Comparing House Edge In Blackjack

When someone teaches you the rules of blackjack for the first time, he will probably emphasize the importance of playing basic strategy.

Basic blackjack strategy, for the uninformed, is a list of decisions that cover every blackjack situation. They have undergone rigorous testing to ensure that this set of decisions results in the lowest House advantage.

However, is basic strategy really better than playing hunches, or playing a strategy of your own? The answer is yes, as one can see by comparing House edges for different strategies.

Basic Blackjack Strategy

Using basic blackjack strategy as outlined in any blackjack book or blackjack site online in a standard game reduces the House edge to around .45 percent. This means that for every $100 you wager in blackjack using basic strategy, you can expect to lose 45 cents on average. How does this compare to other blackjack methods?

No Bust Strategy

Savvy players realize that the way the House gets its edge is in the fact that if both the player and dealer bust, the player loses, because the player acts first. Therefore some players prefer to implement a strategy of making sure they do not bust, meaning they never hit a hard (12 or higher with no ace) hand.

Using such a strategy yields a House edge of nearly four percent. Therefore, this is clearly an unfavorable strategy.

Ten in the Hole Strategy

Players also understand that because there are so many ten point cards, it is more likely that the dealer’s hole card is a ten point card than any other single point total. In other words, it is more likely to be a ten than a nine, more likely to be a ten than an eight, etc.

However, it is more likely that the card will be anything other than a ten than that it will be a ten. In other words, it is more likely that it will be a nine or an eight or a seven, etc., than a ten.

For this reason the above strategy is not foolproof. For example, if you had a total of 19 and the dealer had a ten showing, this strategy would dictate that you hit, assuming the dealer must have 20. Implementing such a strategy yields a House edge of over 10 percent.

Bonus Edge Strategy

To attract new players the online casinos use deposit bonuses. This is probably the only way for you as a player to get the edge on your side. Let’s look at how this might work:

If you sign up at a casino and deposit $100 and get a 100% match bonus, i. e a $100 bonus added. Maybe the casino requires that you wager $1.000 to clear the bonus. If the house edge is one percent, you can expect to loose $1 on every $100 you play.

Once you have played for $1.000 your average loss expectance is $10.

If everything goes according to the calculus of probability you should be 90 bucks ahead.

Unfortunately, many online casinos do not allow you to clear bonuses by playing Blackjack. 

No strategy has been proven more effective than basic strategy and basic strategy is easy to implement. If you play blackjack, stick with it.