2 thoughts on “When playing blackjack one on one agaisnt the house using basic strategy, does the house have an edge on you.?”

1. Yes, the house retains an edge when you play basic strategy. The edge, according to wizardofodds.com is .28% if you are playing with what he calls “Liberal Vegas Rules” which means: Dealer stands on soft 17, player may double on any two cards, player may double after splitting, resplit aces, late surrender.

   The edge in blackjack (no matter what the rules are) comes from the fact that you have to act before the dealer. If the dealer acted first then he could bust no matter what your cards were (and how you might have acted otherwise). Because you have to go before the dealer, you can bust and lose even when the dealer would have also busted. Imagine playing with 1 other person besides the dealer: you bust, player 2 stays, dealer busts. You lose your money even though the dealer did the same thing as you (busted). Player 2 gets paid of course. So you can bust and lose, get a poor hand and lose, or beat the dealer and win. The dealer wins in 2 of those 3 scenarios (which do not happen with equal probability) so the dealer has an advantage over you.

2. The man above has it right, if you can rules like this stay and play. if you use basic strategy and play perfectly you might realistically get house edge down to around 1.5%.