Despite not being able to eliminate the edge, there are effective ways to create more favorable blackjack odds. Right from the start, the house has a serious edge, but with the right plan, you’ll get that number down. The Importance of Blackjack Odds. The effects of particular moves on the odds of winning blackjack have long been a topic of. Blackjack is actually one of the most popular games in the casino and also has some of the lowest odds of all the casino games, except casino craps of course. Generally their edge ranges from 1% to 15% depending on what variation of blackjack you are playing. How to Beat the Casino House Odds. Without any deeper understanding of odds in blackjack, it’s easy to believe that hitting on a hand value of 12 would always be the right decision. This is because 12 is a very low value and the fact that more than two-thirds of the cards in the deck (s) would improve the value of it.
To fully understand the game of blackjack, you must understand and master blackjack odds. It's crucial to know how the casino gains its edge and how it helps them win. It's also important to understand blackjack odds such as the odds of hitting a 10 or the odds of being dealt a blackjack. You can read over these blackjack odds charts to help understand the logistics behind blackjack.
In most casino games of blackjack, the house advantage (the dealer advantage) is ~ 8%. The house gets this advantage by the dealer being the last player to act. By acting last, all other players have already made their decisions and could quite possibly bust before the dealer has his turn.
By using correct blackjack basic strategy, you can turn the casino edge in blackjack from 7%-8% down to 0.5%. If you correctly use advanced card counting techniques, you can often change blackjack odds and give yourself the advantage over the casino. Manipulating the house odds to your favor is the reason most casinos don't allow card counters to play blackjack.
It's very important to know the probability of your hand busting when you are holding any total in the game of blackjack. The following odds chart shows the blackjack odds of busting, depending on your current hand value:
Hand Value | % Bust If You Hit |
---|---|
21 | 100% |
20 | 92% |
19 | 85% |
18 | 77% |
17 | 69% |
16 | 62% |
15 | 58% |
14 | 56% |
13 | 39% |
12 | 31% |
11 or Less | 0% |
This interesting blackjack odds chart is the two card count frequency chart. This chart shows the percentage chance that you will be dealt a hand in each given value range. The most important frequencey to note is the chance of being dealt a natural blackjack (natural 21 value. The odds of being dealt a natural blackjack are merely 4.8%. Following this chart you will see that the most common two card hand, at 38.7%, is a hand totaling 1-16, which is considered a decision hand.
Two Card Count | % Frequency |
---|---|
Natural 21 | 4.8% |
Hard Standing (17-20) | 30.0 % |
Decision Hands (1-16) | 38.7% |
No Bust | 26.5% |
TOTAL | 100.0% |
This blackjack odds chart shows the dealer final hand probability. These are the percentages that the dealer will end up with a hand totaling each corresponding value (up to 16). Read over this chart to understand the odds that the dealer has to make his final hand.
Dealer Final Hand Value | % | Cumulative % Total |
---|---|---|
Natural 21 | 4.82% | 4.83% |
21 (3 or More Cards) | 7.36% | 12.19% |
20 | 17.58% | 29.77% |
19 | 13.48% | 43.25% |
18 | 13.81% | 57.06% |
17 | 14.58% | 71.64% |
16 | 28.36% | 100.00% |
The first two columns in this odds chart explain the dealer's chance of busting, depending on the up card that he is showing. You should note that the dealer has the highest chance of busting when he is showing a 5. The third column in this chart shows the player advantage of using basic strategy, compared to each up card the dealer is showing. You can see that the player has the highest advantage of 23.9%, when the dealer is showing a 5. When the dealer is showing any card that is 9 value or higher, the player is in the negative advantage range.
Dealer Up Card | Dealer Bust % | Player Advantage % with Basic Strategy |
---|---|---|
2 | 35.30% | 9.8% |
3 | 37.56% | 13.4% |
4 | 40.28% | 18.0% |
5 | 42.89% | 23.2% |
6 | 42.08% | 23.9% |
7 | 25.99% | 14.3% |
8 | 23.86% | 5.4% |
9 | 23.34% | -4.3% |
J,Q,K | 21.43% | -16.9% |
A | 11.65% | -16.0% |
When looking at the odds of removing certain cards from a 52-card deck, some cards have a much greater effect on blackjack odds. To create the strongest card counting system ever invented, you would have to incorporate all of these slight and subtle differences into the numbers to be a completely accurate system.
Removing every 5 from a deck cards would make the largest impact of improving your blackjack odds, as a player. On the other hand, removing every Ace from a deck of cards would make the largest impact on improving the odds for the casino.
Card | % Effect of Removal |
---|---|
2 | 0.40% |
3 | 0.43% |
4 | 0.52% |
5 | 0.67% |
6 | 0.45% |
7 | 0.30% |
8 | 0.01% |
9 | -0.15% |
10 | -0.51% |
A | -0.59% |
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