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Ever try to hit a moving target? That’s what it felt like trying to write this report. I had played two-deck games in nine different Las Vegas casinos over a three-week period this summer and I no sooner started to write this report when several casinos changed their games. It was back to the drawing board but after I finally got confirmation from some of my moles as to what changes were made, I am now able to publish this report. But be forewarned – playing conditions, especially in two-deck games, can change in a Las Vegas casino at anytime.

What makes two-deck games profitable for card counters? The most important variable is the penetration or percentage of the cards that are played before the dealer shuffles the cards. You’ll find many casinos in Las Vegas offer two-deck games where only one-deck is played (50% penetration). These games are a waste of time for card counters. You always want >50% penetration in two-deck games.

Playing rules also ran the gamut. Ideally, the best rules in a two-deck game are s17 and das. Unfortunately, most casinos offer h17 and das (a few with rsa) and some just s17 (no das). Games with these rules can be profitable as long as the penetration is > 50% (ideally 60-70%). The worse two-deck games I ran across only offer h17. Then there were the ridiculous two-deck games with 6-5 payoffs for blackjacks – please don’t even consider playing these games.

All the two-deck games that I played used a shuffle card (some casinos in LV don’t use them). Likewise the cards in some of the games were dealt face up from a shoe whereas in other casinos the cards were pitched by the dealer face down (my preference is pitch with a shuffle card). (note: LVBear questioned why I prefer a pitch game with cards dealt down rather than a faster shoe game with cards dealt up. He is right – a shoe game would be faster and my hourly win rate would increase. I guess I’m just old school and like those old fashion pitch games that I use to play all the time in Vegas)

Then there is the issue of bet spread. For two-deck games I recommend a 1-5 bet spread (LVBear commented my spread is to "tame". He plays a 1-16 spread, $25 to $400 or 2 x 200 in some casinos. If you feel you can get away with a much bigger bet spread than 1-4, be my guest, but be sure to check your ROR). I often will spread to two hands on high counts especially during the next to the last round (to squeeze out another round before the shuffle). I only spread to two hands two or three times per session and after the last hand spread, win or lose I leave (in general I keep my playing session short, no more than an hour in one casino).

In Las Vegas, your betting limits also determine what type of two-deck game you’ll find. There are better options if you are a green chip or higher player compared to a red chip player.

So here is my list of the best two-deck games that I played in no particular order, which is current as of early September...

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