This means the shoe will be dealt deeper by the time you have to play your last hand of the shoe. In the six-player game, we can expect 38 cards to be dealt after two rounds (2.7 cards per average blackjack hand, times 7.1 average hands/round, times two rounds). The average casino dealer deals 500 to 600 hands per hour. Blackjack tables have room for seven players, while the dealer always receives a hand. This means any given deal has eight hands in it. With eight deals per hand, you can expect to see about 60 to 75 hands per hour, or just over one per minute.
Optimal blackjack bet sizes, including zero when you do not have an edge, are based on mathematics and computer simulations. These are the amounts you would like to bet if you could bet any amounts you want. But of course you cannot bet anything you want — your bet size is subject to constraints. There are minimum and maximum bets. Only certain bet sizes are accepted. If casino employees are scrutinizing you to evaluate your ability, you might impose additional constraints on yourself. On negative counts: If you cannot bet zero, then bet the minimum you can get away with. If you play a spot, that spot gets cards. If you leave that spot blank, the dealer does not give it any cards. Playing one more hand thus uses more cards, and may mean fewer rounds before the shuffle. For example, if enough cards remain for three more head-up rounds of one hand each, you will get only two rounds if you play two hands each round. Which makes more money, three single hands or two double hands? The answer depends on how much you are betting per hand. It also assumes that the dealer will not have to shuffle until at least one subsequent hand. (If this is the last round before the shuffle no matter how many hands you play, then optimally if you have an edge you should spread your money over as many hands as possible.)
Finally, if a player splits a hand containing two aces, they are limited to one card per hand. Deal one card for each hand, facing down as usual, but do not let the player hit on their hand any more. Any split blackjacks should be paid out at 1:1 odds instead of the typical 3:2 bonus payment.
Alone and High Limits
If you are alone at a table, if you have an advantage, if your optimal bet size for one hand is less than the table maximum, and if another round will be dealt after this one, then it does not matter much whether you bet one hand or two, but do not go to three hands. To go to two hands of optimal bets is to bet about 150% as much per round as to play one hand per round. And to add a second hand is to use about 150% as many cards. You will get 2/3 as many rounds before the dealer shuffles, but you will be betting 150% as much per round, so two hands at a time has the same profit potential as one hand per round.
How Many Blackjack Hands Are Dealt Per Hour Per
Adding a third hand and making optimal-sized bets would add 12% to your total bets but would use 33% more cards, and thus result in lower overall profit potential.
If you are the only customer at a table and the dealer has the advantage, your optimal action if you stay is to play one hand at the minimum. To play two minimum bets at a time would be to bet twice as much on each of the two-thirds as many rounds before the shuffle, for 33% more unprofitable action.
Therefore, if you are the only customer at the table, it makes sense to play one hand at a time whether or not you have the advantage. This advice holds if your optimal one-hand bet size is less than the table maximum.
Alone and Low Limit
If you are the only customer at the table and your optimal single-hand bet is more than the table maximum, then your optimal total bet on two simultaneous hands will be more than 150% of the table limit. In this case, you will be better off with two hands per round. You will get two-thirds as many rounds before the shuffle, but you will be betting more than 150% as much per round.
One Other Player and High Limit
If there are other players at the table with you, your adding an extra hand adds a smaller proportion to the total cards used on one round. You would bet 50% more with two optimally-sized bets instead of one, but with one other player you would use only 33% more cards per round. This means you are better off playing two hands if there is another customer at your table and you have an edge.
Do not go to three hands of your own; your third hand would use 25% more cards but your total bets (with optimal bet sizes) would increase by only 12% per round.
More Other Players
With two or more other hands played besides your own, you definitely have a larger expected win rate playing two hands yourself when you have an edge. Increasing to three hands of optimal-sized bets will win you a tiny bit more money but will attract a lot of attention that you may not want.
Another Argument for Fewer Hands
Your optimal bet size changes as your advantage changes, and you would like to estimate your advantage as closely as possible. Playing fewer hands means estimating your advantage more often between shuffles, hence more precisely. For example, suppose you are playing two hands at once, and suppose your first hand is 10-10. Your second hand can be thought of as coming from a pack that is poorer by two 10s than the pack you used to estimate your advantage to select your bet size. Had you known in advance that those two 10s would not be available to your second hand and to the dealer, you would have bet less on your second hand. The existence of this precision factor suggests being hesitant about playing another spot when a few cards could cause big changes in the count per deck.
Summary
Generally, if you are alone with the dealer you are better off playing one hand, and if there are other players you are better off playing two hands when you have an edge.
Excerpted with permission from the e-book version of Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong.
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The following is a glossary of terms used in the card game blackjack. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.[1][2]
8[edit]
- Being told by a casino that you are being removed, generally due to suspected advantage play.
B[edit]
- balanced count
- Any counting system which has an exact balance between plus cards and minus cards. In such a system, if the deck were counted down to the bottom, the resulting sum would be zero.
- blackjack
- 1. A card game in which players attempt to approach 21 but not exceed it
- 2. The best possible hand in the game blackjack, made up of an ace and a card valued at 10 (namely, 10, J, Q, K).
- bust
- Having a total over 21.
- bust card
- The individual card that brings the hand's total over 21.
- basic strategy
- A collection of actions that will offer the best odds off the top of the deck. These actions vary when different rules are applied to the game.
C[edit]
- cut card
- A brightly colored plastic card that serves to mark the point after which the dealer will reshuffle the cards, and used by a player to cut the cards prior to dealing.
D[edit]
- double or double down
- After seeing their hand, a player can Double by placing an additional bet equal to their original bet and subsequently drawing one and only one additional card. This move may only be used on the first two cards.
E[edit]
- even money
- When the dealer shows an ace and the player has a blackjack, the player can opt for even money and is paid immediately at 1:1. This is just a version of insurance, not a different bet. If the dealer has blackjack, the hand is a push, but the player receives two times the value of the insurance, which is the same as the original bet. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the player wins 1.5 times the value of the original bet but loses the value of the insurance, and still ends up with the value of the original bet.
F[edit]
- first base
- The betting spot located to the dealer's left, which is first to receive cards.
- A bonus or automatic win in some games when a hand contains five cards without busting.
H[edit]
- hard hand
- A hand in which there is a chance the player will bust on a hit.
- hit
- To ask for another card. If that extra card makes the total over 21, then the player busts.
- hole card
- A dealer card that is dealt face down and not revealed to players until after they have acted upon their hands.
I[edit]
- insurance
- When the dealer shows an ace, the player can choose to place a side bet of up to half the value of the original bet. If the dealer has blackjack, the bet pays 2:1. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the player loses the wager.
How Many Blackjack Hands Are Dealt Per Hours
N[edit]
- natural
- Receiving a sum of 21 in the first two cards. A blackjack.
P[edit]
- penetration
- A number or fraction that represents how many cards/decks will be dealt before shuffling in contrast to the total number of cards/decks in play. It may be expressed in percentage form or as a fraction where the denominator is always the total number of decks in play such as '4.5/6' or '75% penetration'.
- pitch game
- A blackjack game dealt from the hand of the dealer, normally using 1 or 2 decks
- push
- A tie; the player and dealer have hands with the same total below 22.
S[edit]
- shoe
- A device used to hold multiple decks of cards typically 4, 6 or 8. Cards are dealt one at a time from the shoe.
- shoe game
- A blackjack game which is dealt from a shoe. Shoe games typically use more than 2 decks.
- soft
- A soft hand is a hand that includes an ace valued as 11, as opposed to 1.
- split
- If a player is dealt two cards of the same rank, they can choose to play each of them separately, putting up a bet for each one.
- stand
- To stop asking for more cards.
- stiff
- Any hard hand where the possibility to exceed 21 exists by drawing an additional card namely 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16
- surrender
- To surrender is to abandon your hand, while recovering half of your initial bet.
T[edit]
- third base
- The betting spot located on the dealer's right which is last to act.
How Many Blackjack Hands Are Dealt Per Hour Today
U[edit]
- upcard
- The card that the dealer is showing.
References[edit]
How Many Blackjack Hands Are Dealt Per Hour Chart
- ^Dalton, Michael. 'The Encyclopedia of Casino Twenty-One - Blackjack Review Network'. Blackjack Review Network. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- ^'Glossary of terms'. Retrieved 1 February 2018.