table, please emailme .

Blackjack Tournament 2020

'Danger, Will Robinson!'

Eight Decks at Treasury!

Treasury casino have introduced 8 deck covered shoes downstairs, and atthe $2 trainingtables upstairs. (The latter have a $10 (per box) bettinglimit, and are intended forinstruction only). This adds another .04% tothe already rather high house advantage of.57%, bringing these tablesto .61%. Only Adelaide and Perth have similar or worseconditions (accordingto current information). Dealers claim that they are merely fallingintoline with other casinos, but of course most other casinos with 8 deckshave betterrules (e.g. Star City, Crown).

All tables upstairs remain 6 decks, with similar rules and betting limitsto downstairs.Apparently, patrons are ignorant of the difference, as thereseems to be little differencein popularity of the tables upstairs versesdownstairs. The only saving grace is that SuperSevens (a side bet) isavailable at 3 tables with 8 decks, and this side bet is morefavourablewith 8 decks than with 6.

See also Australian Casinos, and BlackjackTournaments in Australia.

Last Update: 01/24/99 - No longer updated by originalauthor