1. Blackjack Apprenticeship Deviations Chart
2. Blackjack Apprenticeship Playing Deviations
3. Blackjack Apprenticeship Deviations

This is our first blackjack game and trainer and I'm proud to finally add our version 2 with enhanced graphics and the ability to learn how to count cards to my website. The game is mostly self-explanatory. If you make an inferior play, the game will warn you first. I recommend that before you play for real money both online in person that you practice on the game until you very rarely are warned you a making an inferior play. If doubling or splitting is mathematically the correct play, but you don't have enough chips, the game will give the best advice for what you can afford to do. Do not change rules mid-hand. If you do, the change will not take effect until the next hand. The advice is based on my own analysis and basic strategy tables for one, two, and four+ decks. The deck(s) is(are) shuffled after every hand.

Blackjack - HiLo Basic Strategy and Deviations. HiLo Four Deck H17 Indices along with basic strategy for both 6D and 2D. When blackjack deviations concern how one bets at the blackjack table, these are known as betting deviations. Sometimes a change to the betting scheme can be a simple aspect of money management. Knowing how to properly use a betting bankroll is very important if one decides to make blackjack a serious endeavor.

If you find any bugs, please contact me. A screenshot would be appreciated if you claim the game is misplaying a hand. I get a lot of incorrect reports that the advice given is incorrect. This usually can be explained by the user not using the correct basic strategy for the rules selected. I have also had many comments about the advice on a player 16, composed of 3 or more cards, against a 10. As a rule of thumb, the player should stand in that situation. However, that is a basic strategy exception. The game only knows basic strategy. Also, please note that it is a standard blackjack rule that split aces get one card each. If one of them is a ten, it is not a blackjack, it is just 21 points. That is how blackjack is usually played.

I would like to thank JB for his outstanding work on this game, and Dingo Systems for the cards.

Blackjack Apprenticeship Deviations Chart

Online Blackjack Bonuses

We constantly maintain a database of all the casino bonuses from the hundreds of online casinos we have reviewed, and we note which bonuses allow blackjack to count towards the wagering requirements. The below table shows a ranked list of the best money online blackjack bonuses, the ranking also takes into consideration wagering requirements, bonus amount offered, the quality of the site and more.

Rank	Casino Name	Bonus	%	Wager	Cash	Code	Casino Name	Bonus info
1	King Billy Casino	🧙	$100	200%	1000xB
King Billy Casino	Bonus	🧙$100
	%	200%
	Wager	1000xB
	Code
	2	Sloto'Cash Casino	🧙	$33	-	LCB33
Sloto'Cash Casino	Bonus	🧙$33
	%
	Wager	-
	Code	LCB33
	3	Win A Day Casino	🧙	$68	-	FREE68LCBN
Win A Day Casino	Bonus	🧙$68
	%
	Wager	-
	Code	FREE68LCBN
	4	Las Vegas USA Casino	🧙	$11000	100%	90xB&D	WIZARDBONUS
Las Vegas USA Casino	Bonus	🧙$11000
	%	100%
	Wager	90xB&D
	Code	WIZARDBONUS
	5	Old Havana Casino	🧙	$11000	100%	90xB&D	WIZARDBONUS
Old Havana Casino	Bonus	🧙$11000
	%	100%
	Wager	90xB&D
	Code	WIZARDBONUS

Blackjack Online FAQ

Q1: What are the rules in online blackjack games?

A: As in land casinos, they vary. Online help files are notoriously badly written and incomplete. The Wizard of Odds, we try hard to keep an accurate listing of rules for every brand of software and live dealers. You may find such rules, for every game, in our Software Review section.

Q2: Generally speaking, are the rules better in land or online casinos?

A: All things considered, I would say they are better online. For one thing, you almost never see a blackjack (ace and 10) pay 6 to 5 only online, while this is becoming the norm in land casinos in the United States.

Q3: What are the typical rules at live dealer casinos online?

A: Live dealer rules are very similar to what you would see in a land casino. The typical rules are:

• Eight decks
• Dealer stands on soft 17
• Dealer does NOT peek for blackjack
• No surrender
• Player may double on any two cards
• Player may double after a split
• No re-splitting

Be careful double or splitting if the dealer has a ten or ace showing. At most live dealer brands, you will lose everything if the dealer gets a blackjack. Under this 'no peek' rule, the only time you should put more money out on the table against a potential dealer blackjack is to split two aces against a dealer 10.

The house edge under the rules above is 0.61%.

Q4: When are the cards shuffled in online blackjack?

A: In a fully electronic game, they are probably shuffled after every hand. In a live dealer game, they are usually shuffled about half way through the shoe.

Q5: Oh really?! Even with only 50% penetration, what is to prevent me from counting cards against a live dealer?

A: I've asked this question of some people in the business. Nobody would tell me exactly how they protect their game against counters, but they assured me that they do. If I ran a live dealer casino, I would run a test of every player to see how their bet size is correlated to the true count. Then I would carefully examine the play of such players with a strong correlation.

Q6: How do 'probably fair' casinos accomplish so-called in blackjack?

A: It is rather involved, but here is typically how it is done:

1. The casino will generate a random long string of characters, called a Server Seed, hash it, and give the hashed result to the player BEFORE he makes a bet.
2. The player chooses a string of characters himself, called the Client Seed, or accepts a random default provided by the casino.
3. The client and server seed are combined and hashed.
4. The hashed result from step 3 will be parsed somehow, with the hexadecimal characters converted to base 10 and then mapped to specific cards if in a desired range.
5. The game will deal cards according to their order in the hash from step 3. This hash should be long enough that running out of cards would be almost impossible.
6. After the hand, the casino should reveal the Client Seed, which the player may verify hashes to the result provided before the bet. It is then a tedious process above to do all the math to convert the hash to actual cards, but the player may do that if he wishes.

I go into this in greater depth for a particular brand in my page on Blackjack (Encrypted Version).

Q7: I don't want to bother jumping through all those hoops to verify fairness in an encrypted game. Do you think that just the ability to verify fairness is enough to keep the casinos honest?

A: No. Encrypted or not, a casino could cheat the player in any game, except sports betting, any time they wished. In the case of an encrypted casino, the operator could choose a Server Seed that causes the player to lose after the bet is made. If the player catches them in a hash mismatch, which I think very few players bother to check, the casino can simply ignore the accusation or deny it without comment. This is exactly what happened to me at Wixiplay.

Q8: Your story aside, how common is cheating at blackjack, or any game, online?

A: In my opinion, it is quite rare.

Q9: How can I improve my odds of not being cheated?

A: There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Internet casinos out there. In the absence of any serious government regulation, the industry has done a pretty good job of regulating itself. Between legitimate watchdog affiliate sites and some common sense, here are some ways to choose a reputable brand to trust with your hard-earned dollar:

• Read the fine print. Most casinos have a good looking main page, but dig around the more obscure pages like terms & conditions. If you see a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes, that should set off a red flag.
• Ping customer support. If you can't think of your own question, ask anything, for example, 'Do you accept players from Kyrgyzstan?' See how long it takes for them to reply and measure their professionalism and courtesy of their reply.
• Check reputable affiliate sites. Many affiliate sites promote whoever pays the most, but the good ones are picky about who they promote and will intervene in the unlikely event of a player dispute. We would like to think of ourselves as one of the good ones. A good way to avoid the worst of casinos is to check the blacklists of reputable affiliates.
• Smart small. Players should always bet in moderation anywhere, but especially when opening a new account online with an unfamiliar brand. Dink around with a small deposit and small bets until you have built up some trust.

Q10: Any other words of advice before playing blackjack online?

A: Whether playing online or in a land casino, use the appropriate basic strategy for the rules offered. The Wizard of Odds blackjack strategy calculator will give the correct basic strategy for almost any set of rules.
A much greater problem than outright cheating is online casinos faulting players on a technicality in the rules and seizing whatever funds they deem appropriate. This is a particularly a problem with bonuses. The terms and conditions for bonuses can be pages long and very restrictive in terms of allowed games, bet sizes, and types of bets. If the player loses, nobody ever checks, but after a win and withdrawal request, suddenly the play may be subject to careful review for compliance. Never assume that because you were invited to play a bonus via Email that you're eligible for it. Casinos typically blast everybody in their list. An easy rule to overlook is when a bonus is eligible for 'new money' only. Don't expect the casino to enforce this rule when entering a couple code, but do expect it when you actually make a withdrawal and they look for any reason to deny it.
While bonuses can make your money last much longer and increase your chances of winning, they are a minefield in terms of compliance. Read the rules carefully. If in doubt the way you play is compliant, then don't ask for the bonus in the first place.

Blackjack Apprenticeship Playing Deviations

• Appendices
• Miscellaneous
• External Links

Introduction

Rule variations will have an effect on the player's expected return. The numbers below show the effect on the player's return under various rules and after taking into consideration proper basic strategy adjustments. These changes are relative to the following rules: eight decks, dealer stands on soft 17, player may double on anyfirst two cards, player can double after splitting, playermay split to 4 hands.

Blackjack Apprenticeship Deviations

Blackjack Rule Variations

Rule	Effect
Blackjacks pay 2 to 1	+2.27%
Triple down on any two cards	+1.64%
Five cardCharlie1	+1.46%
Optional half win for 5-card Charlie9	+0.77%
Suited blackjacks pay 2 to 1	+0.57%
Player 21-points is automatic winner	+0.54%
Single deck	+0.48%
Early surrender against ace	+0.39%
Player 21 vs. dealer blackjack is a push	+0.35%
5-card win pays 3-2	+0.33%
Blackjack tie pays 3 to 2	+0.32%
Six-card Charlie pays 3 to 2	+0.31%
Early surrender against ten	+0.24%
5-card (or more) 21 automatically pays 2 to 1	+0.24%
Player may double on any number of cards	+0.23%
Ace and 10 after splitting aces is a blackjack (paying 3-2)	+0.21%
Player may draw to split aces	+0.19%
Double deck	+0.19%
Six card Charlie1	+0.16%
Player may double, double for less, or stand after splitting aces	+0.15%
Tied blackjack pays 1-2	+0.11%
Ace and 10 after splitting aces is a blackjack (paying 6-5)	+0.11%
Double Down Rescue	+0.10%
6-card win pays 2-1	+0.09%
Player may resplit aces	+0.08%
Player may double or stand after splitting aces	+0.08%
Late surrender against ten	+0.07%
Four decks	+0.06%
7-card win pays 5-1	+0.05%
777 pays 3 to 1 automatically	+0.05%
Five decks	+0.03%
777 pays 2 to 1 automatically	+0.03%
Six decks	+0.02%
Seven card Charlie1	+0.01%
Late surrender against ace	+0.00%
Dealer must stop with six cards	+0.00%
Late surrender after splitting	+0.00%
Split to only 3 hands	-0.01%
No-peek: ace showing2	-0.01%
BB+13	-0.01%
Dealer secretly goes first5	-0.02%
OBBO4	-0.03%
European no hole card (splitting)7	-0.03%
European no hole card (doubling)7	-0.08%
Player may double on 9-11 only	-0.09%
No-peek: ten showing6	-0.10%
Player may not resplit	-0.10%
European no hole card7	-0.11%
Player may not double after splitting	-0.14%
Player may double on 10,11 only	-0.18%
Player may not split aces	-0.18%
Dealer hits on soft 17	-0.22%
Blackkjack pays 7-5	-0.45%
Player may not split	-0.57%
Red blackjack pays 2-1, Black blackjack pays 3-2, Mixed blackjack pays 1-1	-0.57%
Blackjack pays 6-5	-1.39%
Player may not double	-1.48%
Player loses 17 ties	-1.87%
Player may not double nor split	-1.91%
Blackjacks pay 1 to 1	-2.27%
Player loses 17,18 ties	-3.58%
Player loses 17-19 ties	-5.30%
Dealer bust on 22 is a push8	-6.91%
Player loses 17-20 ties	-8.38%
Player loses 17-21 ties	-8.86%

Notes

1. A 'Charlie' is an automatic winner. For example the five-card Charlie rule means the player automatically wins with 5 cards, as long as he didn't bust.
2. Dealer does not peek for blackjack with an ace up. If dealer has a ace-up blackjack, player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting. A 10-up blackjack will be revealed immediately after peeking, and the player will lose only his original wager, except a blackjack tie will push.
3. BB+1 refers to an Australian rule, in which the player will lose all busted bets, plus one unit, if the dealer gets a blackjack. For example, if the player splits 8's to three hands of a 20, (doubled) 19, and a busted hand, and the dealer get a blackjack, then the player will lose 2 units, one for the busted hand, and one from the remaining 3 units on the table. There is a great deal of confusion for the term for his rule, some sources calling it 'OBBO,' for Original and Busted Bets Only.
4. OBBO stands for Original Bets and Busted Only. 'Original Bets' means each original bet per hand. So, if the player bet $5 and split to three hands, he would have three original bets of $5 each. As far as I know, the OBBO rule is confined to some parts of Australia and Malaysia. In the example above, the player would lose 3 units under this rule, one for the busted hand and two for the number of unbusted hands. The term is discussed in depth in the bookThe Pro's Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon by Katarina Walker.
5. This strange rule is actually followed in Pennsylvania, on Shufflemaster TMS-300 video multi-player blackjack games. State law prohibits one player taking the cards of another player. The way they implement this rule is to give every player, and the dealer, a separate shoe. The dealer plays out his hand first, secretly, and the results stored in memory. Then the cards used by the dealer are removed for each player shoe. When all players have finished acting, the game shows what cards the dealer drew already. According to Shufflemaster, the effect of this rule is 0.02% in favor of the dealer. Shufflemaster wishes to add this rule is part of a patent-pending technology.
6. Dealer does not peek for blackjack with a 10 up. If dealer has a 10-up blackjack, player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting. An ace-up blackjack will be revealed immediately after peeking, and the player will lose only his original wager, except a blackjack tie will push.
7. Dealer does not take a hole card, or never peeks at it if he does. If the dealer has a blackjack, then player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting, except a blackjack tie will push. The cost of this rule to the player is 0.08% when doubling, and 0.03% when splitting. This breakdown is important in the case of Galaxy casinos in Macau, where the player only loses the original bet when doubling, but everything when splitting, if the dealer gets a blackjack.
8. The push on a dealer 22 rule is a legally protected rule. The rights belong to the owner of Blackjack Switch.
9. This rule can be found at the Pharaoh's Palace in Macau. The player may invoke the rule before the dealer checks for blackjack. The effect shown is based on the dealer not taking a hole card.

Written by: Michael Shackleford