BlackJack: What is the house edge when playing basic strategy?

The expected gain for basic strategy play depends on the house rules and the number of decks. The following table summarizes the player’s expectation for a variety of games. All numbers are in units of percent of initial bet.

<– number of decks –>
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 20 | 100 |
—————-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+
AC | .1541 -.2228 -.3991 -.4569 -.5368 -.5638 |
AC + LSR | .1761 -.1717 -.3323 -.3843 -.4552 -.4790 |
AC + ESR | .7694 .3952 .2265 .1721 .0968 .0714 |
—————-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+
strip | .0409 -.3214 -.4889 -.5437 -.6245 -.6447 |
strip + LSR | .0707 -.2685 -.4239 -.4744 -.5429 -.5659 |
strip + DAS | .1809 -.1795 -.3472 -.4021 -.4779 -.5034 |
strip + ESR | .6511 .2927 .1320 .0801 .0084 -.0157 |
—————-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+
vegas |-.1527 -.5257 -.7015 -.7590 -.8445 -.8663 |
vegas + LSR |-.1095 -.4594 -.6221 -.6747 -.7469 -.7713 |
vegas + DAS |-.0103 -.3813 -.5570 -.6146 -.6951 -.7223 |
vegas + ESR | .5403 .1720 .0046 -.0493 -.1245 -.1500 |
—————-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+
reno |-.4291 -.7400 -.8906 -.9404 -1.0154 -1.0337 |
reno + LSR |-.3858 -.6737 -.8113 -.8560 -.9178 -.9387 |
reno + DAS |-.3121 -.6176 -.7658 -.8151 -.8840 -.9073 |
reno + ESR | .2639 -.0423 -.1846 -.2307 -.2307 -.3174 |
—————-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+——-+

‘AC’ rules: (typical of Atlantic City)
dealer stands on soft 17
double down on any two cards
double after splits
no resplitting

‘strip’ rules: (typical of Vegas Strip)
dealer stands on soft 17
double down on any two cards (but not after splits)

‘vegas’ rules: (typical of Vegas Downtown)
dealer hits soft 17
double down on any two cards (but not after splits)

‘reno’ rules: (typical of Reno, northern Nevada)
dealer hits soft 17
double down allowed on two card total of 10 or 11 only

DAS = Double After Splitting
LSR = Late Surrender
ESR = Early Surrender (no longer available)

Does penetration have any effect on basic strategy expectation?

Probably not. Unless the dealer is cheating, the cards will be in a random order after the shuffle. If the player is not counting cards or using other techniques to gain an advantage, it will not matter if there are several rounds or only a single round between shuffles. But, if the dealer if using preferential shuffling, this will hurt the basic strategy players as well as the card counters.

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