the casinos

Star City Casino, Sydney, New South Wales

Address: 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, New South Wales 2009
Telephone (switch): (02) 9777 9000
Casino Enquiries: (02) 9657 8518
Endeavour Room Enquiries: (02) 9657 8217
Facsimile: (02) 9657 8344
Website: http://www.starcity.com.au

How to get there: Walking distance from the Sydney CBD, just beyond Darling Harbour.  The monorail will also take you to Darling Harbour or bus 888 will take you to the door of Star City.

General Conditions: One large gaming floor, surrounded by a few mediocre restaurants and shops.  I would expect a better facility from a city such as Sydney.  Smoking restrictions are well enforced and there is no smoking at any of the tables.  Numbers of Blackjack tables available are:

$10-$500: 7
$25-$1000: 20
$100-$1000: 1

With a very poor penetration of around 60% (3 decks cut out of 8) I wouldn't bother counting cards at Star City.  You won't get a chance to pull out the big bets as you will not experience high true counts very often.  I often wonder about the competency of the management who implemented this extreme measure to combat card counters.  The game is now less profitable for them as they will not get the players who 'think' that they can count cards and will also gain less from the regular players.

Blackjack Rules

• 8 Decks
• Double on 9, 10 or 11.
• Dealer stands on soft 17 (S17)
• Split to 2 hands, including Aces
• One card only on split aces
• Double after split (DAS)
• Blackjack pays 3:2
• Insurance pays 2:1
• Dealer blackjack takes Original and Busted Bets Only (OBBO)
• First card from shoe burnt and not shown to players

I would suggest Wonging In as a better strategy, as the general player's knowledge of basic strategy is quite poor.

Variations
The 'Perfect Pairs' side bet is available with a mixed pair paying 5 to 1, a coloured pair paying 10 to 1 and a perfect pair paying 30 to 1.  As the chances of getting a perfect pair is around 50 to 1, this is a poor option.

Blackjack Basic Strategy

For a given set of blackjack rules, there is only one best action to take for each possible hand a player may get versus each possible upcard a dealer may have.  This set of "best actions" is know as the Basic Strategy.  The basic strategy to be followed at Star City is as follows:

 For hard totals:

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
9	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
10	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
11	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H
12	H	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
13	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
14	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
15	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
17	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

For pairs:

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
2,2	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
3,3	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
4,4				SP	SP
5,5
6,6	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
7,7	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
8,8	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP
9,9	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP		SP	SP
10,10
A,A	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP

For Soft totals, always hit on soft 17 or less.  Hit on soft 18 if dealer shows 9, 10 or Ace.

House Edge: 0.554%

INDEX
The dealer up-card is displayed along the top, and the players totals down the side. "S" = "stand" "H" = "hit" "D" = "double" "SP" = "split"