The basics of Blackjack are fairly straightforward, both when playing against a real-life dealer or against an AI, which is probably more likely in these lockdown days. It’s even true when playing it for fun and for free with friends or even your kids (you can play with candy.

• Blackjack Playing Strategy
• Why Does Blackjack Dealer Always Win
• Why Does The Blackjack Dealer Have An Advantage
• Playing Blackjack Online For Money

1. Beat the dealer! Make your bet, and you're dealt two cards. If you think you can get closer to 21 without going over, have the dealer give you another. Do you feel lucky? Click chips from your bank.
2. For example, if you play a 6:5 blackjack game you’re adding a 1.39% disadvantage. If the dealer hits soft 17 that’s another.18%. However, it’s possible to find games where the player is paid 3:2 for blackjacks and the dealer stands on soft 17. So find those games. Also be careful about which blackjack variation you play.

Odds are everywhere you look. Seriously. Odds are in a casino, your workplace, your day-to-day live and habits, your marriage and where in the world you live.

Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself:

• Odds of having twins (21st century) – 3 in 100 or 3%
• Odds of getting a divorce – 40 to 50%
• Odds of being stuck by lightning – 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 700,000 in any given year
• Odds of being audited by the IRS – .4% if you make less than $200,000 / year
• Odds of being dealt a blackjack – About 4.83%

Odds are just the likelihood that something will happen. As a blackjack player you deal with this all the time.

Lets look at a couple real examples to show you what I mean.

Here are the odds of you busting your hand, depending on what you were dealt:

• 21 – 100%
• 20 – 92%
• 19 – 85%
• 18 – 77%
• 17 – 69%
• 16 – 62%
• 15 – 58%
• 14 – 56%
• 13 – 39%
• 12 – 31%
• <11 – 0%

Odds of Being Dealt Specific Hands

Here are the probabilities for being dealt a specific hand:

• Blackjack – 4.8%
• Standing Hand (17-20) – 30%
• Decision Hand – (1-16) – 38.7%
• No Bust – 26.5%

Here are the odds for the final hands that the dealer will make:

• Natural 21 – 4.82%
• 21 (3+ cards) – 7.36%
• 20 – 17.58%
• 19 – 13.48%
• 18 – 13.81%
• 17 – 14.58%
• 16 – 28.36%

Dealer vs. Player Odds

Finally, here are the odds of the dealer busting based on their up card:

• 2 – 35.30%
• 3 – 37.56%
• 4 – 40.28%
• 5 – 42.89%
• 6 – 42.08%
• 7 – 25.99%
• 8 – 23.86%
• 9 – 23.34%
• J,Q,K – 21.43%
• A – 11.65%

Of these examples, this is the most useful. Notice what hands the dealer is most likely to bust with. The dealer will most often bust with 4, 5 or 6, followed by 2 and 3.

The odds above are static. There’s nothing you can do to change them. However, you can find ways to improve your odds so that you lose fewer hands and less money. And the less money you lose, the more you can keep to play more blackjack.

Here’s what you can do to improve your odds in blackjack:

• Use basic blackjack strategy. Without basic strategy you’re playing at an 8% disadvantage. With strategy, however, the odds increase significantly. You’ll be playing at only .5 to 1.5% disadvantage.
• Find the best games. The rules make all the difference. For example, if you play a 6:5 blackjack game you’re adding a 1.39% disadvantage. If the dealer hits soft 17 that’s another .18%. However, it’s possible to find games where the player is paid 3:2 for blackjacks and the dealer stands on soft 17. So find those games. Also be careful about which blackjack variation you play. The best games to play are blackjack, Spanish 21, Vegas Strip BJ and Blackjack Switch.
• Avoid side bets. Side bets look exciting, because for a nominal amount you could possibly win a huge jackpot — worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The problem is that the odds against winning can be anywhere from 2-40%.
• Avoid wives tales. There are a lot of bad strategies like never busting (never hit a 12+), mimicking the dealer and assume that the dealer has a 10 in the whole (with ace up). The problem with using any of these strategies is that they increase the house edge from 3 to 10 percent.

You can do other things, too, like count cards or read books (usually a mix of basic strategy, card counting and general how-to’s for casino blackjack). However, you’ll improve your odds at winning at blackjack just by following my suggestions above.

Understanding the Long Run – Sample Size and Variance

I wanted to finish up this article with a brief explanation of odds, and how they work over the long run. You see, I think a lot of people will see the numbers above and get confused when they don’t match their own stats. In other words, someone might go to the casino play 500 hands of blackjack, and wonder why they didn’t get 24 natural blackjacks, or the other way around, why they got 42.

The thing is, odds and statistics are all about the long run. Long run usually meaning sample size, or the total number of hands (or games) played.

What that means is that over a significant sample size, hundreds of thousands or even millions of hands, the number of times you’ll receive a blackjack is about 4.82%. The more hands you play the truer this will become.

The reason why odds don’t match up in smaller sessions, say over 500 hands, is because of variance. There’s a technical term and definition for variance, but I’ll just give you my version; variance is the ups and downs you experience on your way to the long term (expected) results.

Mike Caro, a poker player and author, puts it this way:

A measure of the spread of statistical distribution about its mean or centre.

That means in a short time frame, it’s possible to experience more drastic odds. You might win or lose more than you’re supposed to. It also explains why people can go into a casino, not use basic strategy and win 3x as much as what they walked in with. The cards ran in their favor — they experienced a positive streak of variance.

So that’s the gist of it. So the next time you walk into the casino and have a wild swing one way or another, you know that that’s not normal, and that in the long run you’ll be closer to break-even so long as you stick to basic strategy — the plan with the best odds.

Blackjack is not a team game, nor is it a competition with other players. It is contest of each individual against the dealer. Players wager and win or lose, independent of what happens with others.

That said, most Blackjack tables feature from five to seven betting spots. There is seating for just as many players, who come and go at will. The parade of ever-changing tablemates can be quite a challenge for the serious Blackjack player, who may have to endure visits from novices, partiers, loudmouths, drunks, slow players, poor players, know-it-alls, high stakes bettors, penny pinchers, tourists, off-duty casino staff, and all various other forms of distraction.

Playing Heads Up

An attractive alternative is playing alone against the dealer. This can be accomplished either by sitting down at an empty table and asking the pit boss to open it or by outlasting everyone else and ending up as the only player at a previously busy table.

That said, many players admit they are afraid to go “heads up” against a dealer. They fear being out-maneuvered, rushed to make decisions, and taken advantage of by someone whose job it is to play Blackjack for a living. Yet playing alone against the dealer is actually in a player’s best interests, for many good reasons. For example, card counters find that playing Blackjack alone against the dealer makes it much easier to keep track of what’s been played.

First and foremost among the advantage, however, is the opportunity to win more money faster. How much a player can profit in an hour is a function of the number of hands dealt, and fewer players means more deals. Assuming the average hand consists of 2.7 cards, a full table of seven players plus the dealer sees 22 cards per deal. A single player alone with a dealer will see just six cards. That means at least three times as many cards can be seen per hour.

For a good player, most hands do not require a lot of decision-making—it is either hit or stand. If a betting strategy is employed, knowing how much to wager is a quick decision, too, so it is quite possible to play even four or five times faster than a full table.

On the downside, the pace is so fast when playing alone that there is little time for sipping a drink, let alone taking a mental break. Beginners and intermediate players who need time to think may prefer the pace of a full table. Heads up is for those who know their Basic Blackjack Strategy forwards and backwards and can almost play hands on auto-pilot.

Blackjack Playing Strategy

More Pros and Cons

Why Does Blackjack Dealer Always Win

It is quite common to get on a roll or hit a bad slump when playing alone with a dealer. When the latter occurs, it is best to slow down the game by taking a break. It is not possible to “sit out” a hand when playing heads up, but the dealer will not act until a bet is placed, so taking a breather without leaving the table is most certainly allowed by delaying putting up a wager.

A bigger challenge is when a winning streak comes along and spectators start to gather. Having an audience can cause a form of “performance anxiety.” Worse still, an eager beaver may sit down at the table and say “I want in on this.” Proper etiquette would be for the new player to ask permission to join the table, which can always be declined, but it is really up to the pit bosses whether others can be seated when you are playing alone. Providing the dealer and pit crew with tips can help make their decision a little easier.

Why Does The Blackjack Dealer Have An Advantage

Other ways to discourage game-crashers include sitting in the middle-most seat and playing at a higher stakes table. Simply requesting a private game is not out of order, either.

Playing Blackjack Online For Money

Another intrinsic advantage of going heads up is the ability to play multiple hands. Some casinos require only that the player make at least a minimum bet on each spot. Others insist that equal amounts be wagered for each hand. And some will allow any number of hands to be played, but require that they be bet continuously. Once off a spot for a hand, the spot may not be regained. Obviously, it is important to be familiar with the House Rules before opening up a table for solo play.