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Connecticut Blackjack Report
by Bill Burton
Bill Burton is a best selling gaming author and columnist. He has been playing blackjack in casinos for 25 years. He started using the Hi/lo count and tried several others throughout the years. He attended one of the first Golden Touch Blackjack courses to learn Speed Count and now uses it exclusively because of its simplicity and ease of use. Bill shuns the high roller pits preferring to "fly under the radar" and is more than content to walk away with small profits. In his career as a player he has never been barred using this tactic. Burton is also the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com located at:
www.casinogambling.about.com. He is the author of "1000 Best Casino Gambling Secrets" and "Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold'em"(the latter available at 10% discount in the BJI store). He is also an instructor for Golden Touch Craps: www.thecrapsclub.com
Connecticut Blackjack
Once again summer has arrived in Connecticut. The dead giveaway is not so much the soaring temperatures, as it is the soaring table limits at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos. During the winter months you can usually find a five- dollar game early in the morning on weekdays but when the summer tourist season arrives, these games disappear faster than an Ice Cream cone in the hot afternoon sun. I visited both casinos early on a Thursday morning and only found a few $10 games but if you plan to visit at night on the weekend you probably won’t even find a game at this level. You are more likely to find $15 or $25 as the lowest denomination game.
Foxwoods
Of the two Connecticut casinos, Foxwoods is better for card counters. They offer an eight-deck game with about 75 percent penetration. In the Newport high roller casino they offer a six-deck game. Foxwood’s rules are: DOA, DAS, S17 and they are now offering late surrender. The only negative is that you can’t re-split aces.
Mohegan Sun
Blackjack games at the Mohegan Sun have gone from bad to worse. In fact, the Mohegan Sun is a wasteland for counters. They used to deal a six-deck game at all tables with two decks cut off giving you only around 66% penetration. Now, however, continuous shufflers have replaced many of their six-deck games and the rest have been switched over to eight-deck games. The rules at the Mohegan Sun are the same as Foxwoods, however, at the Mohegan Sun you are not allowed to split tens if you so desire.
The Mohegan Sun is actually two casinos: The original Earth Casino and the newer Sky Casino. One thing the Mohegan Sun casino lacks is consistency in the number of decks and their mid shoe entry rule.
You can still find a few six-deck games in the "Spring" section of the Earth Casino and in the high roller pit near the Fall section. In the Earth casino they do allow mid shoe entry on their six-deck games. However, over in the Sky casino you will find six-deck games in the high roller pit and in the adjacent pit # 22. The six-deck games in the Sky casino have No Mid Shoe Entry even though the penetration is terrible.
Comps
The comps at the Mohegan Sun have also been tightened more than they were before. Foxwoods is by far the more liberal of the two casinos when it comes to scoring a comp. Both casinos use the same comp system. Each point you earn is equal to $1, which can be used in the restaurants, retail stores or to pay your hotel bill. The Mohegan Sun also has a gas station and you can use your comps there as well.
As of June 1st Foxwoods is offering same day cash back to their slot players. With the new cash back program players can redeem half of their points for cash at the rate of 50 cents per point. For example: If a slot player earns 20 points for the day, they can redeem 10 points for $5 in cash and the other 10 point remain on the players card.
Poker
The Mohegan Sun closed their poker room a few years ago and claim they have no plans to re-open it any time in the near future. Foxwoods expanded their poker room last November and now have a World Poker Tour branded room with 114 poker tables.
Video Poker
Unfortunately, Connecticut is a video poker wasteland. Foxwoods has three, old Double Jackpot machines in the old Bingo Hall. These are the only three full pay machines in the casino and I think they are there by mistake. They used to have full pay Pick’em poker, but they recently changed the pay table so 3-of-a-kind pays 4 instead of 5 coins. Most of the JOB are 6/5 machines and all of the deuces wild games are short pay as well.
The Mohegan Sun still has a six or seven full pay Pick’em games in the old poker room. All the others have been lowered to pay 4 coins for 3-of-a-kind (they way Foxwoods did). There are no other playable video poker games at either casino.
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