How to make a truly even money game by rules alone

So over Thanksgiving, I traveled to my wife's aunt and uncle's house, and it was a great time. I was asked to put on a blackjack game for people's amusement, nothing for money as of yet, so to be nice and to make payouts easier, I paid BJs at 2-1 and offered up advice left and right.

Then someone suggested playing for money, which we never got around to this time, but the question came up of how to handle the dealer (who would likely be me.) I suggested that it's possible to get the game to even money (0.00% realistic HE or the closest approximation possible) just by rules alone, assuming no AP or ploppy behavior.

So far the closest I have come up with is this: single-deck, S17, DAS allowed, double any two cards, no surrender, no RSA or hitting split aces, and players only split once. WoO has that listed as a player advantage of 0.0014% realistically.

I'm beginning to think that this is the best I can do. Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

That is the closest to 0 that you can get with the rules presented in the blackjack house edge calculator.

The next closest configuration is: 2 decks, S17, DAS, DA2, split to 3 hands, RSA and HSA, lose original bet only on DBJ, late surrender, blackjack pays 3:2. The realistic house edge of this is 0.00168%.

With a player's advantage of one and a half thousands of a percent, any further tweaking is inconsequential.

Edit; I take that back. Six people betting $10 a hand, 100 hands an hour, gives the house a -$8.40 expectation.

Rotate dealers and it will be fair no matter the rules

So they wanted you to come up with a "fair" (0% HE) game, and what, let them play for real money this time? Are you the bank, or someone else?

I'd laugh hysterically if someone whom was an AP/counter got you to set up a 0.00% HE game just so they could then count and pound away at it lol. Sounds like your wife's family takes no prisoners!

Quote: hwccdealer

Then someone suggested playing for money,

Limit the stakes. Possibly even flat bet everyone.

Shuffle every hand in single deck.

Even with a player edge (negative house edge), players will still tend to play so horribly they'd be at a disadvantage, assuming they haven't learned basic strategy for that rule set.

If you wanted to (you'd probably looked at as an a--hole though), prohibit anyone who plays proper strategy. Learn the strategy yourself. If someone repeatedly does the correct BS play (that's out of the ordinary), bar them. I don't know the proper strategy for that game, but I'd imagine 7,7vT is a stand, hard 8v6 is a double, 11vA is a double, to name a few. Not to mention the not so out of the ordinary hands, like hitting 2-card 16vT or standing multi-card 16vT, hitting soft-18v9/T/A, hitting 12v2/3, proper soft-doubles, splitting 9,9 properly.


If you wanted to take a cheap-shot, you could give the players super great rules, then say, "Because the rules are so awesome, the only negative rule change will be 6:5 instead of 3:2 on BJ's. It's only $1.50 if you're betting $5."



Or make the rules so cluster-f****ing confusing with high-variance (and hope variance doesn't bite your ass), by having weird rules like "777 vs dealer suited-20 pays 2000:1" (which might give some monstrous player edge, i don't know exactly), but then have all the other rules be super sh***y, like no splitting/doubling and 6:5 BJ (or even 1:1 if you're a scrooge).

I think RS may have touched on your solution, hwccdealer, with his "weird rules" idea. You can use JB's rules to set the game with a small house edge, and then add a rule for an obscure occurrence (E.g., Player suited 6-7-8 pays X to 1) and adjust 'X' to zero out the HE.

Quote: JB

The next closest configuration is: 2 decks, S17, DAS, DA2, split to 3 hands, RSA and HSA, lose original bet only on DBJ, late surrender, blackjack pays 3:2. The realistic house edge of this is 0.00168%.

Quote: Romes

So they wanted you to come up with a "fair" (0% HE) game, and what, let them play for real money this time? Are you the bank, or someone else?

I'd laugh hysterically if someone whom was an AP/counter got you to set up a 0.00% HE game just so they could then count and pound away at it lol. Sounds like your wife's family takes no prisoners!

Yeah, except it's probably going to be something like $1 min $10 max.

If you want to make a truly even money blackjack game do this:

- All players must hit to 17 (that means no splits or doubles)
- If both player and dealer bust it's a push
- Blackjack pays 1:1 (unless both player and dealer have it, then it's a push)

Quote: sc15

Yeah, except it's probably going to be something like $1 min $10 max.

All I hear is a 10-1 spread with zero heat and a single deck on an already player advantage game off the top ;)

Quote: sc15

If you want to make a truly even money blackjack game do this:

- All players must hit to 17 (that means no splits or doubles)
- If both player and dealer bust it's a push
- Blackjack pays 1:1 (unless both player and dealer have it, then it's a push)

That would never fly. Anyone interested in blackjack isn't interested in "not playing" because their hands are played out for them (must hit to 17, can't split, can't double...).