Hitting soft 17 increases the house edge by about two-tenths of a percent.<\/p>\n
**Player may double down on any first two cards vs. player may double down only on specific hands:<\/p>\n
Its best for players to have more options as long as the players take their time to learn basic strategy and know how to use the options.<\/p>\n
Restricting doubles to hard totals of 9, 10 or 11, increases the house edge by about a tenth of a percent, or about two-tenths if theyre restricted to hard 10 or 11.<\/p>\n
**Double down after splitting pairs: If the casino doesnt allow you to double after splits, it increases the house edge by .14 percent..<\/p>\n
**Players may split pairs, once, twice or three times: If youre allowed to split up to three times for a total of four hands, great. The house edge rises by .01 percent if you can split only twice or .1 percent if you can split only once.<\/p>\n
How did Jim take it?<\/p>\n
He was doubtful, Bob said. So I used one of your favorite, the house edge calculator at wizardofodds.com.<\/p>\n
I defined one game as single deck, dealer hits soft 17, you can double down only on hard 10 or 11, no double after splits, and split pairs only once. I think most online games are continuous shuffle, right? So the house edge with basic strategy is .48 percent.<\/p>\n
Then I plugged in six decks, stand on all 17s, double on any first two including after splits, split three times, and the edge came up as .41 percent.<\/p>\n
Did the lower edge on the six-deck game convince Jim?<\/p>\n
Maybe not, but it at least raised some doubts. And I did my duty.<\/p>\n
Look for John Grochowski<\/p>\n
on Facebook and Twitter<\/p>\n
(@GrochowskiJ).<\/p>\n
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Blackjack Bob is ready for some 21 talk | Gaming Guru | atlanticcityweekly.com - Atlantic City Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hitting soft 17 increases the house edge by about two-tenths of a percent. **Player may double down on any first two cards vs. Continue reading