Town Festival Blackjack

[Romes]

Hey everyone. My town is having a festival with gambling such as poker/blackjack/etc. I was playing the blackjack they had because I was there to have fun, but also because I believe it is a 'good' game to play. Here are the rules:

- 4 Decks
- VERY good penetration (I'd estimate 90-95%)
- Blackjack pays 2-1
- Dealer Stands on all 17
- No Surrender
- Push on 20/21 only...aka dealer wins pushes on 19, 18, and 17.
- Minimum bet $2, Maximum bet $10.

Another thing is that they were letting the tables run 7 players because of the insane amounts of people who wanted to play. I would think that would play in to it a little bit because as in poker, the more hands dealt, the better the chances of a 'good hand' being made.

My question to all of you experts would be "is this a 'good' game?" I'm not concerned with making a ton of money, clearly. I just want to know if my approximation of it being a good game were accurate or not. Thanks to anyone who contributes!

 

[Mewtwo]

Player loses 17-19 ties: -5.30%
2 to 1 on BJ: +2.27%

Not sure any level of counting could make this playable.

 

[Romes]

Mewtwo,

Thanks for the math/response. I'm curious though, does the ridiculously good penetration curve that at all?

Also, I'm probably WAY off, but that's why I consider myself an amateur card counter, but the 17-19 pushes 'generally' will only count on 1 unit bets? When the count is high/very high for the full 5 units bet, generally one would expect to see pushes of 20/21? I guess what I'm attempting to say (horribly) is when the important hands come around (5 unit bets on a 5-1 spread) that's when you'll hit the better hands 20/21 and thus a push would be the same as regular rules?

Am I horrifically off and retarded? =(

 

[duanedibley]

I'm curious though, does the ridiculously good penetration curve that at all?

No, and definitely not when you can only spread 1-5.

but the 17-19 pushes 'generally' will only count on 1 unit bets? When the count is high/very high for the full 5 units bet, generally one would expect to see pushes of 20/21?

Yes, to a small extent, but this effect is already factored in to the extra 5.3% house edge figure that Mewtwo gave you.

 

[Romes]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going back tonight, but I'll stick to poker =).

 

[duanedibley]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going back tonight, but I'll stick to poker =).

Great, I hope you have fun.

After getting a good night's sleep for the first time in a while, I am not really sure what I was talking about in my second point above, but the bottom line is still that this game is not even close to playable

In general don't even consider games with more than a 1% house edge. A ~3.5% house edge like this one is so far from the realm of playability that you should not even waste a few seconds trying to analyze it