Single Deck Blackjack
Single deck blackjack is dealt from one 52-card pack rather than a shoe. Fewer cards means each one you see tells you more about what is left, and the card composition alone is worth roughly half a percent to the player against an eight-deck game — the largest single swing in the rule table.
It is also the reason the game is so often sold with something taken away.
Check the Payout Before Anything Else
A great many single deck tables pay 6:5 on a blackjack instead of 3:2. That one change costs about 1.39% — nearly three times the advantage the single deck handed you, so the table is worse than the six-deck game it sits next to, not better.
The deck count is advertised because it sounds generous. The payout is the number that decides whether it is. If a table is single deck and pays 3:2, it is among the best blackjack there is; if it pays 6:5, the deck count is decoration.
What Each Change Is Worth
Figures from the Wizard of Odds rule-variation table. They are additive enough to compare at a glance, which is the point: one bad payout outweighs the best deck count on offer.
Single Deck Blackjack Tables
Single Deck Blackjack FAQs
On card composition alone, yes — about half a percent better than an eight-deck shoe. But only if the rest of the table is unchanged. A single deck game paying 6:5 on blackjack is worse than a six-deck game paying 3:2, by a clear margin.
Because the deck count is the part players notice. Advertising one deck and paying 6:5 sells a game that looks generous and costs the player more than the shoe it replaced.
A single deck is where counting is most effective, which is why these games are usually shuffled after every hand or two online and carry other restrictions. In an RNG game the deck is reshuffled every round, so a count never carries over.