Reason #1 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

Excellent customer support

The thing that separates Bovada from the rest is its customer support. Many other online gaming companies outsource their support. It can be difficult getting a response from them, and if you do it is often slow and handled by somebody with little understanding of gambling or even of English. But Bovada’s support is handled by Bovada, and their support staff is actually knowledgeable and helpful.

I’m so confident that you’ll have a good experience with Bovada that if you have a problem getting paid and you can’t resolve it with them on your own, I’ll talk to them myself. I personally have known the Bovada management for about three years and always found them to be professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. I have also personally visited one of their call centers so I could see first-hand how they handle customer issues. (More on my mediation service.)

If you have a problem with any other casino besides Bovada, I can’t help you. I get complaints from players of other online casinos every day who have difficulty getting paid. However that isn’t my job nor my problem. If you play at Bovada after clicking through my site I’ll stand behind you 100%. Any place else and you’re on your own.

Visit Bovada

Blackjack Appendix 14

Last Update: Mar 19, 2006

Sometimes a casino will offer a coupon which can be redeemed for a free ace in blackjack. Other times the dealer will start to deal and you can see the first card, before she pauses because you forgot to put out a bet. The following tables shows the value of each initial player card, accross whether the dealer hits (H17) or stands (S17) on a soft 17. The table is based on an infinite number of decks. In Basic Blackjack in table 32 (page 124) author Stanford Wong also gives the value of each initial player card based on six decks. The most Wong and I disagree is 0.3%, probably due to the number of decks.

CardS17H17
ace 0.504019 0.501844
2 -0.132947 -0.133987
3 -0.153950 -0.154469
4 -0.176969 -0.177029
5 -0.196529 -0.196668
6 -0.209834 -0.209714
7 -0.180796 -0.182900
8 -0.084058 -0.090196
9 -0.009417 -0.013236
10 0.143489 0.140328

For example if you had a free ace coupon for a $10 bet, and the dealer stands on soft 17, the the value of the coupon would be $10 × 0.504019 = $5.04.