Single Deck: The Best Rules and the Worst Payout
Updated
With full rules a single-deck game is the only blackjack that favors the player — we compute 0.16% in your favor. Casinos know that too, which is why the single-deck table you actually find will almost certainly pay 6:5 and cost you 1.24%.
- Single deck with double-on-anything, DAS and 3:2: 0.16% to the player.
- The same game paying 6:5: 1.24% to the house.
- That is the trap. “Single deck” sounds like an advantage and is used as bait.
- Real single-deck tables also restrict doubling, which removes most of the rest.
Why one deck helps so much
Two reasons, and both are about how much your own cards change what is left.
You are dealt a blackjack more often — 4.83% against 4.75% with six decks — and a blackjack pays extra.
More importantly, removing cards matters. Hold two low cards and the remaining deck is genuinely ten-rich, which makes your double land. With eight decks that effect is diluted almost to nothing.
Why the game you find pays 6:5
A single-deck game with unrestricted doubling and a 3:2 payout is not profitable for a casino against a competent player, so it does not exist on a modern floor. What exists instead is a single-deck game with the payout cut to 6:5, usually at a low minimum, advertised on the sign as single deck.
The arithmetic: the deck reduction gives you about 0.612% against a six-deck game. The payout cut takes 1.36%. You are down on the trade by more than three to one.
The other restrictions to expect
Even where the payout is 3:2, single-deck games usually claw the edge back elsewhere: doubling limited to 10 and 11 (worth 0.173%), no double after split, no resplitting, and often the dealer hitting soft 17.
Read the whole table before deciding it is the good game. Every rule, priced lets you add it up.
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By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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