Blackjack Payouts, Odds, and the House Edge
Understanding the blackjack payout chart and rules will help maximize your bankroll. Every rule either increases the house edge or helps the player win more money. Playing on blackjack tables offering the best payout percentages improves your chances of having a winning session every time you play. Using a blackjack payout chart provides the best opportunity to play perfect, while taking advantage of welcome bonuses and players’ club perks.
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Blackjack Rules That Benefit The Player
The standard payout for a blackjack is 3 to 2. Avoid playing blackjack at an online casino offering anything less, such as a 6 to 5 blackjack payout. Certain blackjack variations may be playable while offering a 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 can offer a low house edge.
| Blackjack Rule | Player Edge Improvement |
|---|---|
| Games paying 6-to-5 | 1.5% (to house) |
| Single Deck vs Double Deck | ~0.5% vs 0.2% vs 8-deck game |
| Early surrender | ~0.25% |
| Double down on any two cards | ~0.25% |
| Dealer stands on soft 17 | 0.20% |
| More than one card hit after splitting aces | ~0.20% |
| Re-split aces | ~0.10% |
Blackjack Rules That Benefit the Online Casino
Doubles and Splits
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%.
Split 'Em
If you can only split a pair once, or if you aren’t allowed to double after splitting, each change increases the house edge by over 1/10%.
Double Downs
Only being allowed to double down on totals of 9 through 11 increases the house edge by just under 1/10%.
Find The Best Blackjack Payout Tables
- 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. Sometimes, a table has advantageous blackjack early payout rules but poor payout odds generally.
- Casinos aren’t in the habit of offering online casino 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 blackjack payout tables.
Blackjack Payout Chart
| Your Blackjack Bet | Blackjack Payout (at 3 to 2) |
|---|---|
| $1 | $1.50 |
| $2 | $3.00 |
| $3 | $4.50 |
| $4 | $6.00 |
| $5 | $7.50 |
| $10 | $15.00 |
| $20 | $30.00 |
| $25 | $37.50 |
| $40 | $60.00 |
| $50 | $75.00 |
| $100 | $150.00 |
| $250 | $375.00 |
Basic Blackjack Strategy
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 real money at online casinos in the long run. The goal is to minimize the house edge.
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.
Hit stands for hit. We used green for go.
DBL stands for double. We used blue for double.
Stand stands for stand. We used red for stop.
Split stands for split. We used purple for split.
| Your Hand | Dealer’s Up Card | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Ace | |
| H 4 | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 5 | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 6 | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 7 | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 8 | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 9 | Hit | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 10 | Hit | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit |
| H 11 | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL |
| H 12 | Hit | Hit | Stand | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 13 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 14 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 15 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 16 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| H 17+ | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand |
| S 13 | Hit | Hit | Hit | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S 14 | Hit | Hit | Hit | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S15 | Hit | Hit | DBL | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S16 | Hit | Hit | DBL | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S 17 | Hit | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S 18 | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | DBL | Stand | Stand | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| S 19 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | DBL | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand |
| S 20+ | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand |
| 2 – 2 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| 3 – 3 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| 6 – 6 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| 7 – 7 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Hit | Hit | Hit | Hit |
| 8 – 8 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split |
| 9 – 9 | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Stand | Split | Split | Stand | Stand |
| A – A | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split | Split |
Notice there isn’t a row for splitting fours, fives, and ten valued cards. Play these hands based on their hard totals of 8, 10, and 20.
Once you find the tables offering the best rules you need to learn and use basic strategy to get the best payouts possible.
While learning basic strategy, it’s smart to print off a copy of the chart and keep it nearby during a session.
It doesn’t take long to learn all of the normal plays. Even the toughest plays become second nature eventually. Once you reach that point, you won’t need the chart any more.
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.
Every dollar less the house rakes because of their edge is the same as winning an extra dollar. Hopefully you’re starting to look at it the same way.
Blackjack Payout Bonuses and Promotions
In an effort to entice new online blackjack players, most sites offer several unique promotions, including an individual casino bonus, welcome bonuses, refer-a-friend, and loyalty programs.
Welcome Bonus
After registering your new account, be sure to review all the available welcome bonuses before making a first deposit. In most cases, online casinos welcome promotions aren’t blackjack-specific, but are dollar-for-dollar or a percentage match that can be used on any table game.
Refer-A-Friend
If you know of a family member or close friend who is interested in playing blackjack online, too, be sure to check out various refer-a-friend affiliate programs. By simply sharing a custom invitation code with them, you’ll earn extra casino credits that be used at the blackjack table. For example, if a friend uses your refer-a-friend affiliate link, signs up, makes a deposit, you could earn $25-$50 in free money each time. Those funds can add up fast, too.
Loyalty Programs
Unlike a brick-and-mortar player’s club card, most online casino loyalty programs are less about all-you-can-eat buffets and more about perks. These VIP Programs mean the more you play and wager, the more points you can earn. VIP or loyalty points can be exchanged for various things like cash back and prizes.
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.
Blackjack Payout FAQs
How Do I Know the Blackjack Payout?
In a land-based casino, you’ll find the blackjack payout (and other important rules) printed on the table’s felt. For online casinos, the rules will usually also be displayed on the virtual table. If not, make sure you find the rules tab in the navigation menu before placing your first bet.
How Does Counting Cards Affect Blackjack Payouts?
Because of how widespread counting cards became (or, at least attempts at counting cards), casinos have added decks upon decks of cards to the standard blackjack shoe. Typically, single or double-deck blackjack games are easier for card counters. Also typically, these tables are hard to find and likely to have blackjack payouts of 6 to 5.
How Often Will I Receive a Blackjack Payout?
You have a 1.2% chance of receiving a natural blackjack and then getting the (hopefully 3 to 2) blackjack payout.
Should I Ever Play at a 6 to 5 Blackjack Table?
The answer is likely no. However, there may be various other rule adaptations, such as blackjack side bet payouts or more advantageous splitting or doubling rules. You need to understand what you are gaining before sacrificing 3 to 2 blackjack payouts.
What Is the Normal Blackjack Payout?
Classically, hitting blackjack at a casino table pays 3 to 2. However, casinos have tried to squeeze players by lower odds, such as at 6 to 5 blackjack tables.
What’s the Difference between a 3 to 2 and a 6 to 5 Blackjack Payout?
A 3:2 blackjack payout means you receive 1.5 credits for every credit (dollar) you risked. At a 6:5 table, you only receive 1.2 credits for each credit risked. Over the long-haul, this is a significant disadvantage that adds up every time you land a blackjack.
