Blackjack Strategy and Odds
Play it right and blackjack is nearly an even game: a 0.41% house edge in a standard shoe. Free charts, exact odds for your table's rules, no signup.
Pick your chart
House edges with basic strategy, double after split, no surrender, blackjack paying 3:2. The 6–8 deck figure is for 6 decks.
What the rules cost you
Start from 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2: 0.41% with basic strategy. Change one rule and this is what happens. 6:5 is the one to walk away from.
| Rule | House edge | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack pays 6:5, not 3:2 | 1.77% | +1.36 |
| Dealer hits soft 17 | 0.62% | +0.21 |
| Double on 10 and 11 only | 0.60% | +0.19 |
| No double after split | 0.55% | +0.14 |
| Split once, no resplits | 0.46% | +0.05 |
| 8 decks, not 6 | 0.43% | +0.03 |
| Resplit aces | 0.34% | −0.07 |
| Late surrender | 0.33% | −0.07 |
| 2 decks, not 6 | 0.19% | −0.21 |
| 1 deck, not 6 | −0.14% | −0.55 |
In money: at $25 a hand and 80 hands an hour, the standard game costs about $8.11 an hour. The same table paying 6:5 costs $35.31. Price your own table.
Why a chart beats a hunch
The dealer has no choices: hit to 17, then stop. You do, and every one of them has a right answer that can be worked out from the cards. A chart is those answers, one per hand against each dealer card. Ours are computed from the shoe itself, card by card, rather than copied from somewhere, and they change with the rules because the right answers do.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the house edge in blackjack?
- About 0.41% with basic strategy in a standard shoe game (6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2). That is about 41 cents lost for every $100 bet. The rules move it: below zero in the best single-deck game, 1.77% in a shoe paying 6:5.
- Is 6:5 blackjack worth playing?
- Not if 3:2 is in the building. A blackjack comes about once every 21 hands, and paying 6:5 on it adds 1.36 points to the house edge, taking a 0.41% game to 1.77%. No other common rule comes close.
- Does it matter if the dealer hits soft 17?
- Yes: 0.21 points more for the house in a 6-deck game. A dealer who hits soft 17 gets a second go at a hand that would otherwise sit on 17. A few cells of the chart change too, which is why there is a chart for each rule.
- Why split 8s against a 10?
- Because 16 is the worst hand in blackjack and two 8s are better starts. Splitting still loses against a 10, just less: about 48 cents per dollar of the original bet, against 54 or more for hitting or standing on 16.
- Can basic strategy beat blackjack?
- Almost never. It is the best way to play every hand without tracking cards, and it leaves the house a small edge in nearly every game. The exception is a single deck paying 3:2 with the dealer standing on soft 17 (−0.14%), and that game is hard to find.