Blackjack in Australia: Eight Decks and No Hole Card
Updated
Australian casinos play a no-hole-card game much like the British one, usually from eight decks and often from a continuous shuffler. The thing to watch for is not those rules — it is the variants, which look generous and are not.
- Typically eight decks, no hole card, doubling restricted.
- Our computation for that rule set, before the no-hole-card penalty: 0.57%.
- Some tables pay 6:5. Some use variants where the dealer pushes on 22.
- “Dealer pushes on 22” sounds neutral and is very expensive.
The standard game
Eight decks, no hole card, double on 9, 10 and 11, double after split usually allowed, one card on split aces, blackjack pays 3:2 at the better tables.
We compute 0.57% for those rules before the no-hole-card penalty, and 0.80% if the dealer also hits soft 17. As with the UK, we do not publish one combined figure because the rule our model does not compute.
The variants are the real issue
Australian floors carry house variants with names suggesting a bonus. The pattern to recognize is a rule that sounds neutral in exchange for a payout cut.
The most common is a version where the dealer pushing on 22 replaces a bust. Read that again: a hand where the dealer would have broken becomes a tie instead. It removes a large share of the hands you win by standing, and it is usually paired with 6:5 on naturals.
Games like that can run several times the house edge of the standard table beside them, while being marketed as the friendlier option. If a table advertises a rule that helps you, look immediately for what was taken to pay for it.
Continuous shufflers are common
Many Australian tables deal from a continuous shuffling machine, which returns played cards to the shoe every round. That ends counting completely and speeds the game up, so an ordinary player loses the same percentage of a larger amount per hour.
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By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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