Blackjack is the favourite casino game of many casino enthusiasts. It features a low house edge, dynamic gameplay, and solid returns if played right. Additionally, it is a game of both skill and chance, meaning that your decisions can affect the outcome of every hand.
Although a correct strategy goes a long way in blackjack, casino-specific rules also influence the house edge, tilting it, yep, you've guessed it, in the casino's favour.
One of the easiest ways to boost the house advantage is by adding multiple card decks; the more decks in the game, the lower your winning chances, which is why the most common blackjack variants involve six or eight decks.
Asking how many decks in blackjack can be used is, therefore, a legitimate question. We will answer it in the lines below and shed light on other reasons for using multiple decks in blackjack and how multi-deck variants differ from single-deck blackjack.
Let's go!
Blackjack: How Many Decks Can Be Played With?
Blackjack rules don’t dictate the maximum number of decks; in blackjack, a game could have an infinite number of cards, provided you have a "shoe" big enough to shuffle them.
In reality, casinos offer blackjack with up to eight decks of cards. A blackjack table with more than eight decks would simply be impractical: shuffling so many cards will require massive "shoes" and tables to accommodate so many players.
Shoe blackjack, which is how casinos refer to multi-deck blackjack, is most commonly played using four, six, or (up to) eight 52-card decks.
With a greater number of decks, the probability changes, too, which is why knowing the deck and fundamental probabilities is among essential blackjack tips you should pick up.
Why Do Casinos Use More Than One Deck?
The most glaring reason why casinos increase the number of decks in blackjack is to make the game more exciting and attract more players. However, there are several other reasons as to why the maximum number of decks in blackjack varies:
Card Counting
Card counting is the best strategy in blackjack: anyone can learn it, and it's the most tangible of all, as it doesn't rely on luck.
To dissuade players from counting cards, casinos add more decks, making the strategy more challenging to pursue. But memory is a stretchy fabric: if you practise consistently, you could memorise hundreds of cards and still have the upper hand against the dealer.
Shuffling
The more blackjack hands dealt the greater the casino's profits. Hence, using multiple decks means a more dynamic game and more hands played in a single hour.
Suppose the dealer handles only one deck; they would hand out the cards quickly, requiring them to reshuffle the deck quite often and slowing down the game's pace. With multiple decks, croupiers mix the cards less frequently, increasing the number of hands.
Increasing House Edge
Casinos are always on the lookout to increase profits, which is no secret. When you host a game that famously has the lowest house edge (0.16% in single-deck blackjack!), soon you will seek ways to bump it up.
The easiest way is to add more decks to the shuffle! If you look at the numbers, it becomes clear that the house advantage increases quickly with every deck: adding only a single deck boosts the house advantage to 0.46%.
Four decks will have you looking at a house edge of 0.60%, while eight decks give the house an edge of 0.66%.
Single Deck Blackjack
Single-deck blackjack, commonly known as pitch blackjack, sounds excellent due to its low house edge, but it's the exact same reason why it's such a rare occurrence nowadays.
Card counting, combined with rules on when to stand or hit you can learn from a blackjack strategy chart, offer a surefire way to beat the dealer.
However, you should know that due to the advantage it gives to players, the single-deck version usually comes with a set of more stringent blackjack rules.
For instance, in a multi-deck game, a natural blackjack will result in a payout of 3 to 2. On the other hand, in single-deck games, natural blackjack will offer a payout of 6 to 5; translated into house edge percentage, you will be looking at 1.39%.
Multi-Deck Blackjack
Multiple-deck blackjack is what you will commonly find at land-based venues and online platforms. Casinos do this to thwart players' chances of keeping accurate counts, making the game more profitable and dynamic.
Most casinos feature six- and eight-deck games because the house advantage is the highest in these two variants (0.64% and 0.66%, respectively), as is the number of cards (312 and 416 cards). Apart from making players more careful of their budget and strategy, these variants also make card counting much more challenging.
This brings us to four-deck blackjack as the silver lining: with four decks, you retain a relatively low house edge while counting fewer cards (208). However, this variant isn't common, but it's worth seeking out.
Does the Number of Decks Matter in Online Blackjack?
Since there is no real-life dealer, you may ask yourself: How many decks are used in online blackjack? The number of decks in online blackjack doesn't matter because internet casinos operate a Random Number Generator (RNG) to shuffle the cards after every hand.
In other words, software draws cards at random from any number of the decks you chose, reshuffling them promptly the moment players have collected their wins or lost their bets. In other words, the number of decks and your memory skills will make little difference when you play blackjack online; instead, you should focus on other aspects and rules of the game, such as doubling down, resplitting, and surrendering
