Be Selective When You Play Blackjack

Back in the good ole days, there wasn’t a lot of rule variation from one blackjack table to another. Nowadays that’s changed. Not only will you often find a different mix of blackjack playingHenry Tamburin is the editor and publisher of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter and author of the best-selling Blackjack: Take the Money & Run.  He is also the lead Instructor for the Golden Touch Blackjack course, a feature writer for Casino Player magazine (and 6 other publications); an owner of a casino gambling publishing company (www.rsucasinobooks.com) and the host of www.smartgaming.com. For a free three month subscription to the Henry's Blackjack Insider Newsletter with full membership privileges go to www.bjinsider.com/free.  Henry's website is www.smartgaming.com  rules from one casino to another but quite often in the same casino you’ll find a myriad of different blackjack games. The problem is this: some blackjack games are very good while others are terrible. And no one in the casino is going to tell you which is which so it’s up to you to be a smart consumer and know how to spot a good game from a bad one. I’ll help with some tips.

What I’ve done is summarized the Bad, Good and Best games for single, double, six and eight deck games. I realize that in some gaming jurisdictions single and double deck games are scarce but some day you might be taking a trip where you’ll come across these games so the information might come in handy.

The two variables that determine how good the game is for the average non-counting player is the number of decks of cards being used and the mix of the playing rules. To make it easier to follow along, I’ll use the following abbreviations for the more popular playing rules you’ll likely run across.

S17 = dealer must stand on all 17’s including soft 17 (Ace-6)
H17 = dealer must hit soft 17
DAS = doubling after pair splitting allowed
LS = late surrender allowed
RSA = aces can be resplit
6/5 = player blackjack gets paid at 6 to 5
Even = player blackjack gets paid at even money

SINGLE DECK GAMES
Bad
Any 6/5 or Even game.

Good
H17
H17 and DAS

Best
S17
S17 and DAS

Comment: Never play a single deck game where the house only pays 6/5 on a blackjack. This game is a rip-off! These games are prevalent in Las Vegas and have spread to Atlantic City, the South and parts of the Midwest. Most single deck games only offer H17, the better ones also include DAS (almost an even game against the house). If you find one that offers S17 and DAS, you are in blackjack heaven because a basic strategy player will have the edge over the casino in this game. Sometimes a casino offers a single deck game but restricts a player to doubling on only 10 and 11. That’s OK if the dealer stands on all 17’s (s\S17) but not in an H17 game. Lastly, stay away from the gimmicky single deck games like Superfun 21 where blackjacks pay only even money.

2-DECK GAMES
Bad
Any 6/5 or Even
H17
H17 and DAS

Good
S17
H17, DAS, and RSA

Best
S17 and DAS
S17, DAS and RSA
S17, DAS, and LS

Comment: 2-deck games can be very good for basic strategy players. The key is to play on tables where the dealer stands on soft 17 (S17) rather than hits soft 17 (H17). If the dealer hits soft 17 then you should also have DAS and RSA. If the latter two rules are absent, forget the game. The absolute best 2-deck games offer S17, DAS and either RSA or LS. Avoid any 2-deck game where a blackjack is paid at only 6/5 or worse even money.

6-DECK GAMES
Bad
H17
H7 and DAS
H17, DAD, and RSA
H17, DAS, and LS

Good
S17 and DAS
S17, DAS, and RSA
S17, DAS, and LS
H17, DAS, RSA, and LS

Best
S17, DAS, RSA, and LS

Comment: As a general guideline you should only play 6-deck games with S17 rather than H17.  The only exception is if the h17 game also allows DAS, RSA, and LS. The very best 2-deck games offer the combination of S17 plus DAS, RSA and LS.

8-DECK GAMES
Bad
Any H17 game
S17

Good
S17 and DAS

Best
S17, DAS, and LS
S17, DAS, and RSA

Comments: Don’t even think about playing an 8-deck game with h17 even if it offers additional rules. You need an S17 and DAS game at the minimum if you are going to play an 8-deck game. The best 8-deck games also offer RSA or LS.

Suppose you walked into a casino and found the following blackjack games on the floor.

2-deck, H17, DAS
6-deck, S17, DAS, RSA

How would you know which game has the lowest house edge and is a better game to play? Do what I do and use blackjack software to simulate millions of rounds for each game to quickly determine the player’s expectation in each game. I use the Smart Blackjack Software, the same software that I use to teach students in my Golden Touch Blackjack course. You can key any set of rules and number of decks in the options window and then tell the computer to run a quick 10 million hands of blackjack in which it plays perfect basic strategy. The software will compute the players’ expectation in seconds (the expectation is the total amount won or lost divided by the total amount bet).

This is the result you will get using the software.

The quick simulation tells us that the 6-deck game is better than the 2-deck game. Notice the expectation is negative which is to be expected since the house has the slight edge over the basic strategy player. However, the lower the player expectation (less negative), the better is the game for the basic strategy player.

Let’s try another example. Your local casino offers these two games.

8-deck with S17 and DAS
2-deck with S17

It’s tough to guess which is the better game. But the software does this in seconds and here are the results of the 10 million round simulation:

Player’s expectation for the 8-deck game is -0.42%
Player’s expectation for the 2-deck game is -0.36%

The 2-deck game is the better game.

Hopefully you get the idea how useful the Smart Blackjack software can be to quickly analyze and determine which is the best blackjack game to play.