Frequently asked blackjack questions

You’ll find plenty of websites proclaiming what and where the best live blackjack tables are. The fact is, live blackjack tables are becoming increasingly generic.

In the early days of live casino games, circa 2010, there was a clear difference in offerings. Evolution live blackjack tables were the stand out when it came to presentation and playability. If imitation is the best form of flattery then Evolution should be quite flattered.

Today most major providers offer a very similar product making it difficult to clearly differentiate. What’s more, blackjack rulesets and applicable house edges are same or very similar.

If there is still a point of differentiation, it’s sheer table volume. That is, when you open the live casino lobby at your chosen casino, and you’re looking to take a seat a low limit classic 7 seat live blackjack table, where are you most likely to find what you’re looking for? Here Evolution still have edge with by far the most blackjack tables.

Blackjack is a house edge game. You don’t win playing long term. Of course with a little luck you can win in the short term.

Your chances are improved if you play correct blackjack basic strategy. This won’t guarantee that you win. It will however maximise your returns or expressed another way, minimise the house edge. Played correctly blackjack has a house edge of around 0.5% which is pretty low for a casino game (American Roulette is over 5%).

In the short term, yes. In the long term no.

Play regularly and you’ll have winning sessions and you’ll have losing sessions. The more often you play the closer your aggregate actual returns will be to the game’s theoretical return (assuming you play optimally) and unfortunately that means you will lose.

Blackjack is a game with a mathematical house edge. It’s a small edge but an edge nonetheless. While it is possible in certain circumstances to employ card counting strategies to swing the edge in the players’ favour, this is not possible playing online.

For card counting to work the deal needs to penetrate deep into the blackjack shoe. It’s the back half of the shoe where any damage can be done from a positive count. This opportunity doesn’t exist playing online because:

• For RNG blackjack games each deal is from a full, shuffled virtual deck.
• For live blackjack, shoes (usually 8 deck) are re-shuffled halfway through the shoe.

Both. Luck plays a big part in blackjack, but a key point to take away is that your playing decisions will influence your returns.

This is what sets it apart from many casinos games where only luck counts. In a game of live baccarat for example, your only decision to make is which bet to go with at the outset of the game: Player, Banker or Tie. The rest is up to Lady Luck (Banker is the optimal bet by the way).

No.

Here’s the theoretical return on the main game and for side bets on Evolution’s classic 7 seat blackjack tables:

• Main game: 99.28%
• Side bets
  – Pairs side bet: 95.90%
  – 21+3 side bet: 96.30%

The story is the same on blackjack tables from the other major providers where the RTP on the main game is in the range 99.3% – 99.5% and same side bets and RTPs as above.

The clear takeaway…avoid the side bets.

Don’t play.

Through the course of a blackjack deal, you have decisions to make…Hit, Stand, Split or Double Down. For every state of the deal (ie Dealer’s up card and your current hand) there is a correct choice to make. This is known as blackjack basic strategy.

Blackjack basic strategy will vary slightly based on the exact house rules of the table in question. Fortunately, the major live game providers use similar/same house rules on their tables so you can employ the same basic strategy play. This is so for blackjack tables from Evolution, Playtech, Pragmatic Play, OnAir Entertainment, and StakeLogic which covers most tables at reputable casinos.

Here’s the card:

The correct decision is at the intersection of Dealer’s Card and Your Hand.

Yes, but anyone who is consistently winning is also consistently losing (a little more often).

It’s been said (by a blackjack dealer) that there is only one strategy for blackjack – play the same rules as the dealer. Hitting to 16 and Standing all 17s isn’t a terrible approach but is does neglect the fact that:

1. you have more options in your arsenal that Hit and Stand,
2. you must take into consideration the dealer’s cards also, not just yours.

Memorising an entire basic strategy card is tricky. Until then, following a few golden rules loosely covers most of the bases. They are:

1. Always Hit to hard 8
2. Double hard 9, 10, 11 against Dealers 2-6. Otherwise Hit
3. Always Stand hard 17+
4. Stand hard 12-16 against Dealers 2-6. Otherwise Hit
5. Always Stand soft 19+
6. Always Split Aces
7. Never Split 10s

Back in the day when blackjack advantage play was being pioneered, absolutely.

A guy named Edward Thorpe, also known as ‘the Father of the Count’ figured out how to count cards back in the late 50s. Before he published his best selling  how-to on the skill, titled Beat the Dealer, he had a grand old time playing with a slight edge and fleecing casinos. They didn’t known what hit them.

Casinos quickly wised-up to the caper and got better at identifying and removing any advantage players in their establishment. Though the 70s and 80s advantage play techniques became more sophisticated. Not so much the counting method…this had become tried and tested. More the ability to count undetected.

Just as casinos were getting on top of the game of whack a mole (or whack a counter) a guy named Al Francesco came up with the concept of team counting. Counters or spotters identify tables with a favourable count, then in comes the Big Player to bet big from the get go, showing no tell tale pattern of betting to a count. The MIT blackjack team famously won quite a bit in Vegas using this strategy in the 80s.

Casinos eventually put pay to this as well, devising various counter measures (eg shuffle machines that are un-countable). All good things as they say.

But the unequivocal answer to the question is yes. Advantage blackjack players have in a deliberate and methodical way made a good living over extended periods beating casinos at blackjack. Those days are long gone however.

This isn’t to say casinos don’t still suffer big losses to players today. Don Johnson’s assault on Atlantic City Casinos is a case in point. But these are more isolated occurrances.

There is certainly nobody making a living from winning at online blackjack. You can’t effectively count an RNG (random number generator) blackjack game as each deal is from a fresh virtual deck.

You can’t can’t effectively count a game of live dealer blackjack either. Re-shuffle occurs before the deal penetrates deep enough into the shoe for counting to be effective (cut-card inserted halfway).

Yes. Different name for the same game. Given the aim of the game, 21 is more apt. Blackjack is more commonly used.

No. Card counting itself is not illegal in any jurisdiction, but it is typically frowned upon by casinos.

In most places around the world, including the U.S., Europe, and other major gambling hubs, card counting is considered a strategy rather than a crime. But since casinos are private businesses, they have the right to refuse service to anyone, and many do not allow players they suspect of card counting.

Generally speaking, blackjack played optimally has a better return than baccarat. But it does depend on the blackjack house rules.

Considering the theoretical return or return to player (RTP) of blackjack and baccarat tables offered live online…

• RTP of blackjack tables is in the range 99.3% to 99.5% (if played optimally)
• RTP of baccarat is 98.95% (Banker bet)

On the face of it, blackjack has a higher RTP.

But optimal play for baccarat is far simpler. It just means choosing to bet Banker each round. Whereas optimal play for blackjack involves employing correct basic strategy which is way more difficult. In practice, most blackjack players are not playing basic strategy and real returns are less than RTP.