Online Single Deck Blackjack – Advantages and Disadvantages

Single Deck Blackjack, since it offers players one of THE best possible opportunities to win, has been viewed for a long time as a bit of a holy grail in the world of casino gaming.

The out and out fact that it offers the house a much lower edge (at just 0.15%) than most other games do, means that players who stick to Single Deck Blackjack games are at an advantage.

Yes, there are reasons to get excited and some fair reasons to believe that Single Deck Blackjack is the best thing ever…

But, you will find that there are also a few disadvantages to look out for as well.

Read one to find out more about this intriguing and exciting game!

Single Deck Blackjack – The Main Advantages

One of the first and most obvious advantages to playing Single Deck Blackjack is, as mentioned in brief above, that you will be getting the lowest possible house edge.

Indeed, with the house edge on this variation of the game sitting at only a measly 0.15%, you are in fact very nearly on a level playing field with the casino, something which is both rare and potentially highly profitable.

If you want to really take full advantage of the low casino edge though, you must, of course, still make sure that you know some good basic blackjack strategy before you start to play.

If you don’t take the time out to familiarise yourself with this strategy, then it really won’t matter how many decks you’re dealing with, as you will always be at a disadvantage.

If you do this take the time to learn however, then your chances of making a profitable win can appear as simple as making a coin flip.

Another big advantage of Single Deck Blackjack comes for card counters.

As, overall these days, card counters have to deal with either six or eight deck shoes, playing Single Deck Blackjack means that they have a lot less time to wait before getting favourable counts.

This means that they get to make a big bet much sooner.

Single Deck Blackjack – The Disadvantages

Taking into account what we’ve already said, it would be easy to think that there aren’t any disadvantages to playing Single Deck Blackjack, but sadly there are some pitfalls to keep an eye out for.

The main issue with this game, is that a lot of casinos try to compensate for their low house edge by creating extra rules, which are unfavourable for players.

When they do this, it can mean that the house edge ends up being a fair chunk higher than you’d see with the six or eight deck blackjack games.

Indeed, in the worst-case scenario, casinos will bring the house edge way up from 0.15% to 1.45% by only making blackjack payouts of 6:5 instead of payouts of 3:2.

When this is the case it doesn’t seem worth the effort of searching for single deck games in the first place.

Casinos may even add other unfavourable rules to their versions of single deck games, so keep an eye out for this possibility too.

You’re also unlikely to earn many comp points with this version of the blackjack game, as the casinos who don’t radically change their rules to suit them are unlikely to be generous, when they won’t make much money off you in the long-term if you’re playing Single Deck Blackjack.

Single Deck Blackjack Strategy and The Rules

At this very moment, there is someone, somewhere in the world, who is already playing blackjack like a total champion!

Apart from the ever-popular game of Poker, Blackjack has the next largest number of professional players.

And, despite them being fairly commonplace at casinos world wide, watching true blackjack playing connoisseurs, with their controlled confidence, whilst they’re making all the right moves, is nothing short of spellbinding.

When you are lucky enough to be able to watch one of these players at work, it is easy to presume that they’re natural born players, and however impressed you are it can at times feel a little daunting to new players.

It is important however to remember, that every single one of them also started from scratch and took time to learn about and reach that level of play.

So, if you’re a newbie to the noble game of 21 then have no fear, as you’ve an exciting journey ahead.

The first step of this journey is learning the rules.

Single Deck Blackjack Rules

As the name suggests ‘’Single Deck Blackjack’’ is indeed played with one single deck of cards, which is shuffled after each and every round.

It begins before the cards are dealt, which is the point when you have to place your bet.

Different casino’s will allow you to bet between differing amounts.

Once you’ve placed your bet you will be dealt a face-up two-card hand.

The dealer will also deal themselves out a two-card hand, which will consist of one face-up and one face-down card.

Your hand’s value will be shown beside your bet, but in order to help you learn card values, it is worth noting the following:

• All Aces are worth a value of either 1 or 11
• All Twos to Nines all have their face value
• Where as Tens, Jacks, Queens AND Kings are all worth 10 points each

The aim of the game is to get a higher score than the dealer’s, but without going over 21.

Getting over 21 instantly results in a bust, and this is the case for both you and the dealer.

So, if the dealer busts, you win that round of the game.

If, however, the dealer and you both have the same score at the end of the round, then it becomes a ‘Push’, and your bet is returned.

• By choosing to Hit and get another card you can improve your score.
• Or, you could choose to Stand with your current hand and to face off with the dealer.
• If your odds of winning are high, you may want to Double Down. Double your wager (which gives you double the payout) and get one more card.

In some particular circumstances, you can also choose to do the following:

• Split– To Split your hand your original hand must have two cards which are of an equal value. When you pick this option, you choose to take each card and instead of having just the one original hand you create two individual hands out of them. You have the ability to split up to two hands when playing Single Deck Blackjack. Note here though that when splitting Aces, your hands receive only one extra card.
• Insurance – For half of the cost of your wager you can buy Insurance. This becomes an option to you when the dealer’s visible card is an Ace. At this point there’s about a 33% chance that he has blackjack. If the dealer does get a blackjack, which consists of an Ace and a 10-value card making the perfect score of 21, then your Insurance bet will pay 2:1.

Single Deck Blackjack – Payouts

The insurance bet pays out 2:1, as you now know but what about the other payouts?

The best payout you can get in Traditional Blackjack is 3:2 and that is for being dealt an Ace and a 10-value card in your initial two-card hand. This is a Blackjack. Any other win results in a standard even-money payout.

Live Online Single Deck Blackjack

It is not fun to have to disappoint, but we feel it is important to inform you that you are highly unlikely to find any online casinos which offer players a Live Online Single Deck Blackjack gaming option.

We can’t say exactly why this is, but our best guess would be that it would take the dealers too long to shuffle the deck after every hand played, and since they want to squeeze in as many hands as possible during an hour of play, they prefer the multi-hand blackjack option instead.

Although it’s very sad that you won’t find any live online casino offering single deck blackjack games, you might find comfort in the fact that you will still be able to play 6 deck blackjack and 8 deck blackjack at just about any of the other live dealer casinos out there.

Will We Ever See Live Online Blackjack with a Single Deck?

Well that’s anyone’s guess really.

Our view is that, although it would be nice, live dealer single deck blackjack tables aren’t really that necessary. After all they would be way too slow, leaving the tables empty whilst everyone else flocks to the faster paced multi-hand blackjack tables.

We feel that it would be much more beneficial for players if online casinos spent their time on improving the quality of the live streams and implementing good comp systems, for loyal players, like all the major Las Vegas casinos are doing.

Single Deck Blackjack – Card Counting

If the time issue isn’t enough to scare off the live dealer casinos from attempting to implement single deck blackjack games, then the issue of single deck blackjack counting at the live dealer blackjack tables surely will.

In fact, we’re pretty certain that it has given them plenty to think about and is sure to have had a hand in their reluctance to launch this game.

Having a live online casino with blackjack tables is very different from a land-based casino.

A Vegas casino like the Wynn will be able to watch your every move thanks to their ‘eye in the sky’, while live dealer casinos don’t have any way of telling what you are up to while playing at their blackjack tables.

When playing live online blackjack it is easy to sit with a blackjack strategy chart in front of you, and to at the same time write down all the cards on a piece of paper.

This makes card counting very simple, even if you don’t have any particular card counting skills, and as such makes it much easier to turn the house edge to your advantage.

With a single deck blackjack table and this obvious advantage, the skilled players could potentially bust just about every live online casino out there within a month.

So, it’s fair to presume, that this is probably one of the main reasons that we won’t see any single deck blackjack tables on offer at any of the live dealer online casinos for the foreseeable future.

Summary

To summarise, Single Deck Blackjack has indeed got the lowest house edge of all casino games, and that is taking into count both luck and skill, so it gives casino fans some great opportunities to win money.

Players must remember however to learn the rules and to understand and use the proper blackjack strategy in order to keep the house’s edge to the minimum.

If you don’t do this then it won’t matter whether you play blackjack with one deck or many decks, as you will already be at a big disadvantage.

It’s also important to make sure that you choose a Single Deck Blackjack game which has favourable rules, as this can be a pitfall for the more unobservant of players.

It is best, for example, to avoid the games that pay 6 to 5 for blackjack and stick to Single Deck Blackjack games which pay the proper 3 to 2.

As long as you learn your stuff and follow these simple guidelines, then we’re sure that Single Deck Blackjack games can be both as excitement inducing as your favourite childhood sweetshop and potentially quite lucrative too!

Good luck and happy playing!