Whether you play blackjack online or in a local casino, it’s important to find the games that offer the top payout percentages.
Every rule either increases the house edge or helps the player.
Once you learn how each of the items listed below change the odds you’ll quickly be able to find the best games in any casino.
Playing on the tables offering the best payout percentages improves your chances of having a winning session every time you play, makes your playing bankroll last longer, and provides the best opportunity to play a break even game when you use the player’s club and coupons.
The standard payout for a blackjack is 3 to 2. Never play blackjack offering 6 to 5 or any other payout of less than 3 to 2. (Certain blackjack variations may be playable while offering lower payout for blackjack, but you need to investigate these games separately. For example, Spanish 21 is a blackjack variation that doesn’t pay 3 to 2, but offers a low house edge.)
Games paying 6 to 5 add almost 1 ½% to the house edge.
The fewer decks being used the better for the player. Singe deck games are the best, helping the player by almost a half percent over an 8 deck game. A double deck game is almost 2/10% better than an 8 deck game.
Early surrender improves the player’s odds by almost a quarter percent.
When the player can double on any two cards it also improves the payback percentage by just short of a quarter percent.
Games where the dealer stands on a soft 17 are over 2/10% better for the player over games where the dealer hits.
If you’re allowed to take more than a single additional card when splitting aces it improves your chances by just less than 2/10%.
The final rule that helps the player is the ability to re-split aces, reducing the house edge by almost 1/10%.
If you assume the standard rule allows players to double after splitting any pair, the following split and doubling rules increase the house edge.
When you can only double on 11 or 10 totals it increases the house edge by almost 2/10%.
If you can only split once or if you aren’t allowed to double after splitting, each improves the house edge by over 1/10%.
Only being allowed to double on totals of 9 through 11 increases the house edge by just under 1/10%.
The first thing you need to realize is there isn’t any such thing as a perfect table. If you could find a blackjack table offering all of the favorable rules listed above you’d be able to play with an edge over the casino.
Casinos aren’t in the habit of offering games where they don’t have an edge.
The best you’ll be able to do is find the games that offer more of the favorable rules listed above than the others in the casino.
Concentrate on the ones offering the largest advantage, but take any edge you can find.
If you play the same places on a regular basis start keeping track of where you can find the best tables.
Did you know that every decision you make playing blackjack only has one correct play?
Not every play is profitable, but sometimes your job is making the decision that will cost you the least amount of money in the long run.
Here’s an example. If you have a ten and a six, for a total of 16, against a dealer ten nothing you do will be profitable in the long run. The best play in this situation is hit because it loses less than standing. (If the rules allow surrender, the correct play is surrender, but if you can’t surrender you should hit.)
Once you find the tables offering the best rules you need to learn and use basic strategy to get the best payouts possible.
While I was learning basic strategy I printed a chart and used it every time I played. When I played online I kept it at the computer with me and when I played live in a casino I took it to the table with me.
It doesn’t take long to learn all of the normal plays using my method. Even the toughest plays become second nature eventually. Once you reach that point you won’t need the chart any more.
Many online casino and most local casinos offer player’s club benefits to their frequent players. These clubs rarely pay cash back to their members (though a few can under certain circumstances) but they offer features and benefits that are worth money.
Here are a couple examples. You can earn free buffet coupons or a dinner for playing. If you play more you may receive a free hotel stay or special bonus offer. Sometimes high rollers even earn free flights or special vacations.
Sometimes it’s difficult to put an exact monetary value of benefits, but they offer another way to increase the payouts from your blackjack play.
If a buffet trip costs $12 and you get a free coupon for playing four hours of blackjack, I count that the same as earning an extra $3 an hour, or losing $3 an hour less.
Conclusion
Once you join the player’s club and learn basic strategy it only takes a few minutes to find the best payout blackjack tables in most casinos. If you’ve visited before and kept track of the best tables you can start playing even faster.
The difference in the house edge of even 1/10% is worth the extra few minutes it takes to find better rules.
Every 1% in edge is worth $100 per hour if you’re playing for $100 a hand at 100 hands per hour.
The way I see it, every dollar less the house takes from me because of their edge is the same as winning an extra dollar. Hopefully you’re starting to look at it the same way.
