6 To 5 Blackjack
Here is the payout chart for a 6 to 5 Blackjack game. This should help make calculating the 6 to 5 ratio easier for players and dealers. If you bet $10 and get a blackjack in a traditional game (3-to-2 payoff on blackjack) you will win $15. In a 6-to-5 game that same $10 bet will net you only $12. So you're out $3 for every blackjack hand that you get. On average you'll get four blackjacks. The advantage from instituting 6:5 payoff on blackjack in a single deck game is the increase in the games’ house advantage over the basic strategy player. An average blackjack player with some intermediate experience will know that the single deck games are the best and will also fall for this 6-5 blackjack scam. Players will quickly realize how hard it is to find a truly fair 3/2 single deck game anywhere because of card counters and they will settle for the 6-5. Blackjack should be fun,not ruined by high stake gamblers like you.6 to 5 blackjack is unacceptable,and anybody that plays blackjack that has a clue would make a stand against.
Hi guys. This is Mike.
The topic of this Wizard of Odds Academy video will be on the importance of a blackjack paying 3 to 2 odds in blackjack as opposed to 6 to 5, which is a very common rule variation right now.
Here in Las Vegas
You see a lot of players playing 6 to 5 blackjack even at high amounts. Frankly, I have no idea why other than out of a ignorance of math.
I hate to have to insult your intelligence by even pointing this out, but 3 / 2 = 1.5, 6 / 5 is 1.2. The player will get 30% of a bet more with every winning blackjack if he's playing 3 to 2 blackjack as opposed to 6 to 5.
How important is that rule mathematically?
Let's see:
Let's assume six decks of cards, which is the norm, and that the player has no knowledge of any other cards in the deck. The probability that the first card the player gets is worth 10 points, is 96 / 312 because there are 96 10-point cards, 16 x 6 is 96, and 312 total cards in the shoe. 52 x 6 is 312. Assuming the player's first card is a 10-point card.
He at least has hope of a blackjack. He will need an ace or that second card. There are 24 aces in the shoe, and 311 cards left.
However...
...the player might get the ace first. It's just as likely to get the ace first in a blackjack as a blackjack, starting with a 10-point card. We multiply this by two. The probability the player gets a blackjack is equal to 4.75%. However, in order for this pay to make any difference, it must be a winning blackjack. If the dealer gets a blackjack too, then it doesn't make any difference.
Once the player has a blackjack, what is the probability that dealer will get one? Well, again, the dealer could get the ace and the 10 in either order thus the two. There will be 95 10-point cards left in the shoe out of 310 cards. After you take out the two player cards, there will be 23 aces left by the time it's the dealer's second card.
Assuming the player has a blackjack, the probability that the dealer gets one as well is 4.56%. It goes down because the player already has an ace and a 10 out of the shoe. The odds are a little bit down due to the effect of removal. The probability that the player has a winning blackjack equals 4.75% x (1 - 4.56%).
In other words, the probability of a player blackjack and times the probability that the dealer does not have a blackjack, so the probability that the player has a winning blackjack is equal to 4.53%.
The math of this is really quite easy
The probability the player has a winning blackjack is 4.53%, which is conveniently one in 21, and the game is called 21. That's easy to remember. Every time the player gets a winning blackjack, if he's playing 3 to 2 blackjack as opposed to 6 to 5, he will win 0.3 times his bet more because (3 / 2) - (6 / 5) = 0.3, as we showed before. 4.53% x 0.3 = 1.36%.
That means...
...f the player plays 6 to 5 blackjack as opposed to 3 to 2, he's giving the casino an extra 1.36% of his bet, probably for nothing. This assumes all other rules being equal.
Okay, I hope that I have convinced you guys not to play 6 to 5 blackjack when given the choice. However, if you're still on the fence, let me throw some more numbers at you.
These are all based on what are normally, otherwise, fairly standard Las Vegas Strip rules. You can find these at most of the MGM / Mirage properties. Dealer hits a soft 17, double after split allowed, player make double on any two cards, surrender is allowed, and resplitting aces is allowed. With correct basic strategy, and a blackjack paying 3 to 2, the house advantage under those rules is a nice low 0.46%.
That is giving the casino less than one in 200 hands.
It's a pretty cheap way to gamble. However, if we just change that blackjack pay from 3 to 2 to 6 to 5, then, as I just showed you, the house advantage goes up by 1.36% to 1.82%, so 0.46% to 1.82%, that is almost four times as high. That's paying four times as much for the same service and product.
Let me tell you what that looks like in terms of your expected losses per hour:
If you are a $5 player, an hour worth of play on average will cost you $1.66 at a 3 to 2 table, and $6.55 at a 6 to 5 table. A $10 player can expect to lose $3.31 per hour at a 3 to 2 table, and $13.10 at a 6 to 5 table. A $25 player can expect to lose $8.28 at a 3 to 2 table, and $32.76 at a 6 to 5 table.
Finally, a $50 player can expect to lose $16.56 at a 3 to 2 table, and $65.52 per hour at a 6 to 5 table.
I hope I've convinced you to stay away from 6 to 5 blackjack wherever you can. Now, I'm sure a lot of you are saying, 'Mike, I'm a low roller. I'm uncomfortable with the limits at the at the 3 to 2 tables.' If that's true, okay, I get it.
You may not really have the choice in that situation, and you may be stuck with 6 to 5, if you must play. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it and the situation is only getting worse.
The casinos here in Las Vegas as well as I think everywhere in the United States, are trying to phase out 3 to 2 blackjack slowly but surely as it's really not very profitable for them.
I don't think I have anything much more to say on this topic. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in my next Wizard of Odds Academy video. Thank you. Bye, guys.
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If I were running Ameristar, I'd consider doing the following: Replace the atrocious 6:5 game with a couple of brand-building 3:2 single-deck games. Market that you have the real thing. It doesn't have to have the best rules: Hit on soft 17, allow doubling only on 10 and 11, and take a 0.35% or so edge. If you keep the tables full, forcing a shuffle after every round, you won't have to worry about anybody beating it. And once in a while, when the game is shorthanded and beatable, don't worry about it: You're investing a couple of dollars at a couple of tables to have the best game in town.
http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2004/12/14/when-competition-hurt-the-game.aspxYes, is has been 10 years ! How is that boycott working out ? ? ?
ZCore13
OLD JOKE : Do you know how to tell when the honeymoon is over ?
Don't say it Bab's darlin' !
It's over the first time you pretend she is somebody else.
All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line 'don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off' and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.
All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line 'don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off' and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.
Ya know, I doubt this is even true.Over on another message board I once referred to people who play 6:5 blackjack as 'idiots' and that was met by a plethora of responses such as 'I play 6:5 blackjack! Am I an idiot?!' Their reasoning was that they like to play $5 games or they 'don't want to walk far to find a 3:2 game.'
6 To 5 Blackjack Payout Chart For Dealers
Even people who know what a bad thing 6:5 is still play it. There is just no curing this disease.
Over on another message board I once referred to people who play 6:5 blackjack as 'idiots' and that was met by a plethora of responses such as 'I play 6:5 blackjack! Am I an idiot?!'
The correct response to this is simply 'Yes, you are an idiot.' If they chime in about walking to find the game ask them this... If the blackjack game at the front door was play $10 a hand, and if you win you win $1 (no matter what), if you lose you lose your $10. Would you walk to the middle of the casino for a normal game now?
I feel like it's still barely reversible if there was any kind of big leverage against 6:5, but there doesn't seem to be any... which is what will probably make the 6:5 takeover unstoppable =/.
All it would take is one celebrity in front of a few million people just dropping the line 'don't play 6:5 blackjack, they're ripping you off' and every ploppy in the world would suddenly hate the game.
They'd still play it for the side bets. The house wouldn't offer the really juicy* sidebets on the 3:2 games.
*14% HE.
How To Play 21+3 Blackjack
WRONG.. Ploppies play for the 5, not the 6. As long as a casino offers 6/5 on the lowest limit tables, ploppies will play. PERIOD.Why don't people understand that ? ? ?
6 To 5 Blackjack
I relocated to Vegas 5 years ago, and my fears just have not been realized here in Vegas during that time. Yes, there was a much talked about change @ Venetian earlier this year to 6-5 at low limit games, but for the most part 6-5 only exists in one area here in Vegas, the strip (mostly Caesar's entertainment properties) low limit games, where players are more interested in drinking and partying than blackjack conditions. Elsewhere in Vegas, where players are a little more educated, blackjack games even at low limits all remain 3-2. And during my time here, I have seen several places even roll back from 6-5 to 3-2, like 'the D' downtown, a few years back when the switched from Fitzgerald's to 'the D'.
As for CSM, these too are regulated to low limit games and at just a handful of properties. There are actually fewer CSM tables now than when I moved here 5 years ago. It is my understanding that these machines must be leased, which is fairly expensive and when you combine that with the downtime and maintenance costs, it just doesn't make sense financially, as the expense outweighs the benefit of less shuffle down time.
In the last month, one property in my regular rotation even added last surrender. :) So at least here in Vegas, and especially if you get off the touristy strip, I just have not seen much movement towards those worse conditions that I feared. Probably the biggest negative has been the movement towards side bets, with many BJ games now comprising of some sort of side bet with a big house edge, which slows the games down considerably for me.
Now, again, I am speaking of only Vegas, I can't speak for other areas. The other jurisdiction that I am somewhat familiar with is PA, having moved from there and still return there twice a year to play and visit friends. As most know, Pa has some of the better rules in the country with S17 and late surrender. Many have thought this would only be temporary and conditions would begin to tighten, and maybe they will, but so far Pa gaming has resisted allowing these changes even though they have been petitioned by different casinos. If they won't even allow casinos to have h17 blackjack, which they recently denied again, then 6-5 seems fairly far off down the road.