• How to Play Free Video Poker. Video poker, once mastered, is one of the easiest and most enjoyable games to play either online or at a land-based casino. Online video poker uses a 52-card deck and all variants of video poker games are based on the 5-card draw system of poker.
• Poker in casinos is always played with one deck per table, regardless of the type of game or the number of players at the table. Some weird home games may use more than one deck, but serious games like Texas holdem, Omaha, and 7-card stud don't. Blackjack can vary between 1 and 8 decks per table.

Those of you who are new to the game of blackjack may have noticed that some blackjack games are played with one deck of cards while others are played with 2, 4, 6 or even 8 decks of cards. What’s the difference between single and multiple deck games and what are the advantages or disadvantages?

Single deck blackjack has often been looked at as the holy grail of the game because it offers players the best chance to win profits. In fact, the house edge is just 0.15% when players stick to blackjack games with a single deck.

Since each player needs two hole cards, the flop/turn/river requires five cards, and three cards are burned, 22 players can play Texas Hold'em.

Long ago, single-deck blackjack was the standard and the only game in town. In recent years, however, casinos have moved towards multiple deck games to make it harder for players to count cards, a strategy which has gained popularity over the past few decades. Not only is it more difficult for players to count cards with multiple decks in use, but using multiple decks also increases the house edge slightly.

Many casinos have reintroduced the single-deck blackjack game, but don’t be fooled into thinking that playing a single-deck game will give you better odds. In fact, you will notice that when playing a single-deck game of blackjack many casinos only offer a 6:5 payout for blackjack, while multi-deck games offer 3:2.

If you placed a $10 bet and got blackjack on a multi-card game with 3:2 payout you’d walk away with $15, whereas you’d only get $12 for a single-deck game with a 6:5 payout. The slight increase in the house edge isn’t worth the decrease in the blackjack payout that the house gives for a single-deck game. Therefore, unless you can find a casino that offers a 3:2 payout for single-deck blackjack it is a wise decision to stick to multiple deck games.

Casinos also often enforce disadvantageous rule variations on single-deck and double-deck games in order to give the house more of an edge. These variations can include requiring the dealer to hit on soft 17, not allowing players to double down after a split, not allowing the resplitting of aces and a number of other variations.

Card counter have tried to employ their strategy even when using multiple decks, even though it involves more calculations and a greater risk of losing the correct count. Casinos have developed an arsenal of tactics to disrupt counters who try to count multiple decks. Many have decided to use continuous shuffle machines which shuffle the cards back into the shoe with every hand.

With this being the case, you’d think that finding a single deck blackjack is the greatest thing ever. However, there are actually some disadvantages to the subject as well, which is covered below along with single deck blackjack advantages.

Advantages

The obvious advantage to playing single deck blackjack is just as we stated before in that you’re getting the absolute lowest house edge. Facing a 0.15% house edge puts you on nearly a level playing field with the casino, and makes your chance of profiting seem like a coin flip. Of course, to take advantage of the low casino edge, make sure that you understand good basic blackjack strategy first – otherwise, it doesn’t really matter how many decks you’re dealing with.

There is another big advantage for card counters. Usually, card counters these days are dealing with six and eight deck shoes, which means they have to wait longer for favorable counts. But with single deck blackjack, card counters don’t have to wait nearly as long to get a favorable count, thus letting them bet big much sooner.

Disadvantages

Based on the aforementioned advantages, you wouldn’t think there’d be much downside to single deck blackjack. But the problem is that casinos often advertise single deck games, yet offer unfavorable rules to increase the house edge. And what’s bad about this is that the house edge can actually end up being higher than with six or eight deck blackjack.

In the worst case scenario, casinos will only make 6:5 blackjack payouts instead of 3:2 payouts. This one rule alone will bring the house edge from 0.15% all the way up to 1.45%. Considering the fact that you can still keep the house edge at around 0.5% with both six and eight deck blackjack, it’s sometimes not even worth the effort to search for single deck games. Casinos might put other unfavorable rules in the single deck games too, so watch out for this.

Single and double deck games are generally dealt with the cards face down. This is another tactic that casinos use to thwart counters. Players who stand before your turn will place their cards face down on the table. Since no one has no idea what they are holding, counters not value those cards in the count.

Another disadvantage to single deck blackjack is that you’re very unlikely to earn many comps with this version of the game. After all, if it’s true single deck blackjack you’re playing, the casino won’t make much money off you in the long-term. That said, they aren’t going to be generous with comps either.

Casinos usually offer a few lower limit single deck games to entice players to visit their casino. It is the old bait and switch technique that often works. They know that if the table is full or the betting limits are severely restricted, players will move to higher earning tables.

Learn about the other tricks by reading “How Casinos Cheat.”

I was very bored today.
Poker traditionally has to be played with one deck. When you have more than one deck, the entire face of the game changes - more hands become possible, the probability of some hands changes drastically, and so on.
To demonstrate this, I decided to analyze poker with two decks of cards. As I calculate it, this is the correct ranking of hands:
Royal flush
Five of a kind
Straight flush
Flush with two pair
Four of a kind
Flush with one pair
Flush with no pairs (1)
Full house
Unflushed straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
Note 1: You could, if you liked, join a flush with one pair and a flush with no pairs. Then, a full house would beat them. Flush with two pair is rare enough that it should stay separate, though.
All ties are handled in the same way they would be in normal poker.
Some notes:

• I tried to stick to the framework of basic poker hands as best I could. Because of this, five of a kind and flushes with pairs seemed like necessary additions. You could add all kinds of other spiffy hands if you wanted to (i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?), but that's beyond the point of my analysis.
• The Royal flush being top dog seemed like something players would expect, so I included it. If you preferred, you could consider the Royal to be a straight flush, with five of a kind being better. As long as the Royal flush is considered separately, however, it wins: there are 128 Royals and only 728 fives-of-a-kind.
• With five decks, the Royal flush gets dethroned as the best hand, because a flushed five of a kind (with only 52 possibilities) would be king. I'm not sure how adding more decks would affect this, however.

For the curious (and peer review), here are my actual calculations for each hand. 'C' means combinations, e.g. 8C3 is the number of combinations for drawing 3 items out of a list of 8, derived from the formula nCr = n! / ( (n-r)! * r! )
Edit: I forgot to account for flushed vs. unflushed pairs. Embarrassing! The new numbers are correct.
Royal flush:
4 different suits to flush in
2 different ways of getting each card in the royal flush
2
2
2
2
128 different Royal flushes
Five of a kind:
13 different ranks
8C5=56 different ways of getting five cards of that rank
728 different fives-of-a-kind
Straight flush:
4 different suits to flush in
9 different high cards (since Ace high gives royal flush)
2 different ways of getting each card in that particular straight flush
2
2
2
2
1172 different straight flushes
Flush with two pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
1 combination for first pair in suit
1 combination for second pair in suit
2 cards possible for fifth card in given rank
6884 different flushes with two pair
Four of a kind:
13 different ranks for four-of-a-kind
12 different ranks for fifth card
8C4=70 combinations for four-of-a-kind
8 different cards of rank for fifth card
87360 different fours-of-a-kind
Flush with one pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
1 combination for pair
2 ways of getting each extra card in chosen rank and suit
2
2
91520 different flushes with one pair
Flush with no pairs:
4 different suits to flush in
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks for five cards
2 ways of getting each card in chosen rank and suit
2
2
2
2
164738 different flushes with no pairs, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushes
163566 different flushes with no pairs or straight
Full house:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12 remaining ranks for pair
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8C2=28 combinations for pair
244608 different full houses
Unflushed straight:
10 different high cards for a straight
8 ways of getting each card in the straight

Poker With More Than One Deck Plans

8
8
8
8
327680 different straights, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushes
326508 different unflushed straights
Three of a kind:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12C2=66 combinations for ranks of extra cards
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8 different cards for fourth card
8 different cards for fifth card
3075072 different threes-of-a-kind
Unflushed two pair:
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
8C2=28 combinations for first pair
8C2=28 combinations for second pair
8 different cards of rank for remaining card
5381376 different hands with two pair
Subtract 6884 different flushes with two pair

Poker With More Than One Deck Stain And Sealer

5374492 different unflushed hands with two pair
Unflushed pair:

Poker With More Than One Deck Mtg

13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
8C2=28 combinations for pair
8 different cards for each remaining extra card
8
8
41000960 different hands with one pair
Subtract 91520 different flushes with one pair
40909440 different unflushed hands with one pair
High card:
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks with no matches
8 ways of getting each card
8
8
8
8
42172416 different hands that do not contain a pair, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, or five-of-a-kind
Subtract 327680 different straights (including straight flushes)
Subtract 163566 different flushes with no pairs (not including straight flushes)
41681170 hands that contain no other hand

I was very bored today.

I'll say! This reminds me of some of the stuff that floats around the internet. It's entertaining, but always leaves me thinking 'Somebody has a lot of free time.'

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.
Well, the flushed five of a kind is a special case: it's a flush, and it's five of a kind. Same with a straight flush (or for that matter, a Royal) in normal poker. You certainly could say that suited pairs are better, but keep in mind that there's a difference between, say, a suited pair of aces, and a flush with a pair of aces.

Can You Play Poker With More Than One Deck

I didn't check all of your figures, but I disagree with your Two Pair / Three of a Kind result:

Three of a Kind
trips ..... combin(13,1)*combin(8,3) = 728
kickers ... combin(12,2)*combin(8,1)*combin(8,1) = 4224
total ..... 728 * 4224 = 3,075,072 (this agrees with your total)
Two Pair
pairs .... combin(13,2)*combin(8,2)*combin(8,2) = 61152
kicker ... combin(11,1)*combin(8,1) = 88
total .... 61152 * 88 = 5,381,376 (this is much higher than your total)

The above Two Pair figure does not subtract the counts for suited Two Pair hands if they are deemed to be higher in rank than other Two Pair hands. Nevertheless, the figures show that Three of a Kind is still a better-ranking hand than Two Pair.

Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.

Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.

I think you missed the last factor of 8, which corresponds to the suit of the kicker. You listed it, but forgot to include it in the calculation.Wizard
Administrator
I have a table for poker combinations with 1 to 8 decks here. Scroll down to 'Multi-Deck Probabilities.'The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.

The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.

Here's the Wiz's page on it: http://wizardofodds.com/texasshootout
Looks kinda interesting.
Where do you work?

Poker With More Than One Deck Spider Solitaire

On a side note: Would that be advertising? Nah. I'd bet that the Wiz wouldn't want you to mention your casino in every post, but since this is tied to the thread's topic, I doubt he'd mind a quick plug.