The advantage for the house is the players goes first. You bust, you lose. Doesn’t matter if the dealer busts after you.

Blackjack is a GREAT game of illusions – its a perfect analogy of why Vegas wins – they offer the people the illusion of control – when in fact there is very little control – and most situations the player is NOT favored to get desired result

assuming you are NOT an expert card counter which 9 out of 10 people are NOT

for the player to be favored to win he or she needs two card totals of 19, 20 or 21 (obviously)

every other two card total the player is at a disadvantage OR must assume TWO variables going in their favor.

if the player has 18 or less statistically speaking they are NOT winning hands UNLESS the dealer busts – dealers bust on avg less than 30% of the time

if you are fortunate enough to get a 10 or 11 you are a heavy favorite but the house limits your ability as you only get one card on a double – and you only have about a 30% chance of drawing a face card unless you know the deck is rich in 10′s

all hands a dealer has 2 through 6 that a player passes on the assumption the dealer will bust – with a 6 up a dealer has about a 40% chance still to make a hand – 5 the odds are a little better – 4 even better – 3 even better – I think a 2 up the dealer has a 70% chance of making 17+

so basically blackjack favors the house alot more than it appears at first glance

if you get a two card total of 20 you the player had no influence on that – it happens!!!

just like a dealer drawing to 21 three hands in a row……..

always remember if you have a decision to make at the table – the casino somehow is favored over the long haul……….

GOOD LUCK:)

Gota figure in the push too. Unless it single deck and you can count cards you dont have an edge to buy learn or try. But you can have fun trying. There are no plus EV casino games, but I can sell you a book that tells you how to beat them all. LoLs. Try poker, you against other players not the house. Or backgammon.

Folks made this WAY to complicated.

“Best Answer” to LegFuJohnson. It’s as simple as that. The PLAYER goes first! You bust, you lose – even if the dealer busts after you. That’s the MOST important dealer advantage without a doubt.

LegFuJoh hit the biggest nail on the head. The players have to go first. If they bust then it is game over for those players. It doesn’t matter what the house does. This is where the house gets it edge.

“Well, if I were to stick to the dealers rule of thumb (Stick on 17, hit on 16), why would they have an advantage over me?”

Because you’ll bust a hand roughly 30% of the time over the long run and so will the dealer. But, when you bust it doesn’t matter what the dealer ends up with.

Last year I was in Reno. During one (of many) sessions of blackjack I kept getting 12 to 14 hard and drawing tens and faces over and over. I busted left and right through that pile of chips in no time. I had a very bad run. But I bet my bust average for the entire trip was 30%. But on that round it was over 70%.

i do not understand why everyone is on the martingale system. the only system that doesn’t work at any time. as far as who has the edge, the dealer will always have the edge because the player must go first. as for counting, it is not 9 out of 10 that can not count; it is 999 out of 1000 that can not count accurately when playing. just try to remember that the movie 21 took a lot of liberties on the game of blackjack.

To get the house edge of the overall game you should subtract the expected loss when the dealer has a blackjack. With six decks, the probability of a dealer blackjack is the number of tens, times number of aces, divided by the number of two-card combinations, which is (6×16)×(6×4)/combin(312,2) = 0.047489. However, the player will only lose when he does not have a blackjack.

“Well, if I were to stick to the dealers rule of thumb (Stick on 17, hit on 16), why would they have an advantage over me?”

Because if you and the dealer both bust, the dealer wins.

“I get paid better if I hit a blackjack (Though statistically it only comes out once every 42 hands or so), I have the ability to double down (Lets say the dealer is showing a 7 and I got 10 total, doubling down is my best bet), splitting (Aces for example), I have the ability to use insurance when I want (Though it isn’t wise to do so), surrender (Early/late), etc. With all the extras I get, how does the house have any advantage at all?”

Those things each help you a little bit, but don’t make up for the fact that if you and the dealer both bust, the dealer wins. It can vary a bit based on the exact rules, but the house advantage against a computer-perfect player is usually around 0.5%. The only way to have an advantage is counting cards, and in casinos with shuffling machines that is impossible.

“More so, if I used a martingale system to boot with sticking to the dealers rule, shouldn’t I win more often then I lose?”

A betting system like the martingale doesn’t change the odds, it just redistributes your wins and losses. Instead of a roughly equal mix of wins and losses with slightly more losses, with the martingale system you have many tiny wins with a small but realistic chance of a massive loss. Sooner or later, you will lose six or seven hands in a row, and then you will be wiped out.

The house does have the advantage but it is a small advantage compared to every other game in the casino. Blackjack can be beaten and is the game you want to play if you are looking to have the best chance of winning.

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