There is no denying that anyone can find a suitable blackjack. One of them is single deck blackjack. As the name implies, it is played with only one deck of cards.
In single deck blackjack, the main task of the player is the same as in other types of the game. The goal is to take cards that are worth more points than the dealer's hand. The ideal total is 21 points. But this number of points should not be more than 21. If this happens, the player loses automatically. It's as simple as that.
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Let's get into some more details of how the game plays out and the pros & cons of playing with only one deck. Also, make sure to check out this Single Deck session from SlotLady to see how it works:
Blackjack House Edge By Number Of Decks Playing a blackjack game with fewer decks single-handedly lower the house edge. This isn't the only way to lower the house edge. There are plenty of blackjack rules that can make a game more player-friendly. A single-deck Vegas Strip game (blackjack pays 3:2, double down on any two cards, and dealer stands on soft 17), is pretty close to being a break even proposition for a basic strategy player. With four or more decks in play, and the same set of rules, the house has about a ½ percent edge.
How to Play Single Deck Blackjack
You'll notice throughout this guide that single deck blackjack in online casinos is very similar to other types. But there are some things that make it unique. For example, you are much less likely be dealt cards of the same rank (for example, Queen-Queen), as in, for example, six-deck blackjack.
Also, depending on how the deck is shuffled, you will have different levels of success with card counting. If you learn how to count single deck blackjack, you will find some advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand,card counters don't have to wait nearly as long to get a favorable count. On the other hand, the deck might be shuffled after each round.
Hello, I know 6:5 blackjack is a terrible game, but just curious if all the great rules make this a playable game? Single deck Double down on any first two cards Double down after splits, except Aces Split any pairs up to four times, except Aces. Blackjack House Advantage. The house edge of blackjack depends on the rules of the game. This includes the number of decks used or if double down, 2-3 or 6-5 blackjack and if surrender and resplit aces are allowed.The dealer hitting or standing on a soft 17 can also change the house edge. Single Deck Blackjack House.
Online gambling sites allow you to play up to five hands at the same time. Thus, the speed of the game increases significantly, and players can receive more money (of course, if they manage to get consistent wins). For beginners, however, we recommend playing only one hand. Otherwise, you may get overwhelmed.
House Edge Single Deck Blackjack
The Basic Rules
We've already established that you need to achieve a hand value that is higher than the dealer's without busting. For clarification, a hand's value is the sum of the card values. Here is what you should know about the card values:
- Cards 2 through 10 are worth the same as their pip value.
- Face cards' value (Jack, Queen, and King)is 10 points.
- Ace is either 1 or 11.
- The best possible hand is an Ace plus a face card or a 10, which gives you a two-card blackjack for a total of 21 points.
- If you get dealt a blackjack, you instantly win one and a half times of your bet.
Here is what you should know about the course of a game:
- Before each move, the players place their bets.
- The dealer deals one card face up to each player and one face down card to themselves. Then, they deal a second card that is visible to everybody.
- They ask each of the gamblers at the table, starting with the one to his left, whether they want additional cards. Players can request as many cards as they want.
- Once all the players are served their cards, the dealer draws cards as long as the total is less than 17. If the dealer gets a point total greater than 21, all players who haven't busted win. If the score is between 17 and 21, all players who have a higher total win.
- If a player is tied with the dealer, they get their bet back.
Depending on whether the dealer stands or hits on soft 17, you'll need to make slight adjustments to your single deck blackjack strategy. To understand these tactics better, you can look up special tables that instruct you on every single move during the course of the game.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Single Deck Blackjack
Single deck blackjack is a classic type of blackjack that has been around for hundreds of years. This variety has many advantages:
- The single deck blackjack odds are absolutely the best. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino if you play a perfect game.
- The game is dynamic and thrilling.
- The single deck blackjack counting strategy is easier to follow.
Based on these advantages, you wouldn't think there'd be many downsides to single deck blackjack. However, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of:
- There might be unfavorable rules that increase the house edge.
- You're very unlikely to earn many comps with this version of the game.
- The deck might be reshuffled too often, which could prevent effective card counting.
In Summary
If you've never played single deck online blackjack, it's always a good idea to give it a shot. You can take advantage of the low house edge of the casino as well as practice an effective card counting strategy. At the end of the day, each variant of blackjack is worth trying because you can discover many great titles.
At CasinoChan, you have to perfect the opportunity to play single deck blackjack online and maximize your bankroll using a variety of strategies. After you have mastered the ability to play single deck blackjack, you can switch other exciting online casino games. Our catalog is full of classics as well as new gems that you've yet to see.
Single-deck blackjack is considered to be the pinnacle game for those looking for the absolute best chances to win. The fewer the cards and decks in the average game of 21, the better our chances are to win big – and who doesn't want to maximise profits?
Single-deck games were most common up until the 1960s, when card counting systems became rampant among the gambling community. Casinos caught on to these systems and feared for the loss of their house edge, which was already quite slender compared to other table games. Around the same time, when smart strategy and optimal game-play became widespread among players, single-deck games became even scarcer. In response to these threats, most casinos began using four to eight decks for their standard games of blackjack to increase the dealer's advantage, discourage card counting systems, and make it harder for basic strategists to feel as confident.
Blackjack sites for online players
Online single-deck blackjack
Note: This page is intended for our international readers only. Following the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill in September 2017, it is no longer legal to market online casinos to Australian players, so the content on this page is informational in nature only.
These days, most games of 21 are played with six to eight standard decks of 52 cards. What's more, land-based Australian casinos are notorious for bending the rules further in their favour than usual, compared to the tables of Macau, Las Vegas, and most other international gambling destinations.
However, there are still plenty of gambling operators which offer single-deck blackjack at decent odds… if you know where to look. The simplest option is to play single-deck 21 online at a trusted blackjack casino. These fully certified gaming sites carry dozens of Microgaming blackjack titles, and they all cater for a range of currencies with safe banking methods and advanced SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryptions to protect all cash deposits and withdrawals.
Our top site for online 21 is Royal Vegas Casino, which allows punters to play real money blackjack via PC, Mac, and even Android, Blackberry, and iOS mobile devices. There's also 400+ online slots and progressive jackpot slots, dozens of Internet video poker titles, as well as multiple versions of roulette, baccarat, keno, instant win scratchies, and more. New overseas players can claim up to $1200 free cash just for joining.
Effect on house edge
Single-deck games are sought out religiously by many players, and for a good reason. The Classic Blackjack title at Royal Vegas, for instance, has an expected return of 99.87% using basic strategy (even higher using complete strategy with exceptions). That means for every $100 you wager, you can expect to win back $99.87 in the long run. This ranks right up there with traditional video poker for the most player-friendly stats in all of gambling.
Compared to a normal eight-deck game, a single deck decreases the house edge by as much as 0.48%. That is a sizeable discrepancy in any form of gambling; in blackjack terms, it is monstrous. Sadly, a house edge of around 0.60% is about the norm for Australian blackjack these days, if not at the lighter end of the spectrum. (Crown Casino's Blackjack Plus abomination weighs in with a dealer advantage of some 2.86%.) Cs go gambling sites no deposit.
That is not to say that all single deck blackjack tables are the bees knees, however. Brick and mortar casinos are well aware of the general preference for one-deck games among learned players, and so underneath all those attractive conditions there will always lurk a few not-so-pretty rules to muddy up the numbers. As with any blackjack game, the key is to know which rules favour you and which ones help the house, and to what degree.
Good rules for single-deck 21
- The single deck blackjack odds are absolutely the best. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino if you play a perfect game.
- The game is dynamic and thrilling.
- The single deck blackjack counting strategy is easier to follow.
Based on these advantages, you wouldn't think there'd be many downsides to single deck blackjack. However, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of:
- There might be unfavorable rules that increase the house edge.
- You're very unlikely to earn many comps with this version of the game.
- The deck might be reshuffled too often, which could prevent effective card counting.
In Summary
If you've never played single deck online blackjack, it's always a good idea to give it a shot. You can take advantage of the low house edge of the casino as well as practice an effective card counting strategy. At the end of the day, each variant of blackjack is worth trying because you can discover many great titles.
At CasinoChan, you have to perfect the opportunity to play single deck blackjack online and maximize your bankroll using a variety of strategies. After you have mastered the ability to play single deck blackjack, you can switch other exciting online casino games. Our catalog is full of classics as well as new gems that you've yet to see.
Single-deck blackjack is considered to be the pinnacle game for those looking for the absolute best chances to win. The fewer the cards and decks in the average game of 21, the better our chances are to win big – and who doesn't want to maximise profits?
Single-deck games were most common up until the 1960s, when card counting systems became rampant among the gambling community. Casinos caught on to these systems and feared for the loss of their house edge, which was already quite slender compared to other table games. Around the same time, when smart strategy and optimal game-play became widespread among players, single-deck games became even scarcer. In response to these threats, most casinos began using four to eight decks for their standard games of blackjack to increase the dealer's advantage, discourage card counting systems, and make it harder for basic strategists to feel as confident.
Blackjack sites for online players
Online single-deck blackjack
Note: This page is intended for our international readers only. Following the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill in September 2017, it is no longer legal to market online casinos to Australian players, so the content on this page is informational in nature only.
These days, most games of 21 are played with six to eight standard decks of 52 cards. What's more, land-based Australian casinos are notorious for bending the rules further in their favour than usual, compared to the tables of Macau, Las Vegas, and most other international gambling destinations.
However, there are still plenty of gambling operators which offer single-deck blackjack at decent odds… if you know where to look. The simplest option is to play single-deck 21 online at a trusted blackjack casino. These fully certified gaming sites carry dozens of Microgaming blackjack titles, and they all cater for a range of currencies with safe banking methods and advanced SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryptions to protect all cash deposits and withdrawals.
Our top site for online 21 is Royal Vegas Casino, which allows punters to play real money blackjack via PC, Mac, and even Android, Blackberry, and iOS mobile devices. There's also 400+ online slots and progressive jackpot slots, dozens of Internet video poker titles, as well as multiple versions of roulette, baccarat, keno, instant win scratchies, and more. New overseas players can claim up to $1200 free cash just for joining.
Effect on house edge
Single-deck games are sought out religiously by many players, and for a good reason. The Classic Blackjack title at Royal Vegas, for instance, has an expected return of 99.87% using basic strategy (even higher using complete strategy with exceptions). That means for every $100 you wager, you can expect to win back $99.87 in the long run. This ranks right up there with traditional video poker for the most player-friendly stats in all of gambling.
Compared to a normal eight-deck game, a single deck decreases the house edge by as much as 0.48%. That is a sizeable discrepancy in any form of gambling; in blackjack terms, it is monstrous. Sadly, a house edge of around 0.60% is about the norm for Australian blackjack these days, if not at the lighter end of the spectrum. (Crown Casino's Blackjack Plus abomination weighs in with a dealer advantage of some 2.86%.) Cs go gambling sites no deposit.
That is not to say that all single deck blackjack tables are the bees knees, however. Brick and mortar casinos are well aware of the general preference for one-deck games among learned players, and so underneath all those attractive conditions there will always lurk a few not-so-pretty rules to muddy up the numbers. As with any blackjack game, the key is to know which rules favour you and which ones help the house, and to what degree.
Good rules for single-deck 21
The most obvious advantage of playing single-deck blackjack is that it comes with the lowest possible house edge for any given set of rules. Further to that, such games are also the most advantageous for card counters. If you know your craft well, counting cards with the usual six to eight decks is possible, but not the most ideal to deal with, as we must wait longer for favourable counts.
Another feature of single-deck games which favours the player is the 'Ace rich' deck. A single, standard deck has 52 cards, and there is one Ace for every 13 cards; if you are confident in your card counting abilities, or are very good at memorising, take note if any of the four Aces appear in the first or second round. If none appear, double your starting bet, and raise it again by around $5-$10 for every subsequent 13 cards dealt without an Ace. Increasing our starting bet in the following rounds is attractive, as we know there is an abundance of player-favourable Aces waiting to be dealt.
Multi-deck games increase the house's starting advantage and decrease the probability of favourable situations where none of the Aces or 10 cards get dealt first up. These concerns are largely side-stepped with a single deck of 52 cards, as counters can identify a favourable count faster and bet with more confidence a lot sooner, so there's no surprise these games get the attention they do.
The most important thing to remember is we can only take full advantage of a single-deck game of 21 if we thoroughly brush up on our basic blackjack strategy. There is little value in spending too much time scouting b&m gaming venues or online blackjack sites for single-deck games if we don't know the most important moves of the game. The same goes for card counters: fine-tune your craft before getting too confident and jumping into a game.
Drawbacks of playing 21 with one deck
Sometimes it is easy to forget casinos enforce several unfavourable rules to offset the statistical advantage we have in attractive-looking games. While fewer decks does equate to a lower house edge, the casinos will always remain a step ahead of us.
Land-based and online casinos will regularly make a point of advertising their single-deck titles. However, before you begin playing, make sure to read over all the rules imposed, which ultimately could increase the house edge significantly and offset the single deck's attractive odds. Sometimes, these rules can actually make the house edge higher in a single-deck game than a six to eight deck version.
For example, the most common and disadvantageous rule employed is a criminal 6 to 5 payout on blackjack, rather than the usual 3 to 2 payout. This is a disastrous rule which brings the house edge up to an unfavourable 1.45%. Even if we are keen to only play 21 with a single deck, don't ever give in to this terrible blackjack payout – just play somewhere else.
Other frequent house-friendly rules in single deck games are:
- The dealer hits on a soft 17
- Players can only double on a hand of 9, 10, or 11
- Dealer blackjack beats player blackjack always
- Re-splitting is not allowed
- Surrender is not allowed
Free Single Deck Blackjack
There are two more things to consider with single-deck 21: the insurance bet, and reward points. If you are hoping to earn loyalty points for bonus rewards, either online or within a b&m venue, then play elsewhere. The house won't make enough money with us in the long term, so we won't earn anywhere near as many points as we would in multi-deck 21. Insurance side bets are also a waste of time in single-deck games, as the house edge is 5.90% – a very unattractive figure, indeed.
Having said all that, single-deck blackjack remains an extremely favourable variation which we should seek out whenever we can. Just be wary of the other rules which offset the statistical advantage a single deck brings, and remember to fine-tune your card counting skills and basic strategy knowledge to maximise your overall returns.
Non-Australian players can sign up for single deck blackjack at Royal Vegas Casino and get up to $1200 free when depositing real money for the first time.