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The Blackjack Rules
The second condition you must consider is the set of rules used in the game. Some rules, notably those that offer more options, favor the player, assuming he applies the correct strategy. Among those options are surrender, doubling after splitting allowed, and re-splitting aces allowed.
Those rules that limit the player's options, such as doubling down on 10-11 only, or no re-splits, are disadvantageous to the player.
Some rules neither limit nor offer options to the player, but alter the dealer's procedure. An example of one such rule would be dealer hits soft seventeen. That's disadvantageous to the player. An advantageous dealer rule, used occasionally in short-term special promotions, would be "blackjack pays 2 to 1."
Another set of rules that work in the player's favor are the "bonus" rules, such as "dealer pays $XXX bonus to player hand of 6, 7, 8 same suit." Most bonuses, due to the rarity of bonus hands, have very small dollar value to the player.
Earlier, most of the common rules were explained. In this chapter, we'll look at the approximate effect of each rule on your basic strategy expectation. By adding the effect of the number of decks in play to the effects of the rule variations, you will know the house advantage against basic strategy players. Card counters call this the "starting advantage," or the advantage off the top.
Most rules, to be sure, affect card counters differently than they affect basic strategy players. The house edge off the top, however, is always an important consideration, as that's what you're working to overcome. For instance, insurance has no value to a basic strategy player, since correct basic strategy is to never take insurance. If a casino disallows insurance, however, this hurts card counters, since they profit from their selective insurance bets. Likewise, the surrender option has little value to basic strategy players—less than one-tenth of 1% increase in expectation. For a card counter, however, surrender is, like insurance, very valuable.
In order to figure out the starting advantage of a game, you should begin by defining a benchmark game—i.e., a set of standard rules, which you can then add to or subtract from. Most authors define this benchmark game as Vegas Strip rules:
1. Dealer stands on soft 17.
2. You may double down on any 2 original cards.
3. You may not double down after splitting a pair.
4. You may split any pair.
5. You may re-split any pair except aces.
6. Split aces receive only one card each.
7. No surrender.
8. Dealer either receives a hole card, or the player's original bet only is lost if the player doubles down or splits a pair and the dealer gets a blackjack (and the extra amount bet is returned to the player).
9. Insurance is allowed up to one-half the player's bet, and pays 2 to 1.
10. Player blackjack is paid 3 to 2.
The effect of any other rules must be accounted for in determining your starting advantage. The chart below shows how these rules affect the game.
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The Number Of Decks In Play
First consider the effect of the number of decks shuffled together. All other conditions being equal, single-deck games would be the most profitable for card counters.
The more decks being used, the less profitable the game becomes, not only for card counters, but for basic strategy players as well. A single-deck Vegas Strip game (blackjack pays 3 to 2, double down on any two cards, and dealer stands on soft 17), is pretty close to being a break even proposition for a basic strategy player. With four or more decks in play, and the same set of rules, the house has about a 1/2% edge. Use this chart to estimate your basic strategy (dis)advantage due to the number of decks in play:
# Decks Advantage
l +0.02%
2 -0.31%
3 -0.43%
4 -0.48%
5 -0.52%
6 -0.54%
7 -0.55%
8 -0.57%
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Tags: blackjack, card counters, online casino, vegas strip