Single Deck Blackjack Odds

• Probability Of Blackjack Single Deck
• Casinos With Single Deck Blackjack
• Free Single Deck Blackjack

Single-deck Blackjack. Single-deck Blackjack offers the best odds of any online casino game in the US. The house edge stands at just 0.13%. Using just one deck instead of six or eight makes the biggest difference. The house edge is also brought down by the dealer standing on soft 17. Atlantic City Blackjack. The payout is lower at 3 to 1 because this hand is easier to obtain. A total of 20 wins the side bet as long as the player’s first two cards and the dealer’s upcard add up to 20. The cards’ suits are irrelevant in this instance while the payout stands at 2 to 1. A total of 19 also returns at odds of 2 to 1. All other single deck blackjack games in Las Vegas pay 6:5 on a natural. All the 6:5 games permit players to double down on any two cards but not after splitting. The dealer hits soft 17 at all Las Vegas single deck blackjack tables. Note that a 6:5 blackjack game increases the house edge by about 1.4 percent.

Table Of Contents

• Online casinos usually use two to eight decks of cards during Blackjack games
• One exception is the Single Deck Blackjack - only one deck of cards is used
• To play Single Deck Blackjack games, register on this page

If you want to play only one game at a Casino, you might want to make that game Single Deck Blackjack.

Why? Let’s see:

• it’s one of the the card games with the best odds (the house edge is only 0.3 percent)
• it’s easier to count cards when playing Blackjack with only one deck of cards
• the game is as exciting and fun as any other Blackjack variant

But you won’t find Single Deck Blackjack games that often. Especially if you play at brick-and-mortar Casinos.

Playing Casino games online? Then play Single Deck Blackjack at this online Casino.

Even before you actually find the game, you need to know some things about the game: how to play Single Deck Blackjack, and more importantly, how to get your best odds to win.

How to Play Single Deck Blackjack

If you’ve played any other variant of Blackjack, you won’t have any problems playing Single Deck Blackjack.

The rules are completely the same - only the number of cards differs.

Need a refresher on the Blackjack rules? This part of the article has you covered.

When You Win and When You Lose

When you open a Single Deck Blackjack game, you have only one goal - to get to 21 or gather more points than the dealer without going bust.

To do so, you need:

• to have a hand that’s a natural Blackjack - 21 points in value from the first two cards, e.g. a Jack (10 points) and an Ace (11 points)
• to have a hand that’s higher than the dealer’s and equal/lower to 21, e.g. a 20 (two Jacks) while the dealer has 19 (a Jack and a 9)
• to have a hand that’s lower than the dealer’s while the dealer’s hand in value goes bust (goes over 21)

If you have a hand exceeding 21 points - you go bust (you lose). Then it doesn’t even matter what hand the dealer has.

If you don’t go bust but the dealer has a higher hand, you lose yet again.

The Game Play Explained

Probability Of Blackjack Single Deck

How do you get a winning or a losing hand?

First, you make your bets. That’s a sign for the dealer that you want to join the game.

Then, the dealer deals each person at the table (including themselves) two cards each. Your cards are face-up while the dealer has one card face-up and a hole card face-down.

If the dealer’s face-up card is an Ace or a 10-value card, they peak at their second card to see if they have a natural Blackjack. If they do, the game is over right there and then - the dealer wins, the players lose.

Unless you have a natural Blackjack, too. Then the game is a push.

If the dealer doesn’t have an Ace or 10-value card or after checking the hole card the game goes on, it’s your time to make a move.

You can do the following:

• to hit - to ask for one more card
• to stand - to stick with your current hand
• to double down (only if you have a hard¹ 9, 10, or 11) - to double your bet and ask for one more (but the last) card
• to split (only if you have two cards of the same symbol, e.g. two Aces) - to make an extra bet and divide your hand into two hands

If you hit and don’t go bust, you can always hit again.

After you finally stand, the dealer plays out their cards. You see which one of you had the higher hand and wins.

Then the game is over and you can make another wager to play again.

How to Get the Highest Odds to Win at Single Deck Blackjack

While the game of Single Deck Blackjack may seem simple, it does require skills and strategy to maximize your chances of winning.

Casinos With Single Deck Blackjack

And there are two ways how you can improve your chances:

• by using Blackjack basic strategy
• by counting cards

Basic Strategy

Single Deck Blackjack basic strategy is the list of mathematically best moves you can make under certain circumstances to have the most chances of winning.

They are based on your hand value and the card that the dealer shows.

It’s important to note that each variant of Blackjack has a different basic strategy.

Therefore, to make sure you’re following the right strategy for Single Deck Blackjack games, only use the strategy table presented below.

When it comes to splitting, NEVER split 10s but ALWAYS split 8s and Aces.

Also split:

• 2s when the dealer shows between 3 and 7
• 6s when the dealer shows 6 or lower card
• 7s when the dealer shows 7 or lower card
• 9s unless the dealer shows a 7, a 10, or an Ace

Card Counting

While the basic strategy gives you the lowest house edge you can get in Single Deck Blackjack, you can improve your chances of winning even more by counting cards.

Card Counting is an advantage play technique that increased in popularity in the middle of the last century.

It involves keeping a track of cards that have been dealt and using that knowledge to hit/stand/split/double down when it makes the most sense.

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¹You have a hard hand if you don't have an Ace or the Ace in your hand can only have a value of 1.
²You have a soft hand if you have an Ace that can still be counted as both 1 and 11.

Those of you who are new to the game of blackjack may have noticed that some blackjack games are played with one deck of cards while others are played with 2, 4, 6 or even 8 decks of cards. What’s the difference between single and multiple deck games and what are the advantages or disadvantages?

Single deck blackjack has often been looked at as the holy grail of the game because it offers players the best chance to win profits. In fact, the house edge is just 0.15% when players stick to blackjack games with a single deck.

Long ago, single-deck blackjack was the standard and the only game in town. In recent years, however, casinos have moved towards multiple deck games to make it harder for players to count cards, a strategy which has gained popularity over the past few decades. Not only is it more difficult for players to count cards with multiple decks in use, but using multiple decks also increases the house edge slightly.

Many casinos have reintroduced the single-deck blackjack game, but don’t be fooled into thinking that playing a single-deck game will give you better odds. In fact, you will notice that when playing a single-deck game of blackjack many casinos only offer a 6:5 payout for blackjack, while multi-deck games offer 3:2.

If you placed a $10 bet and got blackjack on a multi-card game with 3:2 payout you’d walk away with $15, whereas you’d only get $12 for a single-deck game with a 6:5 payout. The slight increase in the house edge isn’t worth the decrease in the blackjack payout that the house gives for a single-deck game. Therefore, unless you can find a casino that offers a 3:2 payout for single-deck blackjack it is a wise decision to stick to multiple deck games.

Casinos also often enforce disadvantageous rule variations on single-deck and double-deck games in order to give the house more of an edge. These variations can include requiring the dealer to hit on soft 17, not allowing players to double down after a split, not allowing the resplitting of aces and a number of other variations.

Card counter have tried to employ their strategy even when using multiple decks, even though it involves more calculations and a greater risk of losing the correct count. Casinos have developed an arsenal of tactics to disrupt counters who try to count multiple decks. Many have decided to use continuous shuffle machines which shuffle the cards back into the shoe with every hand.

With this being the case, you’d think that finding a single deck blackjack is the greatest thing ever. However, there are actually some disadvantages to the subject as well, which is covered below along with single deck blackjack advantages.

Advantages

Free Single Deck Blackjack

The obvious advantage to playing single deck blackjack is just as we stated before in that you’re getting the absolute lowest house edge. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino, and makes your chance of profiting seem like a coin flip. Of course, to take advantage of the low casino edge, make sure that you understand good basic blackjack strategy first – otherwise, it doesn’t really matter how many decks you’re dealing with.

There is another big advantage for card counters. Usually, card counters these days are dealing with six and eight deck shoes, which means they have to wait longer for favorable counts. But with single deck blackjack, card counters don’t have to wait nearly as long to get a favorable count, thus letting them bet big much sooner.

Disadvantages

Based on the aforementioned advantages, you wouldn’t think there’d be much downside to single deck blackjack. But the problem is that casinos often advertise single deck games, yet offer unfavorable rules to increase the house edge. And what’s bad about this is that the house edge can actually end up being higher than with six or eight deck blackjack.

In the worst case scenario, casinos will only make 6:5 blackjack payouts instead of 3:2 payouts. This one rule alone will bring the house edge from 0.15% all the way up to 1.45%. Considering the fact that you can still keep the house edge at around 0.5% with both six and eight deck blackjack, it’s sometimes not even worth the effort to search for single deck games. Casinos might put other unfavorable rules in the single deck games too, so watch out for this.

Single and double deck games are generally dealt with the cards face down. This is another tactic that casinos use to thwart counters. Players who stand before your turn will place their cards face down on the table. Since no one has no idea what they are holding, counters not value those cards in the count.

Another disadvantage to single deck blackjack is that you’re very unlikely to earn many comps with this version of the game. After all, if it’s true single deck blackjack you’re playing, the casino won’t make much money off you in the long-term. That said, they aren’t going to be generous with comps either.

Casinos usually offer a few lower limit single deck games to entice players to visit their casino. It is the old bait and switch technique that often works. They know that if the table is full or the betting limits are severely restricted, players will move to higher earning tables.

Learn about the other tricks by reading “How Casinos Cheat.”