I’m heading to Fozwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut, and I’m wondering if they allow players to use strategy cards at the blackjack table, or even at Video Blackjack. I don’t have the “basic strategy” memorized, but want to play that way to get the best odds.
Yes, casinos allow the use of basic strategy cards at the tables, they even sell them in the casino for players to buy. I have even seen players using computer-printed basic strategy sheets while playing.
NOTE*
Not all strategy cards are created equal, basic strategy varies by the rules of the game, and how many decks are in play.
In particular, both of the casinos you mentioned allow surrender, a rule very beneficial to the player, but a rule seldom mentioned on basic strategy cards.
For the games offered at those casinos, you should use a basic strategy for “Atlantic city rules” which is the standard for how to deal with blackjack being…..
multi deck, dealer stands on soft 17, split 3X to 4 hands, double after split allowed, blackjack pays 3:2
When you add the option of surrender, you should make the following modifications to the basic strategy for that game
16vs10 —- surrender
16vs9 —- surrender
16 vs ACE —- surrender
15vs 10 —- surrender
**Note, you should NOT surrender a 16 consisting of 8,8, and you should ALWAYS split it
In case you aren’t familiar with the surrender option, you surrender by abandoning your hand and recovering half of your wager, you can only do it immediately after being dealt your first two cards, after the dealer checks for blackjack but before you make any other actions.
Between the two casinos, the only difference is the number of decks they deal from, foxwoods uses 8 decks, while Mohegan uses 6, for the basic strategy player, Mohegan will offer better odds to play against, but if/when you learn to count cards, foxwoods is more exploitable for profit.
Basic strategy will not put the odds in your favor, however, it WILL put them as low as they can go without counting cards or cheating. This is, of course, ONLY if you use the plays presented by them, common sense may tell you otherwise about the validity of the plays, but they are all sound. Just remembers that some hands you are dealt, you are expecting to lose money no matter what action you take, in these cases, the best play is the play that causes you to lose the least, however, even though action loses less than all other actions, does not mean it will not lose a high percentage of the time, so when you have 16, and basic strategy says to hit it, you hit it. You will most likely bust out doing so, but it doesn’t make it the wrong move because you would lose more often by standing.
DO NOT ask the dealer, or other players at the table how to play a hand, I have only met maybe 3 players who knew 100% of basic strategy in all my years of playing, though some people do, they are very uncommon.