Blackjack Odds

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.

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
21	100%
20	92%
19	85%
18	77%
17	69%
16	62%
15	58%
14	56%
13	39%
12	31%
11 or Less	0%

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 21	4.8%
Hard Standing (17-20)	30.0 %
Decision Hands (1-16)	38.7%
No Bust	26.5%
TOTAL	100.0%

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 21	4.82%	4.83%
21 (3 or More Cards)	7.36%	12.19%
20	17.58%	29.77%
19	13.48%	43.25%
18	13.81%	57.06%
17	14.58%	71.64%
16	28.36%	100.00%

Player Advantage vs. Dealer Up Card

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 Card	Dealer Bust %	Player Advantage % with Basic Strategy
2	35.30%	9.8%
3	37.56%	13.4%
4	40.28%	18.0%
5	42.89%	23.2%
6	42.08%	23.9%
7	25.99%	14.3%
8	23.86%	5.4%
9	23.34%	-4.3%
J,Q,K	21.43%	-16.9%
A	11.65%	-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
2	0.40%
3	0.43%
4	0.52%
5	0.67%
6	0.45%
7	0.30%
8	0.01%
9	-0.15%
10	-0.51%
A	-0.59%

See also:

• Card Counting Software
• Club USA Casino Games
• Blackjack Sites Ordered By Traffic
• Card Counting in Blackjack
• Free Online Blackjack