Understanding Single Deck Blackjack Strategy
Single deck blackjack used to be a common game at casinos everywhere. This was up until about the 1960s when casino operators began to come up with ways to combat blackjack players card counting strategies.
The first thing casinos did to make card counting strategies difficult to pull off is add multi deck blackjack making accurate card counting extremely difficult. A few casinos do still offer single deck blackjack, or at least double deck, as opposed to the more common six or eight deck games offered at the majority of casinos.
Single deck blackjack gives players the edge over the house so players who understand single deck blackjack strategy will have a better chance at winning during the game.
In multi deck blackjack the casino has the definite edge. And the more decks that are used the larger the edge for the house. In single deck blackjack players have a better chance at winning though most casinos offer the 6:5 single deck game. It is a bit different than the original single deck blackjack game.
Players need to understand how to play their cards in the game of single deck blackjack. For hard totals on the single deck variations players need to double down on an eleven when the dealer has up cards. Players should also double down on a 9 with a two through six instead of the usual three through six. Players can also double down on an eight with a five or six instead of hitting with all of the up cards.
On soft totals players need to double down against a six when they have an ace-eight. Players with ace-seven will need to stand against a dealers ace if the dealer must stand on all seventeen’s. Players with an ace-six then players will double down against two through six. An ace-3 or ace-2 in the cards, the player will need to double down on a 4, 5, or 6.
Now we get into splitting pair in single deck blackjack. If you have 2-2 then doubling after splitting is allowed. Players can split a 2-7 no matter how many decks are used. Players should split 3-7 in this game.
Players with 3-3 can double after the split as well and players should split against a 2-8. With a 4-4 hand players will find that they should not split if doubling is not allowed after a split. If doubling is allowed then players should split against a 4, 5 or 6.
With a 6-6 hand players should split if doubling is allowed after the split. Players should split against a 2-7 in the game. If a player is dealt a pair, like a 7-7 hand the player should split the hand, creating to separate blackjack hands, each including one of the 7’s. If doubling is allowed and they should split against a 2-8 with single deck blackjack. Also players should remember that in single deck blackjack if their 7-7 is up against a 10 they should stand.
