Dear
Mark,
In blackjack, is it true that the biggest jump in
the casino edge is when
you move from one to two decks, and with each additional
deck, the house edge is less dramatic? Sam B.
You are correct, Sam. It is always to your advantage
to play against as few
decks as possible. With respect to deck sizes, the
casino edge goes up
substantially as you go from 1 deck to 2, tapers off
when you go from 2 to 6
decks, and is negligible when you go from a 6 to 8-deck
shoe.
Casino edge
Two decks
-0.35%
Four decks
-0.48%
Six decks
-0.48%
Eight decks
-0.56%
You can offset this casino
advantage by finding player-friendly rules where surrender
is allowed, as is doubling down after splitting pairs,
and re-splitting aces.
Improvement
in your winning chance
Double
after split
+0.14%
Early
surrender
+0.70%
Late
surrender
+0.06%
Resplit
Aces
+0.14%
Double
anytime
+0.24%
Or how about this gem
I haven¹t seen in a blue moon: A Natural paying
2 to
1. Your expected win rate goes up +2.3% with this
beauty.
Bottom line: Smart players
always know enough to take advantage of favorable
playing conditions and to sniff out and shun the unfavorable
ones.
Which type of player
are you? Unfair question, but what the heck?
Gambling thought of
the week: "The longer you expose yourself
to the casino environment, the more susceptible you
become to their ploys."‹Jerry L.
Patterson, Casino Gambling
