BC.Game Blackjack Strategy Guide / Discussion

[KayName]

Alright, so it's been a while since I've played, and want to spread some knowledge.

BC.Game's house blackjack is arguably the best online blackjack I've seen. Not just in crypto casinos only - but all of online casinos. Design, UI, and ruleset especially.

The rules for play bring the house edge down - but not below Zero, of course. I personally love the fact that the "check hole card for Ace / Hidden BJ" is a rule, because nothing pains me more than doubling a 11 versus 10, only to find an Ace under dealer's hole card and lose my entire doubled bet. (Take notes, evolution gaming.)

What I've noticed to be extremely beneficial rules:

- Dealer Peeking for Hidden BJ (Does not happen in Pragmatic / Evolution Gaming Live Casino, meaning you can potentially lose your entire doubled bet versus a 10 for nothing.)

-  Late* Surrender is allowed (Very unique to Blackjack online.)

- Double After Split / "DAS" (Not offered in Pragmatic / Evolution Live Casino tables either.)

- Re-split Aces / "RSA" (Generally very rare to find, even in land casinos. Typically reserved for salon prive players in land casinos.)

Lastly, the one that surprised me the most:

- Hit split Aces (This one, as someone would guess, is amazingly beneficial. It hurts to draw a 2-5 on a split Ace and not be able to improve it versus a 7-10/Ace.)

[Note that Hit Split Aces is extremely rare. I've never seen it anywhere else.]

This is the closest strategy I could find and create with the rules I suppose BC.Game has, using a Strategy calculator.

* Late Surrender means surrendering after dealer checks for BJ versus Ace. Generally how it's done but some very few obscure places offer "Early" surrender.

Note: - BC.Game uses 12 Decks, not 8.

I chose "Shuffle After Each Hand" due to RNG being important in non-IRL decks.

This ruleset yields this set of strategies:

FAQ:

1 | A common question I'm asked is why strategy indicates hitting 12 versus 2 and 3.

Think of it as: "There are more cards that help you, than can hurt you". There is, in the long run, a better chance of winning these hands if you hit. 2 and 3 in the dealer's up-card means more "room" for them to get to 17-21. This should be played "against" by hitting your 12. You can hit and get into the "safe zone" of 17-21 easier than the dealer can bust with 2 10s in a row.

2 | "Why don't I double Soft 19 and Soft  20 versus 4-6?"

This is actually something I wondered myself when I started playing. The most common card is a 10, so why not take the chance of taking an Ace or 10 and winning extra money with a hand that's already great? Soft 19 versus 6 actually, is a double in a few cases with different rules like H17*. The difference in long-term house edge is minimal, as shown here:

This represents a 0.494445 - 0.480105 difference. In other words, a +1.434% difference for this hand in the long run if you Stand instead of Double. I personally sometimes double if I feel like it, so it's up to the player, in my opinion. Blackjack is about fun, after all.

Soft 20 should stay Soft 20. Every time. For reference, there is a difference of approximately -13% in the long-run when comparing doubling Soft 20 to standing versus a 6. 

* H17 rule means Dealer Hits on Soft 17, instead of Stands.

3 | "Why surrender?"

To put it simply, if there is no option (Hit, Double, Stand) that has a long-term expected return of better than -50%, the best option is to just cut your losses and take half money back. This is very useful on the hands listed for R / Rs above.

To Note: 15-16 versus a 10 is a hotly-debated set of hands. 16v10 especially. The difference in standing and hitting 16v10 is VERY minimal, however as referenced above these two options will yield an outcome of >-50%, so the best case is to Surrender. If I'm dealt a 16v10 that you can't surrender, like 10+2+4 versus a 10, I personally hit around 80% of the time, and the other times I'll just stand. This is essentially the most "up to the player" choice.

For reference, there is a less than 0.05% difference in return both negative and positive, if a player Stands on 16v10 or Hits.

4 | "Why do I split 8s every time?"

Put simply, a 16 is the worst hand you can have. You're not in the "safe zone" of 17-21, you're damned if you hit and damned if you stand, etc. Splitting 8,8 versus 2-7 is an offensive play. This means that if you have an 8 as your starting card for two (split) hands versus 2-7, you're expected to increase winnings in the long run. On the flip side, Splitting 8,8 versus 8-Ace is a defensive play. This means that having two hands starting at 8 versus an Eight through an Ace, are expected to decrease/mitigate losses in the long run.

Lastly: 5 | "Why don't split 10s?"

20 is already a very good hand. If you split, you decrease your advantage of +75% with 20v6, to only +50%. This means that you will only win 2/3rds as much money in the long run, if you choose to split 10,10 versus 6 instead of Stand. I've done it before to have fun, but it's a stupid idea. At least twice, I've drawn two 10s on the split 10s, for now having two 20 hands, only to have dealer draw 21 and have both my hands of 20 lose. It's not worth it.

 

Some final notes:

- Soft 18 versus 2 is another case where different options have negligible difference in long-term results. Normally you want to Stand these instead of Double, but I personally Double if I'm feeling lucky. (Difference is less than +-0.35% in the long run.) Hit if you want to stick to strategy, Double if you're feeling lucky.

- NEVER Stand on Soft 17. Either Hit to attempt to improve the hand, or Double if it is advantageous (3-6).

- Hard 17 versus an Ace is a difficult hand to play. The dealer has 2 chances to overtake your card total or Push, while you're stuck at 17. While the difference between Surrendering and Standing is only approximately -2.45%, it is best to Stand.

- In the rare case you can't Split a hand anymore, treat it like a Hard hand with the total.

- I personally Double every 11, even versus an Ace. The outcome is still a positive (profitable in long-run) expectation, but you generally win 2.2% more money in the long run if you Hit instead of Double. Do not double 10 v Ace if you follow strategy. Doubling instead of Hitting in this case turns a slight positive long-term outcome into a slightly negative long-term outcome.

 

Feel free to discuss below and ask questions!

Websites Used:

http://www.beatingbonuses.com/houseedge.htm

https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/hand-calculator/

(Note that there are slight ruleset option differences between sites.)

[TheTiminator]

That’s great that you are successful when playing this game.   I, unfortunately, have the complete opposite experience. The dealer will get Blackjack 3-5 times in a row over multiple days and sessions which the odds of that happening even once are very very low. Also, the dealer will beat me by 1 point when I have a high hand almost 7/10 times. If I have 18, the dealer will get 19;  I have 20, the dealer will get 21.  Again-this happens with multiple seed changes over multiple sessions over multiple days.  I guess it’s just bad luck, huh?

[ToughLuck]

Yes, bc game blackjack is theorically best odd online blackjack.

One small thing to add, bc BJ doesn't reshuffle everyhand.

However, my experience shows otherwise. Like Timinator said, dealer gets BJ 5-6 times in a row. Tie BJ 3-4 times after that, lol. I lost almost 8/10 double down. Then, I lost 30 hands in a row, and yes I stick to wizard of odds' basic strategy for 4-8 decks.

It's common to lose 40-80 bets in one sittings. Bad luck? And the next day? The day after? I dont know. Now, I stay away from bc game's BJ.

I have much better experience with BJ from Betsoft, Microgaming, ArrowEdge, Evoplay, NetEnt. Even the one from 1x2 gaming which ugly and slow doesn't rip my money as fast as bc BJ.

That is just my experience.

[TheTiminator]

On 2/21/2022 at 4:54 AM, OhNoooo said:

Yes, bc game blackjack is theorically best odd online blackjack.

One small thing to add, bc BJ doesn't reshuffle everyhand.

However, my experience shows otherwise. Like Timinator said, dealer gets BJ 5-6 times in a row. Tie BJ 3-4 times after that, lol. I lost almost 8/10 double down. Then, I lost 30 hands in a row, and yes I stick to wizard of odds' basic strategy for 4-8 decks.

It's common to lose 40-80 bets in one sittings. Bad luck? And the next day? The day after? I dont know. Now, I stay away from bc game's BJ.

I have much better experience with BJ from Betsoft, Microgaming, ArrowEdge, Evoplay, NetEnt. Even the one from 1x2 gaming which ugly and slow doesn't rip my money as fast as bc BJ.

That is just my experience.

Yeah, I agree. I know it’s based off of the current seed and each individuals experience so I’m glad some people are having success with it.  I have learned to stay away from it now too especially after the deck went into ‘negative’ numbers one of the last times I played.  I’m not sure how or why that happened but it went into -7 cards which would have been okay to ignore as a glitch if the deck reshuffled and had 7 less cards but it reshuffled with the full number of cards….The dealer then got 5 BJ in a row. 

While the support staff is extremely friendly and helpful (they have always provided me with the absolute best customer service I’ve ever experienced in the industry) on most issues, they basically just tell me that there are no game issues if I ever report something that doesn’t seem right so I don’t even bother reporting potential errors any more.

 I like the third party black jack games much better.  

[][NT3L][G3NC][]

The shoe is created with 12 decks. It reshuffles after 8 decks. So theres still 4 decks to cover  the 'negative'.  can't  just shuffle in the middle of a game. That would make 1 bet across 2  Provably Fair bets. Talk about headaches lol. 

I have gone thru all the verification code for bcGame's in house games  and they Unfortunately all check out.

[Criptomimoti]

hi, that list has many options where to split a hand with low pairs against low numbers, is there any more nit list?

[keikokitana]

I agree, i felt the blackjack game is total ripoff.

Cannot win any money even a bit, unless it's JB coin.

And yes, play using optimal strategy and with enough hand samples 1000+

 

How do they accomplish this provability non-sense while ripping the player as well.

How to verify if the hash is fool proof or not complete non-sense???

 

[Omcvjiolyb]

On 2/21/2022 at 12:54 PM, ToughLuck said:

Yes, bc game blackjack is theorically best odd online blackjack.

One small thing to add, bc BJ doesn't reshuffle everyhand.

However, my experience shows otherwise. Like Timinator said, dealer gets BJ 5-6 times in a row. Tie BJ 3-4 times after that, lol. I lost almost 8/10 double down. Then, I lost 30 hands in a row, and yes I stick to wizard of odds' basic strategy for 4-8 decks.

It's common to lose 40-80 bets in one sittings. Bad luck? And the next day? The day after? I dont know. Now, I stay away from bc game's BJ.

I have much better experience with BJ from Betsoft, Microgaming, ArrowEdge, Evoplay, NetEnt. Even the one from 1x2 gaming which ugly and slow doesn't rip my money as fast as bc BJ.

That is just my experience.

As for me, as in all gambling here depends only on the cold mind of the player. You can not be able to stop no matter how fast you lose money