Number of Decks and Rules Variation
By far, the most dramatic effect on the win rate of a card counter is the
number of decks played. I always thought the difference was minor.
Every Blackjack book in the world probably contains a list of the
advantage when playing one, two, four, six and eight decks like the one
below:
Single Deck -0.2%
Single Deck 6:5 -1.4%
Two Decks -0.4%
Four Decks -0.5%
Six Decks -0.6%
Eight Decks -0.7%
These percentages fluctuate because casino rules effect them and rules
vary from casino to casino, an even within a casino, from table to table
These percentages don’t look insurmountable. A good card counting
system will still yield a healthy one per cent, even in a six deck game,
right? Wrong! I thought the differences would be about a half per
cent between single deck and six deck games. I compared about five
different systems using Casino Verite’ software. I thought the reader
might want to see how some of the more common counting systems
compared in a multi-billion hand simulation. I obtained the data below.
The rules were:
Double on any 2 cards.
No Surrender.
$5 Unit.
1-6 Unit Spread.
Illustrious 18 Indices.
Dealer Hits Soft 17.
Head up with the Dealer.
Single deck had 50% Penetration.
Six deck had 75% penetration.
Single Deck
System Player Advantage Win Rate/Hour
Wong 94 Basic Hi-Lo 1.176% $12.07
Adv. Omega II 1.187% $14.77
Complete Zen 1.236% $15.47
Hi Opt II 1.208% $14.77
Wong Halves 1.216% $12.73
I next ran the simulations against six decks, using the same rules, but
with 75% penetration. Below is the data I obtained.
Six Deck
System Player Advantage Win Rate/Hour
Wong 94 Basic Hi-Lo 0.150% $1.23
Adv. Omega II 0.235% $2.53
Complete Zen 0.275% $2.97
Hi Opt II 0.252% $2.63
Wong Halves 0.176% $1.47
The win rate is in dollars per hour. I could not believe the difference in
the results. The win rate for the Hi-Lo was almost ten times more
when playing single deck. Even the complete Zen, which was the best
performer of the group, only yielded 25% of the single deck rate. I
speculate that you could do better when using the simplest of counting
systems but playing single deck Blackjack than playing six deck with the
best system of them all.
By far, the most dramatic effect on the win rate of a card counter is the
number of decks played. I always thought the difference was minor.
Every Blackjack book in the world probably contains a list of the
advantage when playing one, two, four, six and eight decks like the one
below:
Single Deck -0.2%
Single Deck 6:5 -1.4%
Two Decks -0.4%
Four Decks -0.5%
Six Decks -0.6%
Eight Decks -0.7%
These percentages fluctuate because casino rules effect them and rules
vary from casino to casino, an even within a casino, from table to table
These percentages don’t look insurmountable. A good card counting
system will still yield a healthy one per cent, even in a six deck game,
right? Wrong! I thought the differences would be about a half per
cent between single deck and six deck games. I compared about five
different systems using Casino Verite’ software. I thought the reader
might want to see how some of the more common counting systems
compared in a multi-billion hand simulation. I obtained the data below.
The rules were:
Double on any 2 cards.
No Surrender.
$5 Unit.
1-6 Unit Spread.
Illustrious 18 Indices.
Dealer Hits Soft 17.
Head up with the Dealer.
Single deck had 50% Penetration.
Six deck had 75% penetration.
Single Deck
System Player Advantage Win Rate/Hour
Wong 94 Basic Hi-Lo 1.176% $12.07
Adv. Omega II 1.187% $14.77
Complete Zen 1.236% $15.47
Hi Opt II 1.208% $14.77
Wong Halves 1.216% $12.73
I next ran the simulations against six decks, using the same rules, but
with 75% penetration. Below is the data I obtained.
Six Deck
System Player Advantage Win Rate/Hour
Wong 94 Basic Hi-Lo 0.150% $1.23
Adv. Omega II 0.235% $2.53
Complete Zen 0.275% $2.97
Hi Opt II 0.252% $2.63
Wong Halves 0.176% $1.47
The win rate is in dollars per hour. I could not believe the difference in
the results. The win rate for the Hi-Lo was almost ten times more
when playing single deck. Even the complete Zen, which was the best
performer of the group, only yielded 25% of the single deck rate. I
speculate that you could do better when using the simplest of counting
systems but playing single deck Blackjack than playing six deck with the
best system of them all.
