New Blackjack Players

If there’s something I wish I could teach new blackjack players, it would be to boycott tables that pay 6:5 on a blackjack.

The Gaming Commission doesn’t regulate the payouts in blackjack. The house has every right to set them at whatever they want. The game of blackjack, however, has traditionally paid 3:2 on a blackjack. First, we saw single deck games go to a 6:5 payout. Now, the payout of 6:5 for blackjack is rampant in Las Vegas. I’m not even going to get into the number of 8-deck shoes I saw on the Strip. When I was in Vegas last year, it hadn’t spread to the downtown area, and the downtown casinos were full of the more savvy players who were refusing to play the Strip games paying 6:5. This year, however, there were casinos downtown paying 6:5 on blackjack, and the ones that didn’t were not allowing double down after split and/or splitting of aces more than once.

Folks – just boycott blackjack 6:5 okay? Do the blackjack-playing community a favor and refuse to play it. I suspect I can say this until I’m blue in the face and even if this blog goes viral, there will be no shortage of people going to Vegas or other venues and playing blackjack without a clue. But if you read this blog, now you know better – and you have no excuse.

Let me make something clear: the house always has an advantage and you will, over time, lose money. The only time you can play blackjack with an advantage is if you’re counting the cards. So why look for the game with the lowest house advantage? Well – why do you look for the best deal at the grocery store? Why do you wait until that big screen TV you want goes on sale before you buy it? Go to Vegas, have a good time, but at least make your money go further.

Let’s say you find what seems to be a typical game of blackjack on the Strip these days: 8-deck shoe, dealer hits soft 17, you can only split aces once, you can double down after a split (except aces), you can double down on any two first cards, and blackjack pays 6:5. The house advantage on that game is just slightly over 2%. Now – make the blackjack pay at 3:2 and the house edge is just under 0.65%. See the difference? Make it a 6-deck shoe, same rules, paying 6:5 and the house edge moves slightly, to just under 2%. Same game paying 3:2 moves the house edge to a little under 0.62%.

By playing the 6:5 game, you’re giving the house almost 1.5% advantage over you.

That’s like buying that big-screen TV this week at full price, even if you’ve been told it will go on sale for half the price next week. It doesn’t make much sense, does it?

All work, no play