Card games are among us for a really long time. According to some experts, we can see that these are pretty popular from the beginning of the 18th century when upper social statuses had the opportunity to gamble away their fortune at one of the casinos of that time. Surely, games like blackjack and poker didn’t exist at that time. These evolved from the games that were played at that time. As you can imagine, the opportunity to participate in these games was reserved only for royalty and other rich people.
Nowadays, we can see that gambling in casinos is available for anyone who would like to participate in them. Not, this is something that made them popular. With the introduction of the internet, online casinos took the prime spot from land-based casinos. Online casinos like 22 Bet have managed to attract a serious number of players in a pretty short amount of time.
Virtually all of our Online Casino games provide a demo version that you can try for free. 888 Live Blackjack Decks However, to play the demo, 888 Live Blackjack Decks you will need to sign up for a PlayNow.com account. With so many Online Casino games to choose from, this will help you decide which ones you like best. It is easy to see why the casinos decided to implement the multi-deck usage. The increase in the usage of number of decks was the first part of the changes introduced by casinos to increase the advantage the house has over the player. The second part was the rules used by the casinos in the game of blackjack. I’m going to go over a few of the.
Even though real casinos are not as popular as they were back in the day, we can see that there are still people who really enjoy them for a wide array of reasons, like socialization and the whole vibe that surrounds them. Blackjack is one of the most popular card games ever. Even though poker is the best-known one, blackjack is not far behind it. Since a lot of people are interested in playing it, we would like to discuss some of the most important features of this game, like how many decks of cards are used for this game. Without further ado, let’s talk about it.
Contents
How Many Decks are Used?
As we’ve stated, one of the most important questions about blackjack is how many decks of cards are used in the game. When talking about strict rules, we can see that there aren’t any. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any standards. When it comes to playing at your home, you will be more than comfortable playing with just one of these, or you can use two of these.
However, when it comes to casinos, we can see that the commonest number of decks is between 6 and 8 decks. We are talking about the standard decks, without using jokers in the process, of course. The reason is simple, they are not used in the game itself, so they need to be removed.
Online Casino Blackjack
Does This Number Have an Effect on the House Edge?
When talking about the house edge for a game that has 21 goes around 1%. Naturally, this depends on the rules you use. Since we are talking only about 1%, we can say that this is probably the friendliest of all casino card games. But that doesn’t mean that the house edge can’t be changed if you are using a different number of decks for a game. The same can be said about the rules you’ve decided upon.
When you decide to use player-friendly rules, and a fewer number of decks, you can expect that the house edge can be as low as 0.5%. With every deck added, you can expect for the house edge to rise. Furthermore, if you decide to use rules who are not so player-friendly, you can expect these to be even higher. Now that you know that the number of decks used by the dealers in the casino can go from 6 to 8, you can see that the house edge can be pretty high.
Can it Have an Effect on Card Counting?
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Sure, we can say that card counting is one of the ways people try to cheat casinos of their money. Some people are more than capable of counting cards. In case you are playing against a dealer who uses only one deck, card counting can be a difference that can make you win every hard, which is surely going to be suspicious. When we are talking about more decks, some strategies can be used for having an advantage over the dealer. With every extra deck, the process becomes much more complex, and it takes some advanced skills to beat a majority of hands. So, a lot of training is in front of you.
Why Some Casinos Use Fewer Decks?
Many people don’t know that some casinos have decided to use fewer decks. Furthermore, it’s even more surprising to see that even some Las Vegas casinos have this practice. We’ve already said that using one deck makes it much easier for players to count cards. But, we can see that these casinos have decided to introduce a new set of rules which can be described as not so much player-friendly. At the same time, some provisions were decided upon. We are talking about rules like restricting splits, playing less for a win, and imposing lower betting limits.
Even though we can see that there is only one deck, these rules make it much harder for players to implement their strategies in order to win. We can see that this practice has been adopted by a lot of different casinos from all over the world. At first, players weren’t sure why this is happening. But, as soon as they started playing. Therefore, we can see that casinos have managed to have an upper hand once again and it can’t be said if players will be able to have more chance at any moment in the future, probably not.
Are There Any Benefits of Online Play?
With the introduction of online games, we can see that all the games have been transferred to these websites. Due to the fact that there are no strict rules about how many decks can be used in a game, basically, it depends on what online casinos think is best for them. Thankfully, you will be able to take a look at the description of the game on a site and we don’t doubt you will have a way of knowing how you should behave in these situations. Learning these facts is a pretty important thing. Therefore, we urge you to learn about them before you start playing.
- Appendices
- Miscellaneous
- External Links
Introduction
In playing blackjack online one problem I often face is not knowing how many decks are being used. This is a particular problem with Real Time Gaming casinos. The help files often do not indicate this rule, as well as other rules, and customer support are notorious for giving incorrect information on their own rules. So I devised a test to help determine the number of decks. This test is based on the player's first two cards and the dealer's first two.
The following table shows the probability for various configurations of the initial four cards in blackjack. Note the probabilites for a suited pair. Of all the hands I feel this is the best to test for, given both it's frequency and correlation to number of decks.
Casino Blackjack 21
| 4-Card Hand | 1 deck | 2 decks | 4 decks | 6 decks | 8 decks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 singletons | 0.676110 | 0.63692 | 0.618504 | 0.612530 | 0.609573 |
| Non-suited pair | 0.304250 | 0.286614 | 0.278327 | 0.275638 | 0.274308 |
| Suited pair | 0.047769 | 0.069582 | 0.076566 | 0.080006 | |
| Two non-suited pairs | 0.010372 | 0.009771 | 0.009488 | 0.009397 | 0.009351 |
| Two suited pairs | 0.000271 | 0.000593 | 0.000725 | 0.000796 | |
| Two pair - 1 suited | 0.003257 | 0.004744 | 0.00522 | 0.005455 | |
| 3 of a kind - 3 suits | 0.009220 | 0.008685 | 0.008434 | 0.008353 | 0.008312 |
| 3 of a kind - 2 suits | 0.006514 | 0.009488 | 0.010441 | 0.010910 | |
| 3 of a kind - 1 suit | 0.000527 | 0.000773 | 0.000909 | ||
| 4 of a kind - 4 suits | 0.000048 | 0.000045 | 0.000044 | 0.000044 | 0.000043 |
| 4 of a kind - 2 suits (3&1) | 0.000033 | 0.000048 | 0.000057 | ||
| 4 of a kind - 2 suits (2&2) | 0.000017 | 0.000037 | 0.000045 | 0.000050 | |
| 4 of a kind - 3 suits | 0.000136 | 0.000198 | 0.000218 | 0.000227 | |
| 4 of a kind - 1 suit | 0.000001 | 0.000002 | 0.000003 | ||
| Total | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
To determine the number of decks in an online blackjack game keep a tally of both the total number of hands played and the number of suited pairs. Only count a hands as a suited pair if the other two are singletons. For example one suited pair and one non-suited pair does not count. In a single deck game the ratio of suited pairs to total hands will obviously be zero. In double deck this ratio will be about 4.8%. In a 4-deck game the ratio increases to 7.0%. After that the differences are too subtle are to tell without a gigantic sample.
Of course if you ever notice three of the same card on the screen at once that rules out a double deck game immediately. Despite my lack of faith in customer support knowing their own rules I would suggest at least asking. If they give you an incorrect answer, and you can prove it, you may get some free money in your account as a way of thanks. This has happened to me several times.
Unfortunately it takes a fairly large sample size to have confidence in the number of decks between 2 and 4. After 250 hands the probability that the sample mean in a 2-deck game will be greater than 6.96% (the 4-deck theoretical mean) is 5.29%. Likewise the probability that the sample mean in a 4-deck game will be less than 4.78% (the 2-deck theoretical mean) is 8.76%. Increasing the sample size to 500 these numbers become 1.11% and 2.76%. At 1000 the numbers are 0.06% and 0.34%.
Written by: Michael Shackleford