The ability to play Blackjack is quite different from the actual mastery of this game. Understanding the advantage of a casino in Blackjack and its importance is one of the first steps you need to take to become a skilled player who can grapple with the casino. If you want to learn how to calculate a casino advantage, you have come to the right place.
This guide will give you an overview of the concept of casino advantage, the odds of Blackjack, and this game’s strategy.
What is casino advantage?
Generally speaking, this term refers to the mathematical advantage that a casino has over players. It varies in different games. The advantage, usually expressed as a percentage, is the return that the casino receives over time, which also reflects the percentage of losses that the player will incur.
For example, if the casino advantage is 5% and you spent $100 during the game, the casino likely earned at least $5, and you lost it. This doesn’t mean you can’t win more money or make a profit; it’s just that the casino will eventually get back some of the money. After all, the casino is always making its money from somewhere!
What percentage is the casino advantage in Blackjack?
Compared to other games, the advantage of a Blackjack casino is relatively small. Here is how the percentages work on different casino games:
- The Roulette game usually has an advantage of 5.26%.
- In dice, it can reach up to 16%.
- In this case, the advantage in Blackjack can be reduced to 1% and even lower by applying the basic Blackjack strategy.
The casino advantage in Blackjack comes from the fact that the croupier has one face-down card that the player has to make an assumption about. Also, if a player is knocked out first, the croupier wins, even if he later burns in the same round, which also contributes to the casino’s advantage. If a player knows the probabilities and strategy of Blackjack, the above fact is no longer so significant.
Blackjack odds
Learning the odds of Blackjack is a bit harder than with other casino games. This is due to the randomness of the card drawn and the many possible different combinations. However, there are several ways you can determine the probability of drawing a particular card. Given that there are 13 different possible options, the probability of initially withdrawing a card of any value is 7.69%.
However, since the numeric value of decimals, jacks, queens, and kings is 10, the odds of drawing a card of that value are 4 out of 13. The probability of this happening is 30.7%. The casino advantage in Blackjack can be reduced by simply guessing the probability of a particular card being drawn. For example, if you have drawn a jack and a king, you know that the probability of drawing another card with a numeric value of 10 is already lower.
Reduction of casino advantage in Blackjack
There are several ways to reduce the casino advantage in the game of Blackjack. As mentioned earlier, the simplest thing is to learn basic Blackjack strategy and memorize it very well before you start playing. The basic Blackjack strategy is a set of rules, usually given in a table, that tells you how to deal your hand when the cards are dealt. For example, if you had a 17 (ace and six), the table will compare this combination to the croupier’s face-up card and advise you on how to proceed. In some cases, using a basic strategy, the casino advantage can be dropped to 0.5%!
Conclusion
In most cases, by using a more complex composite strategy in conjunction with existing base strategy tables, the casino advantage can be reduced to 0.18%, which is almost nothing!
Hopefully, now you are fully aware of the advantage of the casino, how it is applied in the game of Blackjack, and the steps you can take to reduce it. If you think you’re ready to try new knowledge, why not play Blackjack online? Here, you can try and play it using virtual currency before investing any real money.