• Dec 12, 2018  Blackjack. Blackjack has the best odds of winning, with a house edge of just 1 percent in most casinos, Bean said. Plus, you are playing against only the dealer, not hooded poker champions.
• Mar 08, 2019  The hold percentage is the ratio of chips the casino keeps to the total chips sold. This is generally measured over an entire shift. For example if blackjack table x takes in $1000 in the drop box and of the $1000 in chips sold the table keeps $300 of them (players walked away with the other $700) then the game's hold is 30%.

• Casino Blackjack Odds Of Winning

Anyone who ask this question and genuinely wants to understand, needs to know two things. Firstly, house edge and odds (payout) are different. Secondly, the house edge for Roulette is FIXED. Single zero Roulette has a house edge of 2.7%, while Dou.

Where to cash in on player-friendly blackjack games, and how to avoid the bad ones

by Henry Tamburin

The 6-5 payoff rule increases the house edge by almost 1.4 percent. If you’re a $10 bettor, playing a 6-5 game will cost you $3 each time you get a blackjack (and you’ll average roughly four blackjacks per hour), which comes to $12 that you are forking over to the casino bosses every hour.

This month, my column is going to accomplish four things:

1. Provide you with a convenient list of casinos that offer a single-deck blackjack game that pays 3-2 for a blackjack (also known as a “natural”)
2. Give you an accurate single-deck basic playing strategy that you can use to play this terrific game
3. Summarize the casinos in and around Las Vegas that offer the abominable 6-5 single-deck games (so you can avoid them)
4. Give you some advice on how you can help eradicate the awful 6-5 games, which have been spreading like a cancer in casinos throughout the U.S.

Note: The information on which casinos offer single-deck games and the corresponding rules and house edges mentioned in this article were obtained from Current Blackjack News (CBJN), with their permission (www.bj21.com). Casinos can change the rules at any time, so check CBJN for the latest rules and playing conditions in casinos across the country.

In the March 2008 issue of Casino Player magazine, I wrote a detailed column about why the 6-5 single-deck game is bad news for players. Without rehashing all the points that I made back then, let me briefly summarize why this game should be avoided like the plague. The 6-5 payoff rule increases the house edge by almost 1.4 percent (no, that’s not a typo). If you’re a $10 bettor, playing a 6-5 game will cost you $3 each time you get a blackjack (and you’ll average roughly four blackjacks per hour), which comes to $12 that you are forking over to the casino bosses every hour.

That is an atrocity, which is why a smart blackjack player would never play this game.

If you talk to casino bosses about their 6-5 games (which I‘ve done), you get this sort of universal response from them: we know players don’t like the 6-5 games, but as long as they keep playing them, we’d be crazy not to offer them. In a moment, I will give you some tips on how you can help us eradicate the 6-5 games from casinos everywhere. But first, let me discuss the single-deck game that I am encouraging you to play; namely, the game that pays the traditional 3-2 for a natural. It’s available, and I’ll show you where.

The house edge against a basic strategy player in a 3-2 single-deck game is a function of the mix of playing rules. The best single-deck games have h17 (dealer hits soft 17), and allow players to resplit aces. The house edge in this game is a meager 0.13%. Second best is an h17 game without resplit aces (house edge: only 0.18%).

The following chart summarizes the relationship of the rules and the house edge for a basic strategy player in a 3-2 single-deck game. You’d be hard-pressed to find a multi-deck game with these low house edges.

Where would you guess is the most likely place to find a 3-2 single-deck game? If you said Las Vegas, you’d be dead wrong. According to CBJN, there are only four casinos that offer a 3-2 single-deck game in Las Vegas (and unfortunately, 44 casinos in and around Vegas that offer the dastardly 6-5 single-deck games, making Las Vegas the #1 gambling destination with the most 6-5 games).

Table 1 lists the casinos in Las Vegas that offer 3-2 single-deck games. Table 2 is the list of Las Vegas casinos that offer the 6-5 game. Be smart—on your next trip to Vegas, play the juicy 3-2 single-deck game and avoid the terrible 6-5 game in the casinos listed in Table 2.

The areas of the country where the concentration of 3-2 single-deck games is the greatest are Tunica and Vicksburg, MS, and Reno/Lake Tahoe/Wendover, in Nevada. You’ll be delighted to find many casinos in these cities that offer the fair 3-2 single-deck game. (See Table 3 for the list of these casinos.)

Now that you know where to find 3-2 single-deck games, you need to learn the basic playing strategy for them. Table 4 summarizes the strategy where the dealer hits soft 17 (which is the case in the majority of casinos that offer a single-deck game). You should become familiar with this playing strategy, because it’s slightly different than the basic strategy for multi-deck games. If this is your first time playing a single-deck game, I would also recommend that you bring a strategy card with you to avoid making playing mistakes. It’s perfectly legal to refer to a card before you play your hand.

Table 1

Las Vegas Casinos That Offer

3-2 Single-Deck Games

h17 = dealer hits soft 17

d10 = double down only on two-card ten or eleven

rsa = aces may be resplit

Note: I’ve had friends in the past play the single-deck games at Binion’s and Four Queens, and they claimed they had a good time. However, Al Rogers, manager at bj21.com, had this to say about the single-deck games at both casinos: “Anyone showing the slightest degree of brain usage at reasonable stakes will not be allowed to play the 3-2 single-deck games at either casino.”

Table 2

The Hall Of Shame:

Las Vegas Area Casinos That Offer

6-5 Single-Deck Games

*Binion’s and Four Queens offer 3-2 and 6-5 single-deck games, which is why they appear in both Tables 1 and 2.

Table 3

MS and Laughlin/Reno/Wendover, NV Casinos

With 3-2 Single-Deck Games

Note: The Isle Casino in Biloxi, MS, and L’Auberge du Lac casino in Lake Charles, LA also offer 3-2 single-deck blackjack games.

Table 4

Single-Deck Basic Strategy

Dealer Hits Soft 17, No DAS

Note: Hard hands are hands that either don’t contain an ace, or if one (or more) aces are present in the hand, they count as 1 (e.g., 10-7; 8-4-Ace-4; 3-Ace-Ace-10).

Soft hands are hands that contain an ace counted as 11 (e.g., Ace-7; 3-4-Ace; Ace-7-Ace).

If the rules do not allow doubling on soft hands, then you should always hit soft hands from 13 through 17, and always stand with soft 19 through 21. Likewise, if you are not allowed to double down on hard 8 through 11, then hit.

Casino Blackjack Odds Of Winning

stand if dealer has 2, 7, or 8A-8Double if dealer has 6; otherwise standA-9; A-10Always stand Pairs 2sSplit if dealer has 3 through 7; otherwise hit3sSplit if dealer has 4 through 7; otherwise hit4sNever split; double if dealer has 5 or 6; otherwise hit5sNever split; double if dealer has 9 or less; otherwise hit6sSplit if dealer has 2 through 6; otherwise hit7sSplit if dealer has 2 through 7; stand if dealer has a 10; hit if dealer has 8, 9, or ace8sAlways split9sSplit if dealer has 2 through 6, and 8 or 9; stand if dealer has 7, 10, or ace.10sNever split; always standAcesAlways split

If the 6-5 game continues to proliferate, it will ultimately ruin blackjack. Here’s what you can do to help eradicate this game.

1. Refuse to play any 6-5 blackjack games. Instead, only play blackjack games that pay 3-2 for a natural.
2. If you come across a 6-5 game, voice your displeasure to a casino supervisor, your casino host, and even the casino manager (better yet, email the casino manager). Be sure to also tell them you are taking your business to casinos that don’t offer this wretched game.
3. Warn your friends and family members who play blackjack about this outrageous game, and do not play it.

I can promise you this: If enough players say NO to 6-5 blackjack games, casinos will eliminate them. Collectively, we can make a difference.

Tamburin’s Tip of the Month

The 6-5 rule isn’t just confined to single-deck games. For example, as I was writing this article, the Las Vegas Advisor reported that the new Margaritaville casino (located inside the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas) opened with eight-deck games with h17, and almost all of them pay 6-5 for a natural. Even though the rules allow you to double down after pair splitting, resplit aces, and surrender, collectively these player-friendly rules are not nearly enough to offset the dreaded 6-5 rule, resulting in a ridiculously high house edge of 1.85% against a basic strategy player. Therefore, even if you play a multi-deck game, it pays to double-check the payout for a natural to be sure it’s 3-2.

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Henry Tamburin is the editor of Blackjack Insider Newsletter (www.bjinsider.com), Lead Instructor for the Golden Touch Blackjack Course (www.goldentouchblackjack.com), and host of www.smartgaming.com. For a free three-month subscription to his blackjack newsletter, go to www.bjinsider.com/freetrial.com. To receive his free Casino Gambling Catalog, call 1-888-353-3234 or visit www.smartgaming.com.

Blackjack strategy, applied perfectly, makes blackjack one of the most potentially lucrative games in the casino. If you play blackjack by the numbers, the House only has an edge of half a percent. That means if you spend $100 at a blackjack table in an hour, and you play using perfect basic strategy, you only stand to lose about 50 cents. The low house edge makes blackjack a truly cheap form of entertainment.

Blackjack rules give the game a certain purity of probability, a statistical beauty that statisticians and math nerds have exploited over the years to come up with blackjack strategy. Odds and probabilities are a huge part of winning at blackjack, so if you want to win big money at the casino, you have to understand the game’s odds and probabilities.

Blackjack Math

Blackjack strategy cards are sold at every casino gift shop in Vegas. These cards range from simple “if ___ happens, do ___” suggestions all the way up to cards with multiple rule change options on strategy. Casinos sell these cards because most people are more interested in playing a game and making big gambles than methodically picking apart the House using blackjack math and a little plastic card.

Blackjack math gives players an informed opinion about what move to make next. Rather than taking a random gamble, blackjack strategy uses odds and probabilities to tell you the move most likely to end in you beating the House. Blackjack strategy tips are more than educated guesses, they have hard math to back them up.

Here are some blackjack math basics: any deck of 52 cards contains a certain number of cards worth 10 points and a certain number of cards worth their face value. The odds of pulling a single face value card, like a 7 or a 9, is 4 out of 52. or 7.69%.

There are 16 cards in a standard deck with a value of 10 points: four 10s, four Jacks, four Queens, and four Kings. That means the odds of drawing a 10-point card are 16 out of 52, or 30.8%.

Players are four times more likely to draw a card worth ten than any other card value. 10 point cards outnumber all others, so most blackjack strategy is built around figuring out the probability of the player or the dealer drawing those high point value cards.

Using Blackjack Odds & Probabilities

The math behind the game of blackjack has a direct effect on proper blackjack strategy. We just saw how much more likely a blackjack player is to draw a 10 point card than any other card, but how does that effect blackjack strategy? At the most basic level, knowing that you’re more likely to draw a card worth ten points makes a point total of 12 or more an anxious game decision.

Another example of how blackjack odds play a big part in player strategy is what blackjack experts call bust probability. Bust probability is a number that indicates how often a certain point total will lead to a bust. Since the blackjack dealer doesn’t have free will, and must stand at 17 in most casinos, his bust likelihood is higher when his point total is 16, because dealers have to hit at 16. This rule also affects early dealer point totals—imagine a dealer with an upcard of 6. He has to hit, and we already know how much more likely you are to draw a ten point card than any other, putting him in great danger of drawing a 16 and being forced to hit into a bust.

Other Blackjack Odds & Probabilities

Blackjack math is straightforward, since each card in the deck has its own consistent point value and there’s a clear line drawn between winner and loser. Applying a little bit of math, blackjack experts have figured out the odds of being dealt different types of blackjack hands. Your chance of drawing a natural 21, and winning instantly, is 4.8%. Play 100 hands of blackjack and you’re likely to only be dealt a natural blackjack 5 times.

That makes blackjack sound like a hard game to beat, but the truth couldn’t be more different. Those same odds show that the most common hand dealt in blackjack is the decision hand, any point total between 1 and 16. These hands are dealt 38.7% of the time, meaning that out of every 100 hands you play, you’ll have to make a decision only about 40 times. In the other 60 hands, the decision will be made for you.

If you play with basic strategy, and make the right play according to that strategy for each of those decision hands, you can minimize the house edge.

A final trick to using blackjack odds to beat the House is considering two crucial statistics at once. We’ve already talked about dealer bust probability and player edge against the House. Just combine the two statistics for an idea of when you have the best chance to beat the blackjack dealer.

For each dealer upcard, mathematicians have figured out their likelihood of drawing to a bust. For example, if a dealer’s upcard is a 2, his bust probability is 38%. Factor in the player’s advantage gained by using basic strategy against each upcard, and you get a good look at when you have your best shot at beating the House.

The House is in the most danger of busting or losing to basic strategy when the dealer’s upcard is a 5 or 6. When the dealer shows a 5 upcard, his bust probability is 42.89%. Since players have a 23.2% advantage against that upcard if they play with perfect strategy, it’s clear that when a dealer shows a 5, players are more likely to beat the dealer.

Using blackjack math and odds to your advantage against the casino is called basic blackjack strategy. Make sure and pick up a blackjack strategy chart next time you hit the casino, and work on memorizing the proper play for different game situations. Following the lead of smarter blackjack players who have gone before you is important if you like making money on the gambling floor.