The best blackjack game in Las Vegas is located at the El Cortez. It is a single deck game that pays 3-2 on a blackjack. Most Las Vegas single deck games pay 6-5 on a natural. Another advantage of the El Cortez single deck blackjack game is that players can double down on any two cards.
- The casino at El Cortez is best known for its Single Deck Blackjack. This game allows players to double down on any two cards, but not after splitting. The dealer hits a soft 17 and a natural blackjack pays 3-2, not 6-5 like most Las Vegas single deck games do. This makes it the best blackjack game in Las Vegas.
- Blackjack at the El Cortez Well, it happened again over the weekend. For the fifth time, I have been backed-off at a blackjack table. This time at El Cortez Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas, NV.
Located downtown on Fremont Street, the El Cortez proudly calls itself “the longest continuously-running hotel and casino” in the city. It has been serving Las Vegas since 1941, and few casinos can claim to have been dealing cards longer than that. In fact, the hotel’s longevity recently earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Legions of locals love the decades-old 45,300-square-foot gaming floor, where a dozen blackjack tables can be found among the 20 games offered in the pit area. Low limits, favorable rules, friendly dealers and a laid-back clientele are reminders of how things used to be in the “good old days,” back before corporations replaced ‘wise guy” owners, turning gambling into gaming and hotels into resorts.
El Cortez Tables & Games
In a town where being #1 means everything, the El Cortez has made blackjack its niche. For five consecutive years, 2009~2013, the Las Vegas Review Journal has cited the casino for having “The Best Blackjack in Las Vegas”. The bread-and-butter game here that gets all the rave reviews is the $5 single-deck version paying the traditional 3:2 for natural blackjacks. Although the dealer hits on soft 17 and there is no doubling down after splitting (DAS), no re-splitting of Aces (RSA) and no surrender, even with such options eliminated, the House edge is just 0.19%.
Couple that with access to a $3 double-deck game that allows DAS for a House edge of 0.45%, and it’s easy to see why the El Cortez tables have such a strong fan base. According to one study, the average advantage to the House at the El Cortez on all of its blackjack games combined is just 0.24%, which rates it better than all downtown casinos, all Strip casinos and all off-Strip hotels and casinos combined—the undisputed #1. The only drawback is that wagering is limited to $500. There’s just one single-deck table offering limits of $25~$1,000, which makes the games unattractive to professional card counters and high rollers who might like to take advantage of such favorable odds.
Other blackjack variations available at the El Cortez include Double Attack Blackjack with a side bet on whether the dealer will bust and several types of Royal Match, which has side bets for wagering on suited pairs and suited K-Q combinations that pay from 2.5X to 25X. There’s also a Royal Match Progressive where thousands can be won with a properly timed one-dollar bet. Oddly enough, all of the blackjack games are dealt from shoes, not from the dealers’ hands.
What’s Different
El Cortez Blackjack 2020
The El Cortez proves that a casino can be old school without being old-fashioned. In fact, it has been lauded by many for its seemingly unique ability to mix “retro with modern” year after year. An example of this are “Vintage Vegas” promotions and marketing that make a big deal out of the hotel’s association with the infamous mobster known as Bugsy Siegel. In fact, Siegel briefly owned the hotel-casino for about a year in the mid-1940s before turning his attention to construction of the old Flamingo on the Strip after World War II. However, the real personality behind the El Cortez is 93-year-old gaming legend Jackie Gaughan, who owned the property from 1966 to 2008. Now retired, today Gaughan lives in the hotel’s penthouse, and he still plays cards with customers in the casino’s poker room, providing a true glimpse of Vintage Vegas.
Club Cortez for Frequent Blackjack Players
Also referred to a “Jackie’s Club” in reference to the hotel’s former owner, the Club Cortez is the casino’s loyalty program, which provides players with “VIP access to El Cortez promotions, giveaways, and events.” Points are earned for play on slots, video poker and video keno, while Comp Dollars are earned for playing table games and live keno or wagering at the Race & Sports Book. Blackjack players must present their Club Cortez Card to the dealer to get credit for the average amount bet and length of time at the table. Benefits increase as members progress in status from the Emerald level to Sapphire, Ruby and Diamond, including a personal Comp Dollars account, cash back, discounts off accommodations and dining, priority reservations and line passes, free gifts, and invitations to exclusive events.
The Inside View
The El Cortez may be custom-made for low rolling tourists and locals on a fixed income, but the word on the street is that the casino will “sweat” suspected card counters and anyone varying wagers between 1X and 10X, including those at the $5~$50 range. The safe zone is apparently 1X~6X. Also, bets of $75 or more will earn special attention from the pit supervisors in any event, as will winnings of $200+. Once the heat begins, it is reportedly not at all difficult to get banned from play. On the other hand, some professional blackjack players have said that “being 86’d at the El Cortez is almost a rite of passage,” so wager at your own risk.
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The sixth time is the charm, my friends. You faithful readers of this blog will recall the El Cortez has one of the best single deck games in Las Vegas, so long as you are a low-roller. For a refresher, read this initial post about the El Cortez Hotel. You will also recall they are chickenshit and are scared of players who know what they are doing.
I was downtown on Thursday betting four Game of the Year College Football lines put out by the Golden Nugget sportsbook.
On my way home, I thought I would roll through the El Cortez sportsbook and see if they had any lines of interest. For my money, the El Cortez book is the best downtown, and perhaps the best in the whole town. The sportsbook manager is a good guy and runs his book and crew well – and they treat me well.
Summer in Las Vegas is the slow season (one of the reasons the Nugget puts out their Game of the Year lines – to drum up a little action – and cash) hence, I thought the El Cortez blackjack pit would be happy to welcome me back, even after so rudely backing me off the last time. Afterall, in the summer, there is not much going on and most casinos are hurting for some action.
My old nemesis Chris-the-wannabe-gangster pit boss must have seen me strolling into the casino. I noticed him out by the front door having a smoke. The last time I walked in with a friend he followed us around the blackjack pit. When I say “followed us around” he may as well have been our shadow! My friend, The Mayor, found a table he wanted to play and he was allowed to play. I didn’t bother, as I knew it would not last long.
Along with lungs rotting from nicotine, that old boy Chris must have some bloodhound in him. And he must be on salary, as when I see him he is usually doing nothing but hanging outside having another smoke. All the better to catch us card-counters before we can get comfortable at a table, I guess. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt and think he is being ever-vigilant in the execution of his duties.
First day of March Madness he was betting right next to me at the sportsbook counter – must have been on a break – getting his hard-earned money down on a 5-team parlay – all big favorites against the spread – for $20. He pointed out to the ticket writer that it would be a nice cash if it hit. It didn’t.
But I digress…
After only a single deck of cards, Chris-the-wannabe-gangster pit boss, part bloodhound and part obfuscator or the truth, told me to leave the table and thought he was clear the last time he told me to leave the table. In my defense, I did not think he meant “forever” and I protested my position. He assured me it was indeed forever.
There is no debating with these guys, so I scooped up my chips and beer, which had just been delivered, and left the table. I’m a polite guy and had a friendly chat with Chris as I took the long way around the blackjack pit to the cashier’s cage.
Plaintively, I asked Chris “why don’t you let me play? I’m not hurting your bottom line in any appreciable way.” He stopped walking, looked me square in the eye, he has to look up at me to do that, and this is what he said – verbatim –
“I know I can’t beat you. And you are taking a seat away from a player I know I can beat.”
Word for word, exactly like that. Friends, the pit was nearly deserted at this time of the afternoon, on a Thursday, in the slowest part of the “season.”
I then stated the obvious – “So, you only want losers at your tables.” Chris stammered this was not at all true. But considering the facts, he was clearly lying through his nicotine-stained false teeth.
Mind you, El Cortez is a low-roller joint. During the day, most blackjack tables are $5 minimums, $500 maximums. They have one $25 table. Very few people are in there betting green and black chips and, if they are, they won’t last long if they win. The pit has already protected their hold, because they will not tolerate any big bets…unless you are a known loser.
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As we leisurely strolled to the cage, he told me the only reason he does not read me the Nevada Trespass Act is that he knows I like the sportsbook, noting “I see you in there all the time.” Chris wasn’t lying about that. And I thanked him for his generosity.
Chris pointed out that I am free to play any other game in the casino, then helpfully listed them for me: keno, slots, craps, roulette, baccarat. I pointed out to him those are all negative expectation games, and I was insulted that he would demean me in such fashion. By this time, we are parting company, me peeling off to cash my chips and he going back into the pit to point out to a new pit boss that I am not allowed to play blackjack – ever.
You know, I respect that Chris has a job to do and I will say he does it well. But he very clearly does not respect that I have a job, as well. I am not cheating him in any way – and he knows that. Yet he is cheating his players. And he is lying to his players. He offers them what they think is the best game in town, gets them hammered on complimentary booze, if that is what the player wants, but only offers the game to the players he knows will lose to him. And if the player should happen to get sharp and start beating him – out they go. Again, in his own words:
“I know I can’t beat you. And you are taking a seat away from a player I know I can beat.”
There you have it folks. You are welcome to play blackjack at the El Cortez, but only if you are a loser. I didn’t say so, Chris the bloodhound pit boss says so.