Question of the Day - 27 August 2019

[Editor's Note: As you might have expected, we handed this one off to blackjack expert Arnold Snyder.] 

Unfortunately, the “World’s Most Liberal 21” game at the Plaza is not the same as the game that was dealt at the Las Vegas Club until that casino closed a few years ago. The Las Vegas Club’s game, in fact, may have had the most liberal rule set of any casino in the U.S., but “big” bets (meaning $25) made them very nervous and they were quick to bar players who made them nervous. So, the rules were liberal, but the amount of action the club tolerated was anything but.

The Plaza is owned by the same company that owned the Las Vegas Club and that company owns the rights to the game. So now you can find this game only at the Plaza. They may have one or two tables open and it’s dealt from a single deck.

The main thing that’s different about the Plaza game is the payouts on naturals. At the Las Vegas Club, blackjacks paid the standard 3-2. At the Plaza, a suited blackjack pays 2-1, but all other blackjacks pay even money. It’s easy to figure out the cost of this rule change, since we know that on average, one out every four blackjacks dealt will be suited. Three out of four will be unsuited.

The payout on a $10 bet, if paid 3-2, is $15. Four of these blackjacks would pay 4 x 15 = $60.

With the Plaza rules, three out of four blackjacks would pay even money, or $10. One blackjack would pay 2-1, or $20. So on average, three $10 blackjacks would pay 3 x $10 or $30. One $10 blackjack would pay $20, so for every four blackjacks we’re dealt at the Plaza, we’ll win $50, as opposed to the $60 we would have been paid at the Las Vegas Club.

A few other minor rule changes in the Plaza’s version of this game also hurt the player. At the Las Vegas Club, the dealer stood on soft 17. At the Plaza, the dealer hits soft 17. At the Las Vegas Club, players could surrender after hitting (assuming they didn’t bust). That is, if you took a hit on a hard 12 and drew a 4 for a 16 total, you still had the surrender option open to you. The Plaza game allows surrender, but only on your initial two cards.

The Plaza game does allow all of the other liberal blackjack rules that were offered at the Las Vegas Club: double down on any number of cards, double after splitting pairs, unlimited resplitting aces, and a 6-card Charlie (unbusted hand) is an automatic winner. But all of these “good” rules don’t make up for the Plaza's poor payouts on blackjacks. The house edge at the Plaza is about 1.3%, not much better than the house edge on most of the single-deck 6-5 games in Vegas.