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- For instance, a 6 deck game that is cutting off 1 deck of cards could be expressed as “1 deck of pen” or “83% Pen” because 83% of the cards will be dealt out before the shuffle. Below is a comparison chart of a standard 6 deck game of blackjack using a 1 to 12 spread and a $15,000 bankroll.
- As you probably expected, the house edge is higher playing a 6:5 blackjack game. This example shows that the house edge is lower when the game has fewer decks in play. Differences In Gameplay Depending On Deck Size. Single deck and double deck blackjack are often played differently than six and eight deck blackjack.
Do you know what the house edge is for the game you’re playing?
Because the starting house advantage is so much higher in single deck 6:5, it’s tough to spread enough to overcome the house edge. It takes a true count of around +5 just to break even. You’ll spend most of your time minimum-betting as a result, and those bets get expensive when blackjack pays only 6:5.
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Do you even know what “house edge” is or means?
It’s ok if you don’t. You don’t have to know what the house edge is for blackjack to play the game, or any casino game, for that matter.
That said, I think that knowing what house edge is and how it affects blackjack players can be helpful. You’ll have a better understanding of how the casinos make their money and why bankroll management and basic strategy is important.
Does that sound good? Then lets get started.
House edge refers to the advantage that the casino has over you in any particular game. It’s written in the form of a percentage. For example, blackjack with no basic strategy has a house edge of 1.5%.
What this means in terms of dollars and cents, is that for every $1 you spend the casino makes $.015 from you. You get $.985 back. Since most live blackjack games have a minimum bet of $5, that means that they’re making $.08 per player, per hand.
What’s important to understand about house edge is that there are two ways of looking at it — the short term and the long term.
In the short term you’re going to notice two things. One, despite the house edge being 1.5%, you’re not going to get $.985 back for every $1 you spend. You’re either going to make a dollar or lose it. Second, you’re going to see ups and downs in what you win or lose that’s not congruent with the house edge. Meaning that you might play $1/100 hands in a hour, but lose half of them (house edge 50%). Or you might win $500.
That’s where the long term comes in. Blackjack (or any game for that matter) is another form of statistics. Statistics is much too big a discussion to have here, but the short of it is that you need a lot of data (hands played and money spent) for it to be accurate, let alone reflect the true house edge. You need to play hundreds, thousands, possibly millions of hands to see.
However, the reality is that few people will ever play that many hands of blackjack. So chances are that they’re either going to have earned more money then they should have, or lost more than they should have.
So now you can probably see where the casinos get all their money from. Especially considering that blackjack has the lowest house edge. Think of all the money they make (in both the short and long term) from slots players where the house edge is as high as 15-20%.
What Affects the House Edge in Blackjack?
Now you know what house edge is. But what affects the house edge in blackjack?
- Number of decks – The more decks in play, the harder it is to make a blackjack, thus the higher the house edge.
- Player Options – This includes splitting, (re)splitting aces, doubling down and surrendering. Having these options taken away increases the house edge.
- Dealer Hits Soft 17 – Hitting a soft 17 (versus standing) increases the house edge.
- Blackjack Payout – A 6:5 or 1:1 blackjack payout increases the house edge, compared to the standard 3:2.
- Progressives – Playing progressive will increase the house edge.
- Basic Strategy – Having an understanding of basic strategy can lower the house edge to as little as .05%.
Knowing what affects the house edge now puts you in a position to know what the best blackjack games look like. You want to try to find a game that dealers stand on soft 17, players can double any two cards, double after splitting, resplit aces and late surrender — or the best possible combination of these options.
Blackjack is the best game in most casinos, provided basic strategy is followed and there are decent rules at the table. The house edge is generally about .5 percent if the blackjack game allows double down after splitting and pays 3-2 on a natural. This makes it far better than other table games found in traditional casino pits.
Blackjack is the best game in most casinos, provided basic strategy is followed and there are decent rules at the table. The house edge is generally about .5 percent if the blackjack game allows double down after splitting and pays 3-2 on a natural. This makes it far better than other table games found in traditional casino pits.
There are numerous table games in every casino. Blackjack is usually the most common offering. Other favorites include baccarat, roulette, and craps. The remainders are generally proprietary games dealt with cards that have astonishingly high house edges and often have complex rules accompanying them.
Blackjack House Advantage
The house edge of blackjack depends on the rules of the game. This includes the number of decks used or if double down, 2-3 or 6-5 blackjack and if surrender and resplit aces are allowed.The dealer hitting or standing on a soft 17 can also change the house edge.
Single Deck Blackjack House Edge
- Double any two cards, 3-2 on blackjack, with dealer hitting soft 17 – .3%
- Double any two cards, 6-5 on blackjack, with dealer hitting soft 17 – 1.7%
- Double only on 10 or 11, 3-2 on blackjack, with dealer hitting soft 17 – .58%
- Double only on 10 or 11, 6-5 on blackjack, with dealer hitting soft 17 – 1.97%
Double Deck Blackjack House Edge
- Double any two cards, double after splitting, dealer hits soft 17 – .47%
- Same rules as above with dealer staying on soft 17 – .26%
- Dealer stays on soft 17 but blackjack pays 6-5 – 1.63%
- Dealer hits soft 17 but double down after splitting not allowed – .6%
Six-Deck Blackjack
- Double anything, including after splitting, resplit aces, surrender, dealer stays on all 17s – .28%
- Same as above, but dealer hits soft 17 – .48%
- No surrender or resplit aces, dealer hits soft 17 – .64%
- No surrender or resplit aces, 6-5 blackjack, dealer hits soft 17 – 2%
As you see, there is a big difference between blackjack games when the rules change. These above percentages also assume basic strategy is followed.
House Advantages of Other Table Games
- Pass Line (Craps) – 1.41%
- Don’t Pass (Craps) – 1.36%
- Double Zero Roulette – 5.26%
- Single Zero Roulette – 2.7%
- European Roulette (Even Money Bets) – 1.35%
- Baccarat (Banker) – 1.06%
- Baccarat (Dealer) – 1.24%
- Three Card Poker (Ante) – 2.29%
- Three Card Poker (Pair Plus) – 2.32%
- Pai Gow Poker – 2.7%
The above wagers have a higher house advantage than good blackjack games. Some are still inferior to the worst 6-5 blackjack games in Las Vegas.
The house edge will affect you and your decisions in one of a few ways.
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Your Bankroll – If you’re playing $1 per hand online, and say you play 100 hands per hour, you should expect to lose $1-$2 per hour. In theory, that means you can get by with a bankroll of $20. However, remember that 100 hands is very small in the grand scheme of things. You may face (extreme) ups and downs. So you’ll want to make sure you have enough money to ride out those short ups and downs. The same applies to live casinos, where you’re betting considerably (500%) more at $5.
What Games You Play – You want to find the games that are in your favor. Look for 3:2 payouts, smaller number of decks, dealer hitting on soft 17 and more. The more the games are in your favor, the more money you keep, thus the longer you can play.
The Casinos You Play At – Not every casino has blackjack games with rules and payouts in your favor. For example, it’s recommended that you avoid blackjack games that payout 6:5.
Can You Beat the House Edge at Blackjack?
No. If you could the casinos wouldn’t be able to stay in business. They have to have an edge to make a profit.
That said, blackjack has the lowest house edge of all the casino games. You can lower the house edge down to .5% if you learn basic strategy. A .5% loss is nothing to scoff at, either, when compared to other forms of entertainment. At $1 per hand you’re only losing $1.50 per hour on average. What else can you do for a hour that’s going to cost you $1.50 or less?
If you decide to take blackjack a little further and learn how to count cards, keep track of the shuffle and other advantage player tactics, then you can flip house edge on it’s head and put the odds in your favor. Keep in mind, though, that the casinos won’t put up with that. If they figure out what you’re doing they’ll ask you to leave and to never return. So for most of you that play blackjack periodically for fun, it might be a better idea to learn basic strategy and take the small loss.
Calculating the House Edge for Any Number of Decks and Blackjack Rules Set
By Arnold Snyder
(From Blackbelt in Blackjack, 3rd Edition, Cardoza Publishing 2005) © 2005 Arnold Snyder
Quick Link to Charts for Effects of Rules on House Edge
Card Counting is Not Enough
Many card counters believe that as long as a game is called “blackjack,” and is being offered by a legitimate casino, they can win by applying their counting systems. But the fact is that while some games can be beaten by card counting strategies many can’t, and table conditions make the difference.
This article will give you simple guidelines you can follow that will help to keep you from throwing your money away in unbeatable games.
First, let’s define table conditions. There are four distinct conditions of any blackjack game that directly affect the profit potential for card counters:
1. The number of decks in play. In U.S. casinos, this may currently range from one to eight.
2. Rules. There are about two dozen common rule variations, and dozens more uncommon variations, in U.S. casinos.
3. Crowd conditions. You may be the only player at the table, or one of as many as seven. Crowded tables mean fewer hands per hour and lower earnings for card counters.
4. Depth of deal, or deck penetration, between shuffles. Anywhere from 2% to 90% of the cards may be dealt out.
The House Edge and Depth of the Deal (Penetration)
Of all of these table conditions, penetration is by far the most important. When I published my first book, The Blackjack Formula, in 1980, many players were skeptical of the weight I gave to the effect of deck penetration. No other authors had mentioned penetration as an important factor up to that time, and I received numerous letters from players who simply could not believe that there was any great difference in profitability between a single-deck Reno game with 55% penetration and one with 65% penetration.
“10% is only five cards!” one player wrote to me. 'Yet your formula shows the advantage almost doubling with the same 1 to 4 spread. That’s impossible!” Other card counters, who were playing 4-deck downtown Vegas games with 70% penetration and 1 to 4 spreads, were incredulous of my claim that such a small spread, with such poor penetration, left them with barely a tenth of a percent advantage over the house.
These days, any decent book on card counting will tell you that penetration is the name of the game, but before my book in 1980 no one knew! None of the books on card counting had ever mentioned the importance of deck penetration before.
The general rule is this: The shallower the penetration, the larger the betting spread you must use to beat the game. With a bad set of rules and poor penetration, you may not be able to beat the game with any spread.
In most single deck games, you can’t win big unless more than 50% of the cards are dealt out between shuffles—with Reno rules (double 10/11 only and dealer hits soft 17), make that more than 60%. There are two main reasons for this: One, most single-deck games have poor rule sets; two, you generally can’t get away with a very big spread in single-deck games.
With 2-deck games, you’ll want at least 65% dealt out. (But don’t even bother with a 2-decker when playing Reno rules.) With 4 or more decks, a bare minimum of 70% of the cards should be dealt out. Regardless of the number of decks in play, a 10% difference in penetration will make a huge difference in your profit potential: A 6-deck game with 85% penetration (about 5 decks dealt) is vastly superior to a 6-deck game with only 75% (about 4 ½ decks dealt).
For more information on penetration, and a formula for quickly and easily calculating the profitability of any blackjack game, see the Snyder Profit Index in Chapter 11 of Blackbelt in Blackjack.
This rest of this article will deal with the number of decks in play and the effects of rules on the profitability of blackjack games. Before you can profit from any card counting system, you must overcome the house edge—that is, the cost in percent of playing the game. Below you will find all the information you need to quickly calculate the basic strategy house edge for any number of decks and any set of blackjack rules.
How the House Edge is Affected by the Number of Decks in Play
Now let's consider the effect of the number of decks shuffled together. All other conditions being equal, single-deck games would be the most profitable for card counters. The more decks being used, the less profitable the game becomes, not only for card counters, but for basic strategy players as well. A single-deck Vegas Strip game (blackjack pays 3:2, double down on any two cards, and dealer stands on soft 17), is pretty close to being a break even proposition for a basic strategy player. With four or more decks in play, and the same set of rules, the house has about a ½ percent edge. Use this chart to estimate your basic strategy (dis)advantage due to the number of decks in play:
Other notables still in the hunt for the $136,080 first-place prize include Tanya Kirk (567,000), Dylan Wilkerson (442,000), Damjan Radanov (285,000), Mike Shin (203,000) and WPT Champion Ben Palmer (117,000), who comes into Monday as the short stack.The day started with 52 players returning, but there was still four levels to play before registration closed.
Hiroaki Harada rounds out the top five chip counts with 679,000. All the money went in preflop and Song-Carrillo moved over the million mark himself, but a rough finish to the day left him fourth in chips with 685,000.George Wolff finished the day second in chips with 733,000, just ahead of WSOP bracelet winner Jack Duong, who finished third with 716,000. Sung was aggressive on the bubble and eliminated the first three players who busted in the money to finish the day with 1.014 million in chips.Leo Song-Carrillo was chip leader for most of the day and won a massive pot to burst the bubble when he picked up pocket aces against Patrick Uzan’s pocket kings. The money bubble broke early in level 18, the final level of Day 2 with the final 18 players securing an in-the-money finish.
# Decks | Advantage |
1 | +0.02% |
2 | -0.31% |
3 | -0.43% |
4 | -0.48% |
5 | -0.52% |
6 | -0.54% |
7 | -0.55% |
8 | -0.57% |
How the Blackjack Rules Affect the House Edge
6 Deck Blackjack Strategy Chart
The second condition you must consider is the set of rules used on the game. Some rules, notably those that offer the player more options, are favorable to the player, assuming the player applies the correct strategy. Such rules would be surrender, doubling after splitting allowed, resplitting aces allowed, etc. Those rules that limit the player’s options, such as doubling down on 10-11 only, or no resplits, are disadvantageous to the player.
Some rules neither limit nor offer options to the player, but alter the dealer’s procedure. An example of one such rule would be “dealer hits soft seventeen.” This is disadvantageous to the player. An advantageous dealer rule, used occasionally in short-term special promotions, would be “blackjack pays 2-to-1.”
A different type of advantageous rules for the player are the “bonus” rules, such as “dealer pays $XXX bonus to player hand of 6, 7, 8 same suit.” Most bonuses, due to the rarity of the bonus hand(s) occurring, have very small $ value to the player.
Now let's look at the approximate effect of each rule on your basic strategy expectation. By adding the effect of the number of decks in play to the effects of the rule variations, you will know the house advantage against basic strategy players. Card counters call this the starting advantage, or the advantage off the top.
Most rules, to be sure, affect card counters differently than they affect basic strategy players. The house edge off the top, however, is always an important consideration, as this is what your skillful play must overcome.
For instance, insurance has no value to a basic strategy player, since correct basic strategy is to never take insurance. If a casino disallows insurance, however, this hurts card counters, since counters profit from their selective insurance bets. Likewise, the surrender option has little value to basic strategy players--less than one-tenth of 1 percent increase in expectation. For a card counter, however, surrender is, like insurance, very valuable.
In order to figure out our starting advantage, we need to begin by defining a benchmark game, i.e., a set of standard rules to which we can add or subtract the effects of the rule variations. Most authors define this benchmark game as Vegas Strip rules:
1. Dealer stands on soft 17.
2. You may double down on any 2 original cards.
3. You may not double down after splitting a pair.
4. You may split any pair.
5. You may resplit any pair except aces.
6. Split aces receive only one card each.
7. No surrender.
8. Dealer either receives a hole card, or the player’s original bet only is lost if the player doubles down or splits a pair and the dealer gets a blackjack.
9. Insurance is allowed up to one-half the player’s bet, and pays 2 to 1.
10. Player blackjack is paid 3 to 2.
2. You may double down on any 2 original cards.
3. You may not double down after splitting a pair.
4. You may split any pair.
5. You may resplit any pair except aces.
6. Split aces receive only one card each.
7. No surrender.
8. Dealer either receives a hole card, or the player’s original bet only is lost if the player doubles down or splits a pair and the dealer gets a blackjack.
9. Insurance is allowed up to one-half the player’s bet, and pays 2 to 1.
10. Player blackjack is paid 3 to 2.
Now the effect of any other rules must be accounted for in determining your starting advantage. These are the rule effects:
6 Deck Blackjack House Edge Rules
Effects in Percent | |||
Common Rules | 1-Deck | 2-Deck | Multi-Deck |
Double on 10-11 only: | -0.26 | -0.21 | -0.18 |
Double on 9-10-11 only: | -0.13 | -0.11 | -0.09 |
Hits Soft 17: | -0.19 | -0.20 | -0.21 |
No Resplits: | -0.02 | -0.03 | -0.04 |
Double After Splits: | +0.14 | +0.14 | +0.14 |
Resplit Aces: | +0.03 | +0.05 | +0.07 |
Draw to Split Aces: | +0.14 | +0.14 | +0.14 |
Late Surrender: | +0.02 | +0.05 | +0.08 |
Late Surrender (H soft17): | +0.03 | +0.06 | +0.09 |
Less Common Rules | |||
Double on 8-9-10-11 only: | -0.13 | -0.11 | -0.09 |
Double on 11 only: | -0.78 | -0.69 | -0.64 |
Double 3 or More Cards: | +0.24 | +0.24 | +0.24 |
Double after Ace splits: | +0.10 | +0.10 | +0.10 |
Double on 3+ cards: | +0.24 | +0.23 | +0.23 |
No Ace Splits: | -0.16 | -0.17 | -0.18 |
Early Surrender: | +0.62 | +0.62 | +0.63 |
Early Surrender (H soft17): | +0.70 | +0.71 | +0.72 |
Early Surrender v. 10 only: | +0.19 | +0.21 | +0.24 |
BJ Pays 6-to-5: | -1.74 | -1.71 | -1.71 |
BJ Pays 1-to-1: | -2.32 | -2.28 | -2.26 |
BJ Pays 2-to-1: | +2.32 | +2.28 | +2.26 |
Suited BJ Pays 2-to-1: | +0.58 | +0.57 | +0.56 |
21 Pushes Dlr. 10-up BJ: | +0.20 | +0.20 | +0.20 |
No Hole Card (European): | -0.10 | -0.11 | -0.11 |
5-card 21 Pays 2-to-1: | +0.20 | +0.20 | +0.20 |
6-card 21 Pays 2-to-1: | +0.10 | +0.10 | +0.10 |
Suited 678 Pays 2-to-1: | +0.01 | +0.01 | +0.01 |
7-7-7 Pays 3-to-2: | +0.01 | +0.01 | +0.01 |
6 Cards Unbusted Wins: | +0.10 | +0.10 | +0.10 |
No Insurance: | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
Multi-Action: | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
Over/Under: | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
Royal Match | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
Super 7s: | 00.00 | 00.00 | 00.00 |
Most of these rule effects have been calculated by using data from Peter Griffin’s Theory of Blackjack. Note that the last five rules show effects of 00.00 percent for basic strategy players. When it comes to the “bonus” rules, such as 6,7,8 suited or 7,7,7 pays 2:1, the general rule is to never change your basic strategy to attempt to get a bonus payout.
In some cases, where a specific dollar amount is awarded for the bonus hand, the value in percent is dependent on the player’s bet size. For instance, if 6,7,8 suited pays a $100 bonus, then the value in percent will be quite different for a player who has a $2 bet and a player who has a $200 bet.
The first player would receive a 50:1 payout on his hand, while the second player would receive only an extra half-bet. The $2 bettor would likely be correct in hitting his hand against any dealer upcard, if his hand contained two of the needed suited cards. The $200 bettor would usually be making an error if he hit this hand in violation of his basic/count strategy.
Also, take note of the huge negative effect of “BJ Pays 6-to-5,” a rule now common in many Las Vegas single-deck games. This rule is a killer. And note how much worse yet it is if BJ Pays 1-to-1 (even money), as is standard in all “Super Fun 21” games. All those other “good” rules that the “Super Fun” game allows do not make up for this huge negative. Serious card counters should stick with the traditional “BJ Pays 3:2” games.
Let’s walk through an estimation of our “off the top” expectation in a more typical blackjack game. Consider a standard Atlantic City 8-deck game, which allows double after splits, but no resplits. Our basic strategy expectation is derived by adding together the effects of the number of decks in play, and the rule effects (from the multi-deck column). We get:
8 Decks: | -0.57 |
Double After Splits: | +0.14 |
No Resplits: | -0.04 |
House Advantage: | -0.47% |
Blackjack may be just a card game, but you'd better take it as seriously as the casinos do if you expect to beat them. That means paying attention to the house edge from the number of decks and blackjack rules, crowd conditions, and, above all, penetration. Believe me, the casinos are dead serious about beating you. ♠
For more information on winning at blackjack with card counting or other professional gambling methods, see Arnold Snyder's Blackbelt in Blackjack.
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