 
| ||
|
|
|
ST. LOUIS TRIP REPORT
by JPB
JPB has been playing blackjack and counting cards part-time since 1996. He plays throughout the country but primarily in Missouri. He has been a Green Chip member of
BJ21.com for five years and one-time winner of the Post-of-the-Month. JPB is a professional engineer with three engineering degrees and works as a consulting engineer.Casino visited include:
Ameristar (Saint Charles)
Hollywood (Maryland Heights)
Lumiere
River City
St. Louis is the second closest, decent-sized, casino market for me, behind only Kansas City. For many years, although the St. Louis market was larger in number of casinos than Kansas City, there was only one decent place to play double-deck blackjack in St. Louis- Ameristar (a Station property before being rebranded as Ameristar many years ago). There are currently four casinos on the Missouri side and two on the Illinois side that offer blackjack. I discuss the four Missouri casinos in this article: Ameristar, Hollywood, River City, and Lumiere. Fortunately, within the last year or so, there have been a few changes that make St. Louis a better place for an advantage player to play blackjack.
St. Louis Logistics
The logistics of the St. Louis casinos is not particularly amenable to someone trying to hop around. Hollywood and Ameristar are fairly close together (within 5 miles) on the west side of the metropolitan area. Lumiere is about 25 miles east of Hollywood in the heart of downtown. The good news is that these three casinos are all easily assessable off I-70. River City is about 10 minutes south of Lumiere on I-55. In order to drive from the farthest west casino (Ameristar) to the farthest southeast casino (River City), it will take a good 40 minutes. Ameristar and River City are both owned by Pinnacle and use the same Players Card system. Lumiere is now owned by Tropicana. Hollywood (formerly Harrah's) is owned by Penn Gaming.
Ameristar in Saint Charles
There are about six double-deck tables and about four six- deck tables in the high limit room. All the tables in the main pit are six-deck. For such a large casino, the number of six-decks in the main pit is low (only a few open when I visited). The conditions I observed were:
2-deck
- H17, DAS, no RSA for a house advantage of 0.40%
- Penetration ranging from 60-80%
- Table minimum $25
- Table maximum $2000
Note: there was also a $100 minimum table that was "reserved" on both of my visits. I was not able to confirm it, but according to Current Blackjack News (CBJN), they offer S17 on the $100 table minimum.
6-deck
- H17, DAS, RSA for a house advantage of 0.56%
- Penetration about 4.5 decks dealt out
- Table minimum $25 in high limit (lower in main pit)
- Table maximum $ 2000 in high limit (lower in main pit)
The double deck is a very good game for a card counter. It is hard for me to judge how tolerant they are of new advantage players and how quick they are to identify advantage players. I have been playing there for almost 20 years. Sometimes I would only visit once a year, and before I can even place a bet, the countermeasures (25% penetration) were in place. If you are a skilled blackjack player and have not been to this property, I cannot predict if, and how long it will take, for countermeasures to be taken. (Unfortunately, you will have to find out for yourself.) On my two recent visits, I was pleasantly surprised to see...
...enter your member login information below to read this article/newsletter...
Paid Members-Only Article
You have clicked on a link to a Blackjack Insider web page or article for paid subscribers. You must have a paid membership to the Blackjack Insider newsletter to view this content. About 1/2 of the articles in each issue of the Blackjack Insider are for paid members only, while the rest are viewable by everyone. Your purchased membership will allow you to read all Blackjack Insider articles for 12 months.
Enter your user name and password below (they were listed and e-mailed to you after you purchased your Blackjack Insider membership):
Forgot your membership id or password? Click here.
How do I get a membership?
A membership can be purchased online at our secure store with your credit card for only $19.95 per year. You will receive a user name and password immediately by e-mail which you can use to read the all past and future members-only articles for 12 months, as well as the regular free articles.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP NOW... only $19.95
Do I have to buy a membership?
No. Blackjack Insider will continue to be published as a free monthly e-newsletter. But about 1/2 of the articles each month will be for paid members only. Subscribers without a membership can still view and read the non-members articles for free.
What happens after I buy a membership?
Immediately after you complete your purchase, you will receive a unique login user name and password. These are displayed on the final purchase page, and are e-mailed to you. When you click on a members-only article in our web site, you will be prompted for this user name and password (as shown above). Simply enter them, and enjoy the article! Note: make sure you turn on the checkbox above when you login, to save the user name and password so that you don't have to re-enter them every time you view members-only articles.
Why did you switch to paid memberships?
Blackjack Insider is a professional monthly publication with top-notch articles by world-reknown gaming experts. In addition, we have regular reporters that monitor game conditions and tournament schedules throughout North America. We use a partially paid subscriber model to enable us to continue getting the best content for our readers from leading authors on blackjack and gaming.
|
|
©2015, DeepNet Technologies. No material to be copied without express permission of DeepNet Technologies.
This site developed by
DeepNet Technologies, Ontario, Canada. Contact webmaster @ bjinsider . com
if you have problems.
This site is best viewed in a 800x600 graphics mode, or higher.