Casino Blackjack. Is there a statistical reason for winning at a 6 deck shoe and losing at an 8 deck shoe??

Question

My husband is a black jack dealer in the 5th largest casino in the world. But he finds that when he is required to use 8 decks instead of 6, hardly anyone wins. Why is this? Why the difference? It's driving him nuts not knowing.

Answer 1

From looking at the other answers, you & the hubby aren't the only ones who know nothing about this subject. Here's the correct answer, please ignore all others to keep your I.Q. level from dropping...

For each deck added to a shoe, the house garners a slight advantage (about .03%) for several reasons. First, there's an increased probability of larger chunks of low-value cards occurring together in the deck, making book assumptions of a 10-value card coming out of the shoe next and a 10-value card being in the hole less accurate. Adding decks also makes it increasingly difficult for players to determine the true count of the cards. The count and the true count are different. If you have 6 decks in the shoe and the count is +12 after two decks have been dealt, the true count is only +4 (12 divided by the number of decks remaining in the shoe, 4 decks.) If the same occurred on an 8-deck shoe, the true count would only be +2 (12/6.) So even if you have a player with the remarkable ability to accurately run the count on a shoe - and here's the biggest reason for all of this: - the more decks you have the more count-stable the shoe is, and the harder it is for the players to have a positive enough true count on the shoe to realize any advantage, whether they're keeping track of the count or not. Of course, the deeper into the shoe you go, the less this is realized and the more accurate the count would become, but the counting player would have to accurately count several decks of cards down over a long time without messing up to determine if he might be at an advantage for the last couple of hands of the shoe. Not an easy task. Doesn't matter much though - the stability of the count regardless of if someone is counting is the reason 8-deck shoes are tougher to beat than 6-deck shoes, which are tougher to beat than double-deck games. More decks = less drastic count swings, and with an even count the house is always at an advantage because the dealer goes last.

Answer 2

Count the number of 10's and face cards in that many decks. Even six decks gives the odds to the house.
When a player draws two cards for a 12 or 13+, a third draw is usually10 or face card=bust.
The thing that many players ignore is, when most of the players, or the immediate one to their right have drawn small cards, the next card is likely to be a 10 or face card.
The last player before the dealer draws should observe this and stay, unless he/she holds 10/11 or less, then draw. Otherwise let the dealer hit and bust, which is likely.
In many casinos, the dealer must hit on 16. If other players are showing several 10's or face cards, the odds are the next card will be under 10.
Your husband should be able observe this.

Insurance is a bad bet. It favors the house.
I don't often win at Blackjack, so you can erase all that if you like.

Answer 3

casino blackjack statistical reason winning 6 deck shoe losing 8 deck shoe

Answer 4

Listen to Casinobrad. More decks always means better odds for the house. In fact, it's been shown that even if you do not count cards, in general the deeper you get into the shoe, the better the odds are of winning for the player. I've found that the best blackjack games out there are double-deck games, mostly at downtown casinos.

Answer 5

There is no difference between the two, infact there's not much difference between using any amount of decks. the chances of any one card coming out are the same regardless of the amount of decks. Take a look at the site below.

Answer 6

i'm not a pro, but are his beliefs based on opinion, or on actual statistics?

i would imagine it is better with an 8 deck, so you can count better, but who knows

try blackjackstrategy.com
(i think thats the address)