Smash Vegas

When it comes to beating blackjack, game selection is every bit as important as basic strategy.  There are thousands of blackjack variants with hugely differing house edges.  You need to learn to identify which rules help and which hurt.

In general we prefer games that give us greater choice (eg. early surrender) or better payouts and dislike games which reduce choice or give worse payouts.  If we’re card counting (and you should be) then we prefer fewer decks for obvious reasons.  The following table should make things pretty clear.  It shows the effect on a player’s return for various rule changes, relative to usual Atlantic City rules: 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, player may double on any first two cards, player can double after splitting, player may split to 4 hands.

Note from the table that you should be particularly wary of single deck blackjack where Blackjack only pays 6 to 5.  For many years single deck games were rare and sought after, this new variant is an attempt to cash in on that reputation - it has one of the worst house edges around.

Once you’ve picked the right game and are playing basic strategy you have minimized the house edge as much as possible.

Next it’s time to push the edge in your favour with some card counting…

If you want a downloadable guide then here’s my PDF.