4 Deck Blackjack Odds

Here's the situation:

Blackjack Insurance. It is a way of protecting your hand in case the dealer has a blackjack, which means an immediate loss. If the dealer got a blackjack, those players who took insurance are going to lose original wager, but they win insurance side bet and get odds in the ratio 2-1. The odds of being dealt a natural blackjack in a single deck game is 4.82%. With 8 decks your odds decrease to 4.75%. Less dealer blackjacks. The dealer is less likely to have a blackjack to tie the player if the player has one, because the one of 4 (or 8) aces have been used, drastically lowering the odds of the dealer having one.

You are playing in a multiple deck game where the option of soft doubling is allowed (which means the vast majority of casinos). You're dealt an Ace and a four, while the dealer gives himself an upcard of three. Naturally, a signal would go off, identifying a possible doubling situation here. After all, you've got the flexibility of a hand with an Ace, and a dealer upcard that is not necessarily strong. Is that what you should do?

Actually, no. The correct play here is not to double this hand, but to hit it.

Blackjack Odds Charts - Black Jack Probability Winning Odds

The winning percentages between the two options are similar in that they're close to 50%. But when you examine it further, there indeed IS a difference.

  • When you double down on the hand you will lose 1% more than you win, on the average.
  • If you simply hit this hand, you will actually win 2.5% more, which means you will win 2.5 more hands than you lose, once again on the average.

This brings us to a very simple principle; one that should be followed at all times: when you are presented with one option that brings a negative expectation and another that brings a positive expectation, the option to elect is the one which yields POSITIVE results. The negative yield makes it impractical to double here.

Take the opportunity, through the flexibility the Ace provides, to take as many cards as you need in order to put together a winning hand.

US vs. THEM Blackjack Strategy Series
An Analysis
By Charles Jay

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More on How to play Blackjack


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Blackjack Probability and Blackjack Odds

To fully understand the game of blackjack, you must understand and master blackjack odds. It's crucial to know how the casino gains its edge and how it helps them win. It's also important to understand blackjack odds such as the odds of hitting a 10 or the odds of being dealt a blackjack. You can read over these blackjack odds charts to help understand the logistics behind blackjack.

Casino and Dealer Advantage in Blackjack

In most casino games of blackjack, the house advantage (the dealer advantage) is ~ 8%. The house gets this advantage by the dealer being the last player to act. By acting last, all other players have already made their decisions and could quite possibly bust before the dealer has his turn.

By using correct blackjack basic strategy, you can turn the casino edge in blackjack from 7%-8% down to 0.5%. If you correctly use advanced card counting techniques, you can often change blackjack odds and give yourself the advantage over the casino. Manipulating the house odds to your favor is the reason most casinos don't allow card counters to play blackjack.

See Full List On Wizardofodds.com

Probability of Busting on a Hit

It's very important to know the probability of your hand busting when you are holding any total in the game of blackjack. The following odds chart shows the blackjack odds of busting, depending on your current hand value:

Hand Value% Bust If You Hit
21100%
2092%
1985%
1877%
1769%
1662%
1558%
1456%
1339%
1231%
11 or Less0%

4 Deck Blackjack Odds Explained

Two-Card Count Frequencies

This interesting blackjack odds chart is the two card count frequency chart. This chart shows the percentage chance that you will be dealt a hand in each given value range. The most important frequencey to note is the chance of being dealt a natural blackjack (natural 21 value. The odds of being dealt a natural blackjack are merely 4.8%. Following this chart you will see that the most common two card hand, at 38.7%, is a hand totaling 1-16, which is considered a decision hand.

Two Card Count% Frequency
Natural 214.8%
Hard Standing (17-20)30.0 %
Decision Hands (1-16)38.7%
No Bust26.5%
TOTAL100.0%

Dealer Final Hand Probabilities

This blackjack odds chart shows the dealer final hand probability. These are the percentages that the dealer will end up with a hand totaling each corresponding value (up to 16). Read over this chart to understand the odds that the dealer has to make his final hand.

Dealer Final Hand Value%Cumulative % Total
Natural 214.82%4.83%
21 (3 or More Cards)7.36%12.19%
2017.58%29.77%
1913.48%43.25%
1813.81%57.06%
1714.58%71.64%
1628.36%100.00%

Player Advantage vs. Dealer Up Card

4-Deck To 8-Deck Blackjack Strategy - Wizard Of Odds

The first two columns in this odds chart explain the dealer's chance of busting, depending on the up card that he is showing. You should note that the dealer has the highest chance of busting when he is showing a 5. The third column in this chart shows the player advantage of using basic strategy, compared to each up card the dealer is showing. You can see that the player has the highest advantage of 23.9%, when the dealer is showing a 5. When the dealer is showing any card that is 9 value or higher, the player is in the negative advantage range.

Dealer Up CardDealer Bust %Player Advantage % with Basic Strategy
235.30%9.8%
337.56%13.4%
440.28%18.0%
542.89%23.2%
642.08%23.9%
725.99%14.3%
823.86%5.4%
923.34%-4.3%
J,Q,K21.43%-16.9%
A11.65%-16.0%

Effects of Removing Cards from a Deck

When looking at the odds of removing certain cards from a 52-card deck, some cards have a much greater effect on blackjack odds. To create the strongest card counting system ever invented, you would have to incorporate all of these slight and subtle differences into the numbers to be a completely accurate system.

Removing every 5 from a deck cards would make the largest impact of improving your blackjack odds, as a player. On the other hand, removing every Ace from a deck of cards would make the largest impact on improving the odds for the casino.

Card% Effect of Removal
20.40%
30.43%
40.52%
50.67%
60.45%
70.30%
80.01%
9-0.15%
10-0.51%
A-0.59%

See also:


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