 Ask the Wizard: |
Questions about Blackjack variants |
I was in Palace Station the other day and saw they had a few 7 to 5 double deck tables now. They may just be testing the idea out, but it could catch on, just like 6 to 5 did. So, you might want to include 7 to 5 in your rules variations. — James
Thanks, that is duly noted. Normally, the house edge under Palace Station rules (double deck, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, re-split aces) is 0.40%. This rule bumps that up to 0.86%. The following table shows the increase in house advantage due to this rule.
| 7 to 5 BJ Additional House Edge |
| Decks |
Increase |
| 1 | 0.46% |
| 2 | 0.46% |
| 4 | 0.45% |
| 6 | 0.45% |
| 8 | 0.45% |
August 6, 2008
Here in Pennsylvania we have blackjack games, made by Shufflemaster, where the players use terminals to play against a video screen of a dealer. Technically, only "slots" are legal in Pennsylvania. I heard that the game was "retrofitted" to fit the definition of a slot. What does that mean? If this is just a glorified slot machine, do I really have any control over my fate? — Chuck from Mountain Top PA
Yes, you do. I’m told by Shufflemaster that to meet the definition of a slot machine, one player’s actions can not affect the other players, as is the case in live blackjack. To get around this law, each player and the dealer are dealt cards from a unique six-deck shoe. So, you are in control of your own fate, but not that of the other players or the dealer. I understand that the game is programmed with six-deck shoes. According to my simulations, using separate shoes for the player and dealer adds 0.06% to the house edge.
December 14, 2007
I'm a blackjack dealer from the great state of Oklahoma, where class 2 gaming became legal approximately 2 years ago. However, the state also legalized a tax for the Indian Nation that owns the casino, at $0.50 a hand on table
games (except poker, there tax is slightly different). My question to you is, playing on a 6-deck blackjack table, where the dealer stands on soft 17, up to 4 splits with doubles, split aces up to 4 times with one card, blackjack pays 3-2 and no surrender what would the house edge be with playing an average bet of $10 a hand.
Thank you. — Matthew from Norman, OK
I’m assuming the player must put up the 50 cents. My blackjack house edge calculator says the house edge under those rules, without the tax, is 0.36%. Add to that 0.5/10 = 5%. So the total house edge is 5.36%. In my opinion, players should refuse to play this game, on principle alone.
December 14, 2007
In your column #185 there was a question about a private blackjack variation and its basic strategy. Let me kindly inform you that this kind of game can NOT be played in any public places here, it is only some kind of private game. There are only two different public variations of BJ, operated by Raha-automaattiyhdistys ("Finnish slotmachine association" in English), shortly, that can be played here.
The first one, which is played in some night clubs, "Täyspotti" — gaming halls and bars since 1982 has the lousy "dealer wins all ties except 21 and BJ" — rule as you have mentioned before. The second version is the "normal"
BJ game and can be played only at the only international casino here, Grand Casino Helsinki (yes, shuffling machines are in use...).
BJ in bars etc:
- European "No hole card" rule is in use
- All cards are dealt face up
- Dealer stands on all 17's
- Six decks, dealt from the shoe
- Player may only double on hard totals of 9 - 11
- No surrender
- Double down or split is not allowed if player places an insurange bet
- Player can split only once
- No DAS
- Dealer wins all ties except 21-21 and bj-bj
- Player can not be barred if card counting is suspected
BJ at the Casino:
- European "No hole card" rule is in use
- All cards are dealed face up
- Dealer stands on all 17's
- Six decks
- Player may only double on hard totals of 9 - 11
- No surrender
- Perfect Pairs side bet is available (Paytable B)
- Double after split allowed
- Player can make max three hands by splitting
- Aces can be resplit
- Casino can not bar a player if card counting is suspected
Regards,
Risto H.
Editor-in-Chief
rahapeliopas.fi
Thank you for this information. It is good to know there is at least one normal blackjack game in Finland. June 2, 2007
What is the exact house edge and basic strategy for Betfair's "Zero Lounge" blackjack? Do their other games really have no house edge? - Nick from Slough, U.K.
For the benefit of other readers, the blackjack rules are as follows.
- 8 decks
- Dealer stands on soft 17
- Dealer always peeks for blackjack
- Double on hard 8 to 11 only
- Double after split allowed
- Shuffle after every hand
- Aces may not be split. All other matching ranks may be split only once.
- Suited blackjack pays 2 to 1
- A 5-card 21 automatically wins and pays 2 to 1
I get a house edge of 0.02% under these rules. Following is the basic strategy.
Regarding the other games, the 2.75% commission on the banker bet in baccarat results in a house edge of 0.03%. The roulette and video poker have zero house edge.
The bet limits are £5-£50 in blackjack, baccarat, and roulette, and the coinage is £1 in video poker, with a max bet of five coins. May 21, 2007
Sir! There is a private game variation of blackjack played with a Spanish-style 40-card deck with no 8s, 9s & pip tens. Where can one get or what would be the basic strategies for those games? This game is played in Finland, usually played with a bottle of spirits and one's personal knife close at hand. Thank you for your time! – Vankka K. from Vantaa, Finland
First the dealer wins ties and now this. Finland has got to be the world leader for unusual and lousy blackjack rules. Here is your basic strategy.
Assuming six decks, no dealer hole card, dealer stands on soft 17, no surrender, double after split allowed, and resplitting aces allowed, I get a house edge of 1.86%. March 18, 2007
Hi Wizard, always love your columns and miss those personals. I have a question about a blackjack variation. The following is the "on fire" blackjack rule from an online casino I have recently played at.
In order to be "On Fire" you must win three hands in a row. You will notice the On Fire gauge at the bottom of the game screen. When this gauge fills up, you will be on fire. Once you have accomplished this, all winning blackjack hands pay you at 2-1 odds instead of 3-2 odds, dramatically increasing your potential pay out. However, if you are on fire and you lose a hand, you lose your current on fire status and must go back and try to win three hands in a row. Pushed hands do not affect your On Fire status.
How much does this lower the house edge? Would it be +EV if you raised your stakes every time you were On Fire? Would love to hear your thoughts. The casino is jonwoodgaming.com, by the way. Thanks - Mick from Port Kembla
My blackjack appendix 4 shows the probability of a net win, loss, and draw in blackjack are 40.59%, 42.69%, and 12.44% respectively, assuming Atlantic City rules. The probability of a win, not counting ties is 40.59%/(40.59%+46.97%) = 46.36%. The probability of three consecutive wins, skipping ties, is 0.4636 3 = 9.96%. Assuming six decks, blackjack paying 2 to 1 is worth an extra 0.02267. So this gives the player 0.0996*0.02267 = 0.002258. The house edge is usually higher than that, but it is a nice reduction. All this assumes you are flat betting. If you could bet more on the "on fire" hands you could destroy them with a house edge of 1.5% to 2.0%, depending on the specific rules.
January 18, 2007
If blackjack switch has a lower house percentage than regular black jack, why would casinos allow it? – Philip from Tokyo, Japan
The reason is players make more mistakes in Blackjack Switch.
October 4, 2006
Hi, I found a Double Exposure game where the ties
push. The full rules are:
- 6 decks.
- Dealer hits soft 17.
- All ties push, except player wins tied
blackjack.
- Player can double on hard 9 to 11 only.
- Player can resplit, including unlike tens, to 4
hands.
- Double after split allowed.
- Draw to split aces allowed.
This must have a player advantage, can you tell me
what it is?
As I'm sure you know this game is offered by
Lucky Chance
casino. Using the appropriate basic strategy for
these rules the player advantage is 7.2%! Wait it gets
even better. You can bet three hands at once of $5 or
more each and if you get a blackjack on all three you win
a progressive jackpot that is currently at $18095. The
probability of getting three blackjacks in three hands is
1 in 10552. So the progressive is worth an extra $1.71
per hand. On two days while I played they also offered
15% rebate on losses, calculated whenever you exited the
game. So I simply exited after every hand, except on a
push.
However I'm always suspicious when the player
advantage is too high. I checked Winner
Online and found they allegedly used to offer a video
poker game with a 120% return, although they use a normal
pay table now. That is two red flags. Lucky Chance offers
a 100% immediately bonus up to purchases of $500, so I
put them to the test. It was my goal to either make a
fortune on their Double Exposure game or prove the game
was not fair. Following are my results:
- 313 of single hands: net win of 32 units.
- 1959 hands of 3 spots at once: net loss of 29
units.
- 2272 total hands: net win of 3 units.
Given a 7.2% advantage my expected win was 163.6
units. The probability of only winning 3 or less is
12.4%. This is using a standard deviation of 1.17 for a
single hand and 2.68 per hand for playing three at time.
My source of the 1.17 is a random simulation using
Stanford Wong's Blackjack Count Analyzer and I
multiplied that by 2.28 for 3 hands, based on the
standard deviations for regular blackjack for 1 and 3
hands as found in my blackjack
appendix 4.
This certainly does not rise anywhere near enough to
make any accusations. In addition I recorded results all
sorts of ways but every test came out looking normal. I
would have played longer but the game play is extremely
slow and I went broke. The reason I went broke is I did
worse on larger bet sizes and my first few hours I didn't
record results but they were not good.
So I failed on both my goals. I was too skeptical to
deposit again and already wasted several hours on the
game. However if you wish to take a crack at it then be
my guest. August 12,
2004
Why do you say not to double on 10 or 11 against a 9
in Blackjack
Switch?
The reason is if the dealer gets a 22 and you
have 21 or less then the hand pushes. This works strongly
to the dealers favor and should be a disincentive to put
more money on the table by doubling or splitting.
May 22, 2004
Why does your Blackjack Switch basic strategy table
say to always hit on 12?
The player should be more aggressive hitting in
Blackjack Switch because a dealer 22 results in a push.
Much of the value in standing in regular blackjack is
realized when the dealer busts. In Blackjack Switch many
of those wins are turned into a push, making hitting a
better play in comparison. Feb.
13, 2004
Wizard- In a recent Ask the Wizard column there was a
mention of Multiple Action BlackJack which I had played very
successfully several years back at Foxwoods. I had a feeling
there was a larger advantage to the player when the deck had
excess A's and 10's since if the player hit blackjack he had
it for all three hands while the dealer had to make a
blackjack each time with his/her three hands. If this is
true please do not post this on the site since it will be
the end of this variation - it is no longer offered at
Foxwoods. I find your site very informative and appreciate
all your hard work.
Thank you for the kind words. Much like
multi-play video poker the house edge is the same for
multiple action blackjack as regular blackjack, assuming
the same rules. It is true that if the player has
blackjack he wins on all three hands. However if the
player has a 16 he has to play it on all three hands.
Overall everything balances out.
Aug. 25, 2003
Some friends and I were in AC last weekend at the
Claridge, where we spent the evening playing something
called "Multiple Action Blackjack." If you do not know about
it, basically, you can bet either 2 or 3 times. You are
dealt your hand and the dealer is dealt one card (face up).
You hit/stand/double/split as in normal AC blackjack. The
dealer resolves the first bet normally, then keeps the
original face-up card and starts all over again, resolving
the 2nd bet, and then the 3rd. Essentially, you are playing
the same hand 2-3x vs the same dealer "face-up
card".
It seemed to us that this changed the strategies for
blackjack somewhat. It seemed to place a higher priority on
staying in the game (not hitting on various soft hands) so
as not to lose 3 bets at once by going over. For example,
with the dealer showing an 8, you would normally hit a 16,
but in this game, it seemed as if we were better off
standing on 16 and hoping that the dealer busted at least
once out of the 3, thus losing 2 out of 3 rather than 3 out
of 3 for busting ourselves.
I was wondering if you'd heard of this variation and
how it changes the basic strategy for blackjack. I'm also
wondering what the House Edge is for this version as opposed
to normal blackjack played in AC. Thanks, Jim
Ghiloni
The strategy for Multiple Action Blackjack is
the same as regular blackjack. By standing on 16 against
an 8 your chances of a total loss are less. However the
safe thing to do is not always the right thing to do.
Hitting will result in a greater chance of winning 2 or
all 3 hands. Think of it as playing the same hand three
times in a row. What is right for one hand is right for
three hands, or any number. July
14, 2003
What's the basic strategy for the new Blackjack Switch
game? Also, what's the house advantage? - Waurkelter B. from
Mashpee, Massachusetts
Everybody is asking me this. At this time I
haven't worked out the odds yet. Until I do you're on
your own. Since this web site isn't making me much money
I have to give priority to paying consulting work.
Nov. 3, 2002
Is there a computer game of blackjack that I can
purchase that features both double exposure and spanish 21
blackjack. I would like to practice both. - George from
Cresskill, USA
You can play both of these for free at any
Unified Gaming casino. See my casino
index for a list of them.
April 15, 2002
hi there..love your website....my favorite game to
play in ac is triple action blackjack...i wanted to know if
u had a strategy chart for that game, and if the strategy
changes, which it must.....ex...16 against i face card i
usually stand in this game since the dealer usually breaks
once....let me know...thanks - Brian from West Hartford,
USA
For those who don't know what you're talking
about, Triple Action Blackjack is a blackjack variant in
which the dealer plays out three different hands, all
starting with the same up card. The player makes three
bets and his one hand is played against the three dealer
hands individually. The strategy for this game is exactly
the same as conventional blackjack.
Nov. 11, 2001
What casinos have super fun 21 could you give me a
list? - Moe from Philadelphia, USA
I've seen it at the Regent, New York New York,
and Palace Station. I hear it is also at the Sunset
Station and Santa Fe Station.
Aug. 18, 2001
The chart for Double Exposure indicates to split 10's
against a dealer 13-16. Does this mean that you continue to
split additional 10's? I've done this and wound up with 4
hands under 18 which all lost. Luckily I was only playing
for fun on an Internet gaming site at the time. - Joe from
San Diego
Yes, you should keep splitting as long as you
keep getting tens. Playing one hand and losing does not
disprove anything. Millions of hands must be played both
ways and the results tabulated to truly know the best
play.
Do you have a strategy for the California "No bust"
Blackjack, where the players can be the bank. It is played
at several Casinos including Latty Flyntt's Hustler Casino
in Gardena CA. - Chris Ponsonby from Hermosa Beach,
California
No, I'm afraid I don't. However I have been
asked about it a few times and have seen it at the Las
Vegas Club. It is definitely on my radar as a project
idea. June 6, 2001
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