Tag: House Rules

Blackjack Strategy for Splitting 9s

This morning I began talking about blackjack strategy for when you are dealt a pair of 9s. As you might recall I left off by saying that when holding a pair of 9s when the dealer is showing a 2 through 6 or an 8, the best play to make is to split.

While an 18 is a strong there are three hands that the dealer can hit to with one of those up cards and still beat the player. Three out of the five possible hands I should say. And the last time I checked, that was more than 50%, which puts the player at the disadvantage. So that leaves splitting those 9s.

If you are playing in a game of blackjack that allows for doubling after splitting then you gain a little on your blackjack odds: a 0.15% to your odds in fact. And here is why:

Once you split you have two hands that are starting at 9, which is a nice strong card to start with. Let

Two Types of Surrender in Blackjack

Since we discussed surrender as a part of your blackjack strategy this morning, I figured it might be beneficial to go over the two types of surrender that you are bound to come across: late surrender and early surrender.

The basic concept of surrender is to exit the round at the cost of half of your wager.

Late surrender is the variety that only allows you to bow out of the round after the dealer has checked to see if he has blackjack. This is the surrender variety that has the smaller impact on the house edge because the dealer is allowed to check first. And if he does have a natural blackjack, guess what

Once More with Feeling: Basic Strategy!

Everyday blackjack wins new players. These new players may come to the game in a brick and mortar casino, or perhaps they have tried it out in a game of online blackjack. But chances are they have heard that this is the casino game in which they could possible beat the house. Or at the very least that this is the game with the smallest house edge.

And while it is true that blackjack can have the lowest house edge, it does not happen automatically.

Be it online blackjack or blackjack in a brick and mortar casino, the game will start out with a house edge of 2% to 5%. This depends on what house rules are in effect.

But that house edge can be brought down to as low as 0.5%. How does this happen?

Actually it is quite easy to manage. All a player needs to do is play blackjack according to basic strategy. This is accomplished by checking your basic strategy chart to see what play is recommended. And then make that play.

That is all there it to it. Playing blackjack according to basic strategy lowers the house edge to 0.5% over time when every play is made according to what basic strategy says.

Basic strategy comes in the form of a chart with all player hands running down one side and all of the dealer

What Would Make Up the Best Blackjack Game?

While we all enjoy our blackjack games, be it blackjack in a brick and mortar casino or blackjack online, we all will imagine from time to time what would be our perfect blackjack game. Granted, we do not expect to ever actually find our perfect game of blackjack, but every now and then we will all sigh and let our minds wander to this perfect game and imagine the fun and the winnings.

So what would my perfect game of blackjack be? Well, naturally it has all kinds of player favorable rules.

For starters I would have natural blackjacks paying 2-1 instead of 3-2. While a 3-2 payout is awesome, a 2-1 payout will not only pay more but it will also increase a player

Player Favorable Blackjack Rules

Yes! There are more player favorable blackjack rules for you to be on the hunt for. While the 2-1 payout is probably the best thing to look for in a blackjack game, it is not a common sight in casinos. But you can look for the other player favorable rules discussed in this series. While these other rules don