What Is the House Edge in Blackjack With Basic Strategy?

Blackjack is a popular casino game with a relatively low house edge. When played with basic strategy, blackjack has one of the Lowest house edges of any casino game.

The house edge is the percentage of each bet that the casino expects to keep over the long run. For example, if the house edge is 5%, then for every $100 you bet, you can expect the casino to keep $5.

The house edge in blackjack comes from the fact that the dealer always has a small advantage over the player. This is because the dealer always goes last.

This means that if both the player and dealer bust, the player will lose their bet while the dealer will not. Additionally, if both the player and dealer have blackjack, the player will only push (tie) while the dealer will win.

There are a few other factors that contribute to the house edge in blackjack. The first is that blackjack pays 3 to 2, rather than even money like most other casino games. This means that if you bet $100 and win, you will only get paid $150 rather than $200.

The second factor is that if you hit on a soft 17 (a hand with an ace that totals 17), most casinos will have the dealer stand rather than hit. This gives the player a small disadvantage.

The house edge in blackjack can be lowered by using basic strategy. Basic strategy is a set of rules that tell you when to hit, stand, double down, etc. based on your hand and the dealer’s upcard. There are many different basic strategy charts available online and in books.

Using basic strategy will lower the house edge to around 0.5% or less depending on the rules of the game and number of decks being used.

In conclusion, blackjack has a relatively low house edge when played with basic strategy. The main reason for this is that the dealer always has a small advantage over the player due to going last and having blackjack pay 3 to 2 instead of even money. Additionally, there are a few other factors that contribute to the house edge such as hitting on a soft 17 and not being able to split certain pairs of cards more than once.

However, all of these factors can be mitigated by using basic strategy which lowers the house edge to around 0.5% or less in most cases.