How does a Casino’s edge work in Blackjack? It feels like the player and the dealer should have the same odds if they play the same (eg, always hit on soft 17).
In: Mathematics
Former croupier (and card counter). The biggest edge the casino has on blackjack is that people play first, and people are pretty stupid. There is something called “basic strategy”, it tells you how to play your cards against the dealer faced up card, you have a statistically correct move for any combination, like, never split 10s, do not hit anything above 11 if the dealer has 5 or 6, etc…. (5 is the worst card for the dealer because the dealer HAS to hit twice, but on 6, in some areas / casinos the dealer must stand on soft 17).
By using perfect basic strategy, depending on the rules, the edge of the casino should be around 0.6%.
There aren’t that many, like a few hundreds, you can learn them in a few hours. If not, you are even allowed to carry a basic strategy with you and look at it when you play (as long as its on paper and not your phone or a device).
But people just play by instinct. I totally feel he’s gonna bust on that 10, I’m gonna leave it at 12! Yeah guess what, you just gave the house a lot of edge….
Now you can ask, why does the game favours the house if the player plays perfectly?
Because it’s a casino game. They’re made so that the house has the advantage, while giving the illusion to people that they have a fair chance of winning, which we can see on your title: “I feel like the player and the casino have the same chance of winning!”. Nope.
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