Question of the Day - 11 May 2019

[Editor's Note: For this answer, we turned to blackjack expert and author extraordinaire, Arnold Snyder. This answer was amended 6/18/20; thanks to "G Man" for pointing out an error that has been corrected.]

This European blackjack rule, generally referred to as the “no peek” rule, is disadvantageous for the player, giving the house an extra 0.11%. The rule does not give the player “a better chance of tying the dealer if they do pull 21” because if the player draws to 21, then the dealer turns up a blackjack, the dealer will take the player’s money. A natural blackjack beats any total of 21 that is composed of 3 or more cards.

So, where does the house get its extra 0.11%? In the American game, where the dealer peeks before the players draw any cards, if the dealer checks his hole card card and turns up a blackjack, he immediately sweeps all bets off the table (other than a player’s natural BJ, which would be a push) before the players draw any other cards. But with the “no peek” rule, if a player doubles down or splits a pair, and then the dealer exposes his hole card to reveal a blackjack, he will take the player’s double and/or split chips in addition to taking the player’s original bet.

For this reason, the basic strategy differs if a casino uses the no-peek rule. Whereas basic strategy tells us to always split AA and 88 in an American game, we should not split AA vs a dealer ace up, and we should not split 88 vs a dealer Ace or ten-valued card. Also, in the European no-peek game, we should not double down on a total of 11 vs a dealer ace or 10-valued card.

Thank you, Arnold.