Help the Enemy.....please?

[oscark]

I am opening a small casino outside of the US. We are concentrating on poker, however we will offer some blackjack.

What -EV player BJ promotions have you seen that are popular with the fish?

Any help is appreciated.

Gracias,

Oscar

[punkass]

1) drinks
2) boobs

[oscark]

Thanks, I do have both covered. Hoping more for promotions specific to Blackjack. Well, and roulette too for that matter.

Gracias,

Oscar

[*TT*]

Oscar - I think you will have better responses in the other poker forum, but generally here people are looking to gain a positive expected value on their promos, not a negative one so I don't know if you will find what you are looking for. Nobody wants to enter a promotion with an expectation to lose, there should be a house overlay that reduces the player's expected loss at blackjack.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[ATrebek]

"Blackjack Pays 6:5!!!"

I guess this relies on idiots not realizing that 6:5 < 3:2...

[oscark]

TT,

I agree with everything you have said. Just hoping people have noticed promotions (which they have recognized as horrible) that have filled tables. I remember hearing about some BJ variation where a player places a sidebet, but has the opportunity for a "large payout" if he receives some ridiculously improbable combination of cards.

That being said, I would also be very happy to hear about popular promotions which reduce the player's negative expectation (just not too much [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]).

Gracias,

Oscar

[Mano]

A common sidebet in BJ is the "Royal Match", where a player may place a side bet and recieve 3:1 on his bet if his two hole cards are of the same suit and 10:1 if his cards are the King and Queen of the same suit (have also seen a variation that pays 2.5:1 for suited and 15:1 for the KQ suited). A couple of my degenerate gambler friends love playing this.

[oscark]

Mano,

Exactly the kind of think I am looking for.

Thanks,

Oscar

[mothmandan]

"Lucky Lucky" is another sidebet I hadn't seen until I started dealing. I HATE dealing this but on our busiest days there are waiting lists for these tables.

Players first two cards and dealers up card are added.
- 19 or 20 pays 2 to 1
- Unsuited 21 pays 3 to 1
- Suited 21 pays 15 to 1
there are also payouts for suited and unsuited 678 and 777 which I don't remember because I don't deal it often anymore but three suited 7's pays about 200 to 1. The bet range is $1 to $25.

Most dealers hate the game because the flow of the game changes. You deal the cards, take the losing lucky lucky bets, pay the winning lucky lucky bets, then continue with the regular game. If the dealer is having an off day or hasn't dealt it in a while then he may get through half as many shoes as expected.

IMO you should just stick with the Lucky 7's style sidebet but up the payouts a bit if you want people to play it.

Dan's 2 cents

[Wongboy]

This is a good point. You should consider whether a promo slows down the hands per hour and factor this in as a cost of the promo.

Here are some promo's / side bets that tend to fill up a table pretty fast and should not slow down the game much:

> Lucky Ladies. A Google search should get you a ton of info on this one, huge house edge but it seems like a decent payout to the average player.

> Match play coupons, Free play coupons, Free ace coupons, bonus chips ($50 for $40, etc) - Technically negative EV for the house, but they fill up the tables and the average player will not stop after playing just one hand with a coupon. Just limit their use to one per day and you should be fine.

> Make sure that you provide as many rule options as possible. Most BJ players are clueless about correct strategy and will make incorrect decisions if given a chance to do so. For example, why restrict doubling to only 10 or 11, which are the player totals where doubling is most often correct? Let some yahoo double on a 6 if they want to, for crying out loud!

Similarly, allow players to take insurance when the dealer has a ten up (only pay 2:1 as normal). If someone is stupid enough to do this, let them. Same thing for "even money" when the dealer shows a ten. Insurance is an incorrect basic strategy play, so let players insure for as much as they want. Don't worry, your edge here is huge!

As others mentioned, free booze. You want to help them believe that they got their money's worth when they lose the rent and food money at your place. Plus, being drunk will help them forget that they used to have a place to live before they started going to your casino.

Providing day care might help to get more single parents to your place as well (don't give the kids free booze, that would be wrong).