Percentages of Various Winning Hands in Blackjack

16 March 2013

By Jerry Stickman

Hi Stickman,

What are the chances of winning non-consecutive hands in blackjack such as 20 blackjack hands ... 15 hands ... 10 hands ... and 5 hands?

These are the small questions that I always wonder about when I am not actually playing the game.

When I play the game the statistics get thrown out the window and I really don’t follow how many wins or losses I have in how many hands. So give me a hand!

Thanks for your help.
Amy


Dear Amy,

When you ignore the approximately nine percent of hands that are ties, the player wins about 48 percent of them and loses about 52 percent of them. If you include ties, the approximate percentages are as follows:

Wins: 44 percent
Losses: 47 percent
Ties: 9 percent

So, on average you will win five hands every approximately 11.5 hands. Using this ratio you will win about 10 hands over 23 hands, about 15 every 34.5 and you will win 20 hands about every 46 hands.

Hopefully this answers your question.

Now don't worry. Very few people keep the percentages in their heads as they play but as long as you play the basic strategy, you really don’t have to keep track of anything else. After all, to tell time you don’t need to know how to build a clock. I recommend getting a copy of Frank Scoblete's new book "Beat Blackjack Now." You will get the correct basic strategies for the blackjack games you generally play.

May all your wins be swift and large and all your losses slow and tiny.

Jerry “Stickman”


Jerry “Stickman” is an expert in craps, blackjack, video poker and advantage slot machine play. He is a regular contributor to top gaming magazines. He has a new book coming out in May --- "Everything Casino Poker."