Single Deck Blackjack has a 0.15% house edge that puts you almost on a even playing field with the casino.
- Single Deck Blackjack In Nevada
- House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Poker
- Casinos With Single Deck Blackjack
- House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Plans
- House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Deck
Blackjack is a popular casino game of luck and skill combined and it is frequently played in land based, online and mobile casinos. The biggest reason for the popularity of the game is that it has one of the lowest house edges of all casino games and with basic or optimal blackjack strategy players can increase their advantage over the casino. Even though luck also plays a role, with appropriate skills they can indeed make a profit. Nowadays blackjack has many different variants suitable for different types of blackjack players. One of it is Single Deck Blackjack and, as the name implies, it is played with one deck of playing cards. The variant offers the best house edge for players and if they are familiar with a basic blackjack strategy, they are ready to play.
The obvious advantage of a single game Deck, as if to say that the absolute lowest house advantage. Faced with a 0.15% house edge the casino will lead to the same, and to create the opportunity to enjoy, it seems like the draw. Single deck blackjack is a classic type of blackjack that has been around for hundreds of years. This variety has many advantages: The single deck blackjack odds are absolutely the best. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino if you play a perfect game. The game is dynamic and thrilling. As already mentioned, the biggest advantage of Single Deck Blackjack is that it has the lowest house edge. However, to take advantage of the low house edge, players should understand the game and its rules as well as use good blackjack strategy. Otherwise, the house edge will increase no matter how many decks the game has. What are single Deck Blackjack advantages and disadvantages? Blackjack bridge is often considered the Holy Grail of the game, because of the players the best chance to make a profit. In fact, the house edge is only 0.15%, the player will play blackjack on a single platform. The obvious advantage to playing single deck blackjack is just as we stated before in that you’re getting the absolute lowest house edge. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino, and makes your chance of profiting seem like a coin flip.
How to Play Single Deck Blackjack
The main objective of Single Deck Blackjack is to get a hand value of 21 or as close as possible to 21 before the dealer without busting or going over. An alternative is to stand and have the dealer bust. Before the game starts, you place a bet. Then you and the dealer are dealt cards. The dealer is dealt one face up card and one face down. You are dealt two face up cards. Based on the cards in front of you and the face up card of the dealer you decide whether to stand or stop drawing cards, hit or draw more cards, double down or place another bet or split cards.
The Rules
The following are the rules for playing Single Deck Blackjack:
- Only one deck of cards is used. It is shuffled before the beginning of each gaming session.
- The dealer hits on soft 17.
- The player can split a hand up to three times.
- Aces can be split and the player gets only one card to each Ace. They cannot be re-split.
- A hand comprised of a split Ace and a card with a value of 10 is not blackjack.
- Blackjack pays 3 to 2.
- Wining insurance bets pay 2 to 1.
- Other winning hands pay 1 to 1.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Single Deck Blackjack
Many blackjack fans consider Single Deck Blackjack as the holy grail of standard Blackjack mainly because it gives played the best chance to increase their bankroll. As a rule of a thumb, blackjack games that are played only with one or a few decks have lower house edge than Multi Deck Blackjack games. In Single Deck Blackjack, the house edge is just 0.15%. This may seem quite tempting, but the game also has a few disadvantages.
Advantages
As already mentioned, the biggest advantage of Single Deck Blackjack is that it has the lowest house edge. However, to take advantage of the low house edge, players should understand the game and its rules as well as use good blackjack strategy. Otherwise, the house edge will increase no matter how many decks the game has.
Single Deck Blackjack is also a favorable variant for card counters. When playing blackjack with six or eight decks players wait longer till they get favorable counts. With Single Deck Blackjack, they can get a favorable count fast. However, it should be noted that card counting works when playing the game in brick and mortar casinos, because on the Internet card are shuffled after each hand.
Disadvantages
Single Deck Blackjack also has a few disadvantages. Even though it has low house edge, some casinos modify its rules so the house edge of the variant may end up being higher than that of eight deck blackjack. For example, some casinos pay 6 to 5 for blackjack instead of 3 to 2 increasing the house edge from 0.15% to 1.45%. Having in mind that you can maintain a house edge of around 0.5% with both single and multi deck blackjack games, it might not be worth the effort to search for Single Deck Blackjack games.
Another disadvantage is that casinos usually don’t give many comp points for playing the game because in the long run, due to the low house edge, they won’t win much money from it. Therefore, they aren’t very generous with comp points.
Blackjack is supposed to be one of the easiest casino games to beat. After all, it features a low house edge in comparison to most games.
However, you still may find yourself struggling to book winning sessions on a consistent basis. Even when you are winning, your profits can drain out as you continue playing.
In these cases, it really helps to know why you have such a tough time beating blackjack. Below, I’ll discuss 5 reasons why the dealer keeps kicking your butt along with how you can change things around.
1 – The Dealer Acts Second
Some gamblers have adopted an extreme strategy that involves mimicking the dealer. Their thought process is that if the dealer wins most of the time, then they can at least match the croupier by playing by the same rules (I.e. hitting until a hard or soft 17).
The same gamblers are dead wrong on this strategy! Mimicking the dealer results in a massive 7% house edge. But why?
The croupier doesn’t win just because they play by a strict set of rules. In fact, being forced to hit until a soft/hard 17 actually lowers their chances of winning.
Instead, the dealer’s biggest advantage comes from acting after you. They deal the cards and wait for you to play your hand before doing anything else.
If you bust out, then you automatically lose. Meanwhile, the dealer beats you without ever having to make a decision.
The casino tries to soften the blow by giving you extra actions that the dealer doesn’t enjoy. You can split pairs and double down when rules permit.
These special privileges help when you’re trying to reduce the house edge. But they still don’t allow you to totally overcome the dealer’s advantage.
2 – Not Everybody Bothers With Blackjack Strategy
One of the most-entertaining parts about blackjack is that it features in-depth strategy. You can improve your chances of winning by knowing how to act in each situation.
Here’s an example of a tricky blackjack scenario:
- You hold a pair of 9s.
- The dealer’s upcard is 7.
- You split these 9s in most situations.
- However, basic strategy calls on you to stand in this specific instance.
There’s one right way to play the above situation and multiple wrong ways. You’ll run into these types of decisions again and again in blackjack.
You won’t automatically know how to deal with tricky situations. That said, a basic blackjack strategy chart can do wonders for your results.
Single Deck Blackjack In Nevada
These charts, which are extremely easy to find by the way, show the correct move for every situation. As long as you can read a color-coded chart, you can play perfect blackjack.
Nevertheless, many gamblers still don’t bother to take the two minutes it requires to find one of these charts online. They instead think that they’ve already mastered the game through experience alone.
Most gamblers can play reasonably well as long as they don’t try mimicking the dealer. But they’ll still surrender anywhere from 2% to 4% edge by ignoring strategy.
3 – Blackjack Games Move Fast
It seems like the casino already benefits quite a bit from the dealer acting second. But as I’ll discuss later, you can still lower the house edge to 0.5%–or even less in certain cases.
The problem, though, is that casinos can still beat you badly even if they only have a tiny advantage. Blackjack games are built to move fast so that the house can capitalize.
Depending upon the dealer’s speed and number of players involved, a blackjack table can see up to 100-150 hands per hour. You may even play 300+ hands an hour through online blackjack.
More action creates more entertainment when you’re gambling. However, it also leads to bigger losses over time.
You might still not feel like taking breaks and slowing the game down after reading this. After all, the point of blackjack is to have fun rather than trying to minimize your losses. But the fact remains that the casino wins more money, on average, when you’re exposed to more hands.
4 – The Rules Are in the Casino’s Favor
As I covered before, casinos give you special options that the dealer doesn’t have access to. Doubling down and splitting in the right situations give you a better chance at beating the dealer.
Even still, any competent casino will still ensure that they skew the rules in their favor. They tweak each rule to ensure that they at least hold a small advantage.
Of course, you can counteract this to some degree by looking for tables with the best rules. Even then, though, you’re not going to find any games that give you the edge.
Some casinos use tricky moves to fool you into thinking that your chances of winning are better. For example, they’ll offer single-deck tables with 6:5 natural blackjack payouts.
A single deck reduces the house edge by 0.59% when compared to the common 8-deck games. However, the 6:5 natural payouts boost the house advantage by 1.39% compared to 3:2 payoffs.
You know to look for this rule and avoid it in the future. But you’re still going to face other rules that increase the house edge.
5 – Casinos Boot Card Counters
Card counting is the most-popular way to gain an edge over the casino in any circumstance. In fact, blockbuster movies have been made about the subject.
However, casinos don’t just let you walk into their establishments and make easy money. They’re private businesses and they have the right to stop you if they think you’re counting.
You might feel that this is unfair when considering that the casino can take your money but is afraid to lose. But every gambling jurisdiction, except for Atlantic City, allows the house to boot counters.
It’s still possible for you to evade casino detection and make money. But you’ll find camouflaging your play to be much more difficult than simply learning card counting.
What Can You Do to Beat the Dealer in Blackjack?
You can see that you’re up against a lot when trying to win blackjack profits. Luckily, you can boost your chances of success by following the tips presented below.
Look for Games With Favorable Rules
Casinos have slowly added more and more rules that favor themselves. The house edge now pushes 2% in some gambling establishments—even when you use perfect playing strategy.
Fortunately, you don’t have to settle for these terrible games. You can still find fair real money blackjack tables both online and in land-based casinos.
The main thing you want to look at before placing a bet is the table felt. Specifically, you need to ensure that natural blackjacks pay 3:2 instead of 6:5. This is lone rule improves your chances of winning by 1.39%.
You can also look for one or more of the following rules that reduce the house edge:
House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Poker
- Single-deck 8-deck blackjack – Lowers house edge by 0.59%
- Double down on any total vs. doubling on 9 through 11 – Lowers house advantage by 0.25%.
- Dealer stands on soft 17 vs. hitting – Lowers house edge 0.2%.
- Double down after splitting (DAS) – Lower the house edge or advantage by 0.17%.
- Re-splitting aces – This reduces the house advantage by 0.08%.
- Late surrender – This lowers house advantage by 0.07%.
Casinos With Single Deck Blackjack
Learn Blackjack Strategy
It never ceases to amaze me how many blackjack players refuse to learn strategy. The same gamblers are basically throwing money away by not putting their pride aside.
You merely need to find a strategy chart through Google to get started. You can probably complete the search within 15 seconds.
Assuming you’re playing online blackjack, you can easily refer to a strategy chart on every hand. Eventually, you’ll memorize the moves and not have to look at this resource as much.
Land-based casinos don’t want you slowing down the action by referring to your chart on every single hand. But if you’ve already practiced online first, you won’t have to look at the chart so often.
Try Card Counting
Earlier, I discussed how the main challenge associated with card counting is getting away with it. Casinos almost everywhere have the legal right to throw you out for counting.
But you should still consider this advantage gambling method if you’re truly serious about blackjack. You can use card counting to gain an edge over the house ranging from 0.5% to 1.5%.
House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Plans
You might be surprised to know that learning how to count cards isn’t that difficult.
House Advantage Single Deck Blackjack Deck
Conclusion
The dealer’s biggest advantage is that they get to act second. Assuming you bust out, then they automatically win before even flipping over their hole card.
The croupier also benefits from the lack of common blackjack strategy knowledge and rules skewed in the house’s favor. If they deal at a fast speed on top of this, then you’ll really have some trouble winning.
Nevertheless, you can still improve your odds by learning strategy and seeking favorable rules. You might even try your hand at card counting to see if this helps too.