A single deck of cards is available in a traditional blackjack game, and a single deck has fifty-two cards. These fifty-two cards from a single deck come with a less than one percent edge that keeps players happy. However, these are all before the era of players learning better game tricks like card counting, making playing a single deck blackjack a loss for most casinos.
We have multiple decks for blackjack with very strict house rules for players. The game has only become more complicated since the inception of the multiple deck system. However, here’s an exposition into better understanding decks in blackjack games.
Explaining the Fifty-Two Cards in a Deck
What declares a player a winner is their ability to achieve a twenty-one hand. The cards a player holds determine the hand value of the player. In this regard, all fifty-two cards come with different values. We have the aces, which can be worth one or eleven depending on the game you are playing.
The queen, king, and jack cards are called the face cards, and they all have a value of ten. However, since the blackjack game is about reaching the cumulative twenty-one, the face cards and the aces have the highest hand values.
Since casinos use a single deck card, you should be expecting about six or eight cards, which may add up to about four hundred and sixteen cards, with ninety-six face cards. These cards are shuffled well and reshuffled at intervals to prevent tricks such as card counting. Sadly, the higher the card decks in a casino, the higher the house edge and the smaller the winnings are too.
Deck System in an Online Casino
Unlike most land-based casinos, online casinos still offer single-deck cards with impressive odds. However, they have programs that automatically shuffle the cards after each hand has been dealt to prevent unwanted tricks. Multiple deck blackjack is also available in most online casinos. For instance, the online casino JustSpin also offers a multiple deck system with a higher house edge but better winnings to rack in.
There are other options, such as live dealer blackjack games, where players feel as if they are present in a real-life casino. The same game rules that are permitted in a land-based casino are also used in live games. As a result, the shoe penetration remained at 50% and changed after four decks were dealt. It is also common to find between six and eight decks used in these live dealer blackjack games.
Making the Most of the Decks
Regardless of the number of decks used in a game you want to play, the most important thing is to retain a winning hand value of twenty-one. Players get to draw cards multiple times, and they only stop drawing when a certain value has been accumulated in their hands. If you are not a big fan of multiple-deck games, you can quickly learn to use the decks to wrap up having a winning hand value.
The trick here is simple. Keep drawing cards until you arrive at a total hand value of seventeen, especially when the dealer’s up cards have great values of seven and upwards. However, if the dealer’s up cards are rather poor, anything below the value of seven, you should stop drawing as soon as you have a hand value of twelve.
While getting high hand value can easily do all of these with a single card deck and using card counting skills to ensure winning, it is more complicated when multiple decks are played by many. This is why using the up cards to determine when you should stop drawing seems to be a great skill to work with when playing multiple decks.
Also, it is easier to use the splitting tactics with the multiple deck system. One of the basic strategies is never to split identical cards into tens. However, when playing a variant of blackjack where aces are less than ten, you should always split a pair of aces. Furthermore, a pair of cards with eight values should also be split.
Final Thoughts
Multiple cards offer you a better chance of winning and seem more interesting to play. However, it is also important to know that the pair that may pop into your hands must not be splat. Perfect pairs, which should never be splat, include a pair of cards having five values each since they have the value of ten.
Also, a pair of cards valued at four each should not be split. This makes a sum of eight, which is a great number to draw from. A pair of cards with six values should only be split if the dealer’s card is poor.
