House Edge (advantage)

[kennybenny]

I understands with it comes to roulette that the house have the advantage.

But can somebody tell me how does the house have the edge when it comes to blackjack?

Does it have something to do with their rules (minimum soft 17) and how in a long term run this rule will gave them the edge, but not in the short term run.

Does it have something to do that this rule give a pressure on the player to hit knowing that the dealer must hit a soft 17, causing the player to bust more often?

[ihate17]

Blackjack could pay even money and you could not double or split and the game would be even or very close to it.

The rule, by far the most important rule in blackjack.
If you bust and the dealer busts, you LOSE!

Forget H17 or S17, forget everything else, this is the rule that causes the casino to pay 3/2, allow S-17, doubling, spliting and anything else we consider favorable.

ihate17

[callipygian]

Originally Posted by kennybenny

But can somebody tell me how does the house have the edge when it comes to blackjack?

If the player busts and the house busts, the house still wins. That is a huge advantage and if the player were to play like the house, would be somewhere around 10%.

The player can almost negate that deficit with basic strategy - standing versus dealer stiffs will cut that advantage down by quite a bit. The player can also double and split good hands, narrowing down the advantage even more. Player blackjacks pay 3:2, which knock down the advantage to less than 1%. Finally, in some cases, the player can surrender the horrendous hands, knocking down the house advantage to 0.5% in most cases.

Learning basic strategy is fundamental to playing blackjack.