3/28/2022

Blackjack Tables At Foxwoods

For the past year or so Foxwoods has been backing off players from those 8 deck H17 tables on the main floor and that includes red chippers. They have also done away with counter measures such as flat betting etc. A backoff means no more blackjack. Many years ago I was backed off from the Newport room and told that I could play on the main floor. The Connecticut-based Foxwoods Resort Casino has invested more than $1 million in renovations to ensure the safety of its customers as they return to the slot machines and craps tables after months. All 29 tables in the Fox Tower Casino will be 6:5. Crews were busy this morning stripping the 3:2 felts off 8 tables in one pit. The 6:5 tables were open, including a handicap table. The Pequot and Great Cedar Casinos are still 3:2. A good game can be had in the Newport Room with 6 decks S17 for $50 min on weekdays. Good luck trying to spread. Foxwoods shut off every other slot machine and limited each roulette wheel and blackjack table to just three people. They had sanitizer stations in every direction, with cheery signs that read.

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benbakdoff
Foxwoods uses 8 decks and Mohegan Sun uses 6. The cut at MS is a horrendous 2 to 2 1/2 decks. Foxwoods cuts about 1 1/4-1 1/2 decks. Everyone knows the less decks the better so the question is do you want penetration approaching 80% in the 8 deck shoe or the low the 60's in the 6 deck shoe?
Fortunately, there is an alternative. You can play in the Newport room at Foxwoods or the high stakes pit in the MGM Grand at a 6 deck game. I've observed the penetration in the Newport room to be at least 75%. The table minimums are $50 so it's not for everyone and I'm not sure if they stay that low on the weekends.
I believe all the games can be beaten with the proper spread, Wonging, and indices but if you are a green chipper Foxwoods is worth looking at. The only difference in rules that I can think of is in pair splitting. At Foxwoods it's up to 4 hands and at MS it's unlimited. Unlike Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods allows splitting 10's, but be careful it could get you unwanted attention.
I have it on good authority that MS has reduced comp points for BJ again. I'm not posting the new percentages but if someone wants to know, I'll share what I heard. It's not great.
Foxwoods had a promo that would exchange one comp point for $1.00 cash up to $1000.00 on Saturday's through October 30th, but it has been postponed according to their website.

If you make your way to Foxwoods Resort Casino, I would highly recommend booking a reservation at David Burke Prime Steakhouse for dinner! After dinner we decided to hit the tables. I’m not much of a gambler but James loves to play blackjack. I decided to join him (my first time playing) and got blackjack my first hand!

sabre
Every foxwoods backoff I've ever heard of has involved play in the high limit rooms.
benbakdoff
Where are the $1 blackjack tables at foxwoods

Every foxwoods backoff I've ever heard of has involved play in the high limit rooms.


Two summers ago I was flat bet one hand only at a $15 table. Fortunately, I didn't give my card because a friend was using it at the $5 slots. I stayed away for six months and all was well.
benbakdoff
I stopped in at Foxwoods yesterday afternoon and saw something I've never seen there before. Mixed in with the $10-$25 BJ tables in the Grand Pequot Casino were a couple of tables with $20 minimums. I thought it was a mistake on the electronic table sign but it wasn't.
Call me old fashioned, but it just didn't look right. It makes me wonder why the $20 table has been avoided by most casinos.
cclub79

I stopped in at Foxwoods yesterday afternoon and saw something I've never seen there before. Mixed in with the $10-$25 BJ tables in the Grand Pequot Casino were a couple of tables with $20 minimums. I thought it was a mistake on the electronic table sign but it wasn't.
Call me old fashioned, but it just didn't look right. It makes me wonder why the $20 table has been avoided by most casinos.


Probably has been avoided because it would just be too many red chips.
$20 is the common unit in Bacarrat (I'm sure you checked and made sure that it wasn't a couple of Bac tables?), but the game uses (yellow?) chips specific to that game. I've been at a BJ table where someone came from Bac and put the yellows in play. The dealer took them out of the game after a loss or replaced them after a win. When I cashed out, he gave them to me so I'd bring them back to the cage. They like to keep the units specific
benbakdoff

Probably has been avoided because it would just be too many red chips.
$20 is the common unit in Bacarrat (I'm sure you checked and made sure that it wasn't a couple of Bac tables?), but the game uses (yellow?) chips specific to that game. I've been at a BJ table where someone came from Bac and put the yellows in play. The dealer took them out of the game after a loss or replaced them after a win. When I cashed out, he gave them to me so I'd bring them back to the cage. They like to keep the units specific


Definitely blackjack. One of the games was dead and I had a chance to speak with the dealer who was just as surprised as I was.
teddys
I saw $20 mins. in a high-limit for the first time very recently, too. Maybe it is trending?
'Dice, verily, are armed with goads and driving-hooks, deceiving and tormenting, causing grievous woe.' -Rig Veda 10.34.4
rdw4potus

Probably has been avoided because it would just be too many red chips.
$20 is the common unit in Bacarrat (I'm sure you checked and made sure that it wasn't a couple of Bac tables?), but the game uses (yellow?) chips specific to that game. I've been at a BJ table where someone came from Bac and put the yellows in play. The dealer took them out of the game after a loss or replaced them after a win. When I cashed out, he gave them to me so I'd bring them back to the cage. They like to keep the units specific


Those yellow chips (sometimes more like tan, to differentiate from yellow $1k chips) are also pretty common in Pai Gow Poker where bets in multiples of $20 are common, to accommodate the vig.
I've always wondered why $15 was a fairly common BJ denomination but not $20. $20 would be pretty easy to keep neat, just pay in green and tap off $5 every time if necessary.
'So as the clock ticked and the day passed, opportunity met preparation, and luck happened.' - Maurice Clarett
Ibeatyouraces
Tables
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benbakdoff
About a month or so ago, Mohegan Sun moved the $5 pit to a different section of the casino. The rules are still the same with the dealer hitting soft 17. There are 12 of these tables, six of which have the match the dealer side bet and six which have the in between bet. These are the only in between bets that I've seen in the entire casino.
Within the past couple of weeks, these 12 tables have been outfitted with continuous shuffle machines. As we've learned from the Wizard, the house edge is slightly decreased, however the hands per hour are increased with these machines. MS has assigned it's fastest dealers to these tables and the hands per hour have increased way beyond the expected 20%.
Looking at total money wagered, it may be better in some cases to play at the S17 tables at a $10 minimum than to speed through these $5 tables. Granted there's a lot of variables but it's something to think about.
By the way, I check out these H17 tables periodically and have yet to see anyone use proper basic strategy. I've never played these tables nor would I especially now.
BleedingChipsSlowly
$1 blackjack has arrived in my neck of the woods, Foxwoods, so I’ve been reading postings here and on other forums about the game which apparently has infested casinos everywhere. The 25-cent ante fee for Foxwoods tables was all I needed to hear to know the game is a MAJOR rip-off, but how bad is it? Specifics are hard to come by. Zoomie posting at BlackjackInfo.com estimates a house edge of nearly 19% for the 25-cent ante fee flavor. Can anyone provide the house edge for at least some of the many variations? Given the popularity of the game it might warrant some information on the Wizard of Odds site.
I saw something curious two weeks ago - an idle $5 table at Mohegan Sun at 10 am Saturday morning and empty seats at some of the other four tables. I haven’t seen idle $5 tables there since they closed the 12-$5-table pit years ago. I think the low-level players migrated to the $1 tables at Foxwoods. We like!
TablesSerious players curl their lips at the game and they should. However, if I were to take a noobie pal to Foxwoods I think the $1 table would be great fun. For about $25 dollars he (or she) could play a real casino table game for an hour! They could get FREE DRINKS! Never mind they would be getting screwed far worse than playing slots. Playing just like the big boys *cough* would be a great memory.
So, can some of the forum members with better math skills than I give us some stats on the $1 blackjack games being offered? My apologies if this has been done already and I missed it.
“You don’t bring a bone saw to a negotiation.” - Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Asswhoopermcdaddy
Great for the casinos to bleed you dry. Low limits.for card counters.AP play but problematic for the drunkards. A great reel to lute martingalers.
Mission146


So, can some of the forum members with better math skills than I give us some stats on the $1 blackjack games being offered? My apologies if this has been done already and I missed it.


It just depends on the Rules. Just take the Expected Loss for x amount bet by multiplying:
(House Edge Expressed as Decimal) * (Amount Bet) = Expected Loss
And, after you do that, add a quarter. After adding the quarter to the Expected Loss, you can then do:
(Expected Loss)/(Amount Bet) = New House Edge
Okay, so let's say it's eight-deck, dealer Hits S17, DAS, Double Anything, Resplit to Four Hands, No RSA, No HSA, No Surrender, Blackjack Pays 6:5
These rules yield a House Edge of 2.00291% with Optimal Play, so the expected loss on a $1.00 bet is obviously $0.0200291. If you add that quarter ante, the expected loss is $0.2700291 and the House Edge is 27.00291%.
If you bet $3 and must still pay the ante:
.0200291 * 3 = $0.0600873 Expected Loss

Where Are The $1 Blackjack Tables At Foxwoods


Craps Tables At Foxwoods

Add in the quarter, and it is $0.3100873, which means:
.3100873/3 = .1033624333~ or a 10.33624333~% House Edge
Vultures can't be choosers.
BleedingChipsSlowly
Thanks Mission146! Your logic is easy to follow. Makes me feel like I should have kicked the problem around for a few days to see if I could have come up with something on my own. Accounting for the ante factor was throwing me. Most of the other variations can be addressed with the Wizard's calculator, I think.
“You don’t bring a bone saw to a negotiation.” - Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Mission146
You're welcome!
sc15
$1 blackjack (with a fee) is basically buying a movie ticket.
You bring $20 to the table, and spend an hour or 2 having drinks and watching cards come out, and that's it. You won't win.
AxelWolf
I don't like the free drinks argument because you should be tipping. If you are unwilling to pony up $80 more to cut down an extra 25% then obviously $1 is significant. (call them cheap drinks) . But thats not the only reason. You can get cheap drink service playing 1 penny at a time on something or a .25 BJ machine.
The question is.... are you willing to toss a quarter in the trash evry few minutes for entertainment? That's really what you are doing for the privilege of usiusing real cards and real chips to geg more hands. If you cant muster up $100 buy in to hit the $5 level instead. I'm thinking you probably shouldn't be playing In the casino.
If its just a matter of just not wanting to risk the money I say find a .5/ .25 BJ machine or nickel VP machine. You can play as slow or fast as you want.
ploppys can do as they wish with their own money and no one should berate them(without them we wouldn't have casino's) but if you have any influence in guiding someone on a path, I say discurrage them from commission BJ.
♪♪Now you swear and kick and beg us That you're not a gamblin' man Then you find you're back in Vegas With a handle in your hand♪♪ Your black cards can make you money So you hide them when you're able In the land of casinos and money You must put them on the table♪♪ You go back Jack do it again roulette wheels turinin' 'round and 'round♪♪ You go back Jack do it again♪♪
BleedingChipsSlowly

ploppys can do as they wish with their own money and no one should berate them(without them we wouldn't have casino's) but if you have any influence in guiding someone on a path, I say discourage them from commission BJ.

I agree, but still feel $1 BJ with ante might be a worthwhile introductory experience for a novice, something easier to 'sell.' When suggesting a 10-hand session just to give it a try the possibility of losing [ignoring possible DD/splits] $12.50 would be far more acceptable than $50 or $100.
Tip of the hat again to Mission146 for his insight in calculating the effect of an ante on house edge. Based on what I learned from him, here's a table I came up with for Foxwoods' $1-wager/25-cent-ante game:
Here's that data in graphic form:
Clearly the game sucks big time. For what it's worth, kicking up the wager to $3 lowers the HE to slot level. Whoopie!
Thanks to all for comments. I have me answer to the question 'HOW bad is $1 BJ?' At least for the game at Foxwoods.
“You don’t bring a bone saw to a negotiation.” - Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
BleedingChipsSlowly
BTW, the cell formula could have been expressed as =B$1+B$2/D2, so the house edge is increased by the ante divided by the wager. That's just a simpler way to state the effect of the ante on the house edge. Doesn't reduce the suckage one iota.
“You don’t bring a bone saw to a negotiation.” - Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia