House Edge Definition. The house edge is another concept which deserves mentioning when it comes to blackjack odds. It is basically the built-in advantage all casinos have over the players and it is the reason why they are always guaranteed a profit over long periods of time. Video Blackjack in Las Vegas. Vegas video blackjack was once a great way to get favorable rules for lower limits. Those days are over in Las Vegas. Most video blackjack machines pay 6-5 and you won't find much better odds around town. The exceptions are at The D and Venetian, where you can still find video blackjack games that pay 3-2.
If you're a devoted low-roller gambler like me, you might be thinking about switching from live blackjack to video blackjack. After all, the minimum bet per hand on a video blackjack game is often as low as a dollar. Most casinos in Las Vegas have at least a $15 minimum on their blackjack tables, although it isn't hard to find some smaller casinos offering the game for $5 per hand. (And you can find some low-rent casinos offering $1 or $3 minimums. That's harder, though.)
But is it worth it to make the switch?
This post looks at the pros and cons of video blackjack as compared to live blackjack. It even includes some observations about online blackjack, which is almost always similar to video blackjack in terms of game-play, but similar to live blackjack in terms of rules.
Lower Minimum Bets per Hand – Video Blackjack
I already pointed out that you can play for as little as a dollar per hand on video blackjack games. That's hard to find in live games, but it's not impossible.
The Downtown Grand in Las Vegas sometimes offers $3/hand blackjack, which is still triple the minimum at most video blackjack games. It's still worth mentioning. Jerry's Nugget also sometimes has $3 games.
The Lucky Club offers $1 blackjack. It's the only casino in Las Vegas with games at this low a limit. They're not conveniently located to much, though—the Lucky Club is located right off I-15.
Since blackjack is a negative expectation game for most people, playing for lower limits should reduce the mathematically expected loss per hour.
But as you'll see later in this post, it's not the only factor determining how much you're expected to lose per hour. Some of these other factors are arguably more important.
In terms of finding the lowest-limit blackjack games, though, video blackjack has a clear advantage over live blackjack.
Better Rules and a Lower House Edge – Live Blackjack
The house edge at blackjack is determined largely by what rules variations are in place. And live blackjack offers one huge advantage over video blackjack in terms of the rules:
A blackjack pays off at 3 to 2 in most live blackjack games. Free casino games vegas world.
But video blackjack usually only pays off at even money.
This gives the house an additional edge of 2.29%.
2.29% sounds like a small percentage, but when you apply it on average to every bet you make on average over time, it adds up faster than you can imagine.
Let's compare the average hourly loss rate at 2 games with only 2 differences:
- The video blackjack game has a minimum bet of $1; the live blackjack game has a minimum bet of $5.
- The video blackjack game has a house edge of 3.29%; the live blackjack has a house edge of 1%.
Oh, there's one other difference. I should discuss it in the next section:
Faster Rate of Play – Video Blackjack
One of the biggest factors affecting how much you can expect to lose playing a casino game is how many bets you're making per hour. You multiply the bets per hour by the size of your bet to get the total amount of money you're putting into action each hour.
At a live blackjack table, the number of hands you play per hour vary based on how many people are at the table with you. Most of the time, you won't be playing heads-up versus the dealer.
For purposes of comparisons, I'll assume that most of the time you're at a blackjack table with 2 other players. You'll see 105 hands per hour at such a table.
But when you're playing video blackjack, it's just you and the machine. You'll see at least twice as many hands per hour playing video blackjack. I'll just call that 200 hands per hour.
So when you're calculating your expected loss per hour, you're going to multiply your average bet per hand by the number of hands per hour. You'll then multiply that by the house edge.
On the video blackjack game, that's $1 per hand X 200 hands per hour X 3.37%, or $6.74 per hour in expected losses.
In the live blackjack game, that's $5 per hand X 105 hands per X 1%, or $5.25 per hour in expected losses.
Even though you're betting 5 times as much per hand playing live blackjack, your expected hourly loss is still lower playing the live blackjack game.
Of course, these numbers assume you're playing with perfect basic strategy. Jungle jewels free. You can read elsewhere on this site about how to do that, or you can just buy one of the little laminated basic strategy cards in the casino gift shop.
Counting Cards and Other Advantage Techniques – Live Blackjack
One thing you absolutely cannot do when playing video blackjack is use any advantage techniques like counting cards. These only work in live blackjack games. Here's why:
When you're counting cards, you're keeping a rough estimate of how many high cards and low cards have come out of the deck and how many of each are left in the deck. When the deck has a proportionally higher number of 10s and aces in it, you raise the size of your bets. After all, you're more likely to be dealt a blackjack and get that 3 to 2 payout for it.
Video blackjack eliminates this possibility in 2 ways:
- You don't get an increased payout for a blackjack, which eliminates any advantage you might have gotten from counting.
- The game 'shuffles' the deck after every hand, which means that any count you'd kept would be irrelevant as soon as the beginning of the next hand.
This isn't a big deal for the average blackjack player, who isn't counting cards anyway. But it's impossible to provide an exhaustive treatment of video blackjack versus live blackjack without examining this aspect of the game, too.
Online Blackjack Is Different Altogether, Usually
Online blackjack games are, for the most part, video blackjack games with more generous rules than video blackjack games in the casino. Most of the time, they offer the same kinds of rules variations you'd find in various land-based casinos.
Most online casinos offer several variations, but usually only one of those variations will have the lowest possible house edge. But these rules will almost always include the 3 to 2 payout for the blackjack, which is the most significant rules difference between video blackjack and live blackjack.
You can plug the rules variations available into various websites' house edge calculators for blackjack to figure out which variation at the online casino in question offers the lowest house edge. That's the variation you should stick with whenever you play at that casino.
But not all online blackjack games are video blackjack games. One of the more popular offerings at a lot of online casinos in the current marketplace are live dealer blackjack games where the action is conducted by real dealers, real decks of cards, and webcams.
It doesn't matter if you're playing video blackjack or live dealer blackjack online, though. You'll still need to use perfect basic strategy to get the lowest possible house edge.
You'll also still be unable to count cards, even in the live dealer games. That's because they use automated shuffling machines which start the deck over with the start of every new hand—which is exactly what happens in video blackjack, too.
Conclusion
Which game should you play? Kamelot the demon hunter mac os.
I recommend sticking with live blackjack games, even if you're a committed low roller. You might have to bet $5 per hand instead of $1 per hand, but the lower house edge and slower pace of the game means you'll lose less money per hour than you'd lose playing video blackjack.
No matter which version you play, you should memorize and use basic strategy. There's never an advantage to making playing decisions that aren't mathematically optimal. And basic strategy isn't that hard to learn anyway.
Also, when it comes to video blackjack and any variation of online blackjack, forget all about trying to count cards. That's an advantage technique you can use with real live blackjack in brick and mortar casinos, but as far as I know, there's not a single online casino where that's a possibility.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.There are some players out there that refuse to play a video blackjack game. Some feel that they know they are getting a fair game if they play with cards. The video blackjack games available in Nevada are the same machines that can be found across the world. These video blackjack machines are legitimate in their deal. In some cases it is better to play on these video blackjack games as opposed to the live tables. There are several reasons for this.
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Lower Minimums
Video blackjacks machines will often have a lower minimum bet than the table games. Some video blackjack games will have a minimum bet of as little as $1. At higher-end casinos, the minimum bet may be as high as $5. Whatever the minimum bet is it is going to be lower than the minimum bet at the table games.
Better Rules
In many instances, the video blackjack game will have better rules than any live blackjack game that can be found in the same casino. There is a video blackjack game that has shown up in Las Vegas that stays on all 17's, offers surrender, double after the split and split up to 3 hands. These are better rules than any table game offered in several casinos. In fact, it is rare to find tables that stay on all 17's anymore. When the dealer stays on all 17's it decreases the house advantage by .22%.
Better Comps
Comps are the free perks casinos give to their high rollers. If you only plan on playing a few dollars a hand then there is no reason to play the live blackjack tables. Some casinos will not rate you if you play under $25. Those that will rate you will give you very little in the way of comps. Konami slot machine. On the other hand, if you play on a video blackjack machine, you will get rated for every bet regardless of how small it is. You will typically be graded as a higher player when you play video blackjack than if you play the live tables if you are not going to average a $25 bet. There will also be some promotions that only apply to slot machines. Typically video blackjack machines will count as a slot machine. If a casino has a slot points race, has a point multiplier day, or gives you free slot play, the video blackjack machines will usually qualify for these promotions. It is very easy to earn points on these machines. Cashback can also be earned on video blackjack machines where table games usually do not give players cashback.
No Dealers
I am certainly not knocking dealers. They have a tough job and I respect them. From a player's point of view though, I would rather play the video blackjack games. This is because there are no mistakes in dealing on these machines. You never have to worry about the hand being declared a misdeal or not getting paid correctly. Some dealers also hate their jobs and it is obvious. They can bring the whole aura of the environment down. You also do not have to worry about tipping the blackjack machine. Video blackjack games are also faster than most dealers can deal, especially if the dealers have to hand shuffle.
Advantages to Playing Live Blackjack
While I prefer video blackjack, there are certainly advantages to playing live. If you would like good drink service, you will get served more drinks in the table games pit than you will in the slot area where video blackjack games usually are located. If you are going to average $25 or more a bet then you will get noticed in the pit and you are likely to get better comps. If you are going to count cards it will be much easier to do so at the table games. It is impossible to count cards on some blackjack machines. A full table game of blackjack will likely be faster than a video blackjack game because novice players are more likely to be on the machines. If a player is being slow at a table the dealer will remind them that it is their turn, where on a video blackjack machine it may not. If smoke bothers you then table games might be best for you too. Casinos will often make a table smoke free upon request. That cannot be done in the slot area. Table blackjack games also tend to be more social than video blackjack machines. Play slots for fun online.
Bad Video Blackjack Machines
The machines that can be played advantageously are multi-seat machines where blackjack pays 3 to 2. Some video poker machines such as Game Kings and Game Makers have a heads up blackjack game on them. These are terrible blackjack games. These games typically pay even money on blackjack. They typically do not allow doubling after the split either. Some of these machines do not allow doubling at all. It is best to avoid these games. Some multi-seat games are single deck games that pay 6 to 5 on blackjack. Avoid these single deck machines as well.
There are advantages to playing both live and video blackjack. Each player has their own goal as to what they would like to get out of a blackjack game. While I lean towards video blackjack, some players still cannot get used to the idea of playing a table game on a machine. Blackjack can be fun whether it is a video blackjack game or a live blackjack game; it is up to the player to decide which they enjoy more.
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