The most profitable blackjack hands

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Henry Tamburin has come of up with "The Ten Most Profitable Blackjack Hands." | File photo

Updated: January 23, 2012 1:56AM

There’s no question that blackjack is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, casino game.

There are more blackjack tables to be found and volumes of material — books, magazine articles and videos — explaining the game, playing strategies, etc.

One of may favorite blackjack experts, Henry Tamburin, has come up with a number of strategies to guide players into getting better results. You can find them in books, magazine articles and seminars.

Just recently, I came across another interesting feature presented by Tamburin, which he labels “The Ten Most Profitable Blackjack Hands.”

“How many different starting hands can you get when you play blackjack?” he said.

“If you forget about card suits, which have no role in blackjack, and consider that the picture cards and the 10s essentially are equivalent, there are 33 possible hands.

“The hard hands represent the total of the two-card hand. A hand that totals 9, for example, could be made up of any of these two card combinations: 2,7 or 3,6 or 4,5.”

Tamburin groups these hands into “hard,” “soft (with an ace)” and pairs, the obvious. There are 15 hard hands, nine soft hands and nine pairs.

Of these 33 hands, he said, 10 are the most profitable to play when they are dealt to you.

He ranks them in this order: A,10; A,9; 10,10; A,8; 10,9; 11 (7,4 or 8,3); A,A; 10 (3,7 or 4,6); 9,9 and A,7.

“It should come as no surprise that a blackjack hand is the most profitable hand for blackjack players,” Tamburin said.

“This is because when you are dealt a blackjack hand you are paid a bonus of 1½ times your initial bet (this assumes, of course, that the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack).

“If you are wondering why the A,9 (20) is ranked above the 10,10 (20) hand and the A,8 (19) above the 10,9 (19) it’s because the soft hands (those containing an ace) reduce the dealer’s chance of having a blackjack and beating you (since you hold an ace, which he needs for a blackjack).

“This makes these hands slightly more profitable than the hard hands that have the same total and a pair of 10s. Nearly all the rest of your winnings will come from these five hands: 11, 10-9, 10, A-9 and A-8.”

He also offers this tip. “A pair of 10s is very profitable. …” They should never be split, which is a mistake made by novices. Also, don’t double down on and A-9 because, like the 10s, you have a profitable hand.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that if you are playing blackjack and you are not being dealt your fair share of these profitable hands, you will most likely be losing.

You need these profitable hands to make up for the other hands you will be dealt where the dealer has the edge.

Because these hands are so important, you must play them perfectly. Otherwise, you are throwing away a golden opportunity to win some money.

Gus Rose can be reached by sending an e-mail to jvirtusio@southtownstar.com with “Gus Rose” in the subject line.