Besides traditional blackjack, a popular variation of the game is 6:5 blackjack.

Even thought there is a trend in blackjack where the number of card decks is increased in order to strengthen the advantage of the casino, from 6 to 8 decks with some variations, 6:5 blackjack is played with only one 52-card deck!

A different payment ratio

The casino makes up for the losses linked to the use of a single deck by changing payment ratios from 3:2 with traditional blackjack to 6:5 for 6:5 blackjack, as the name suggests. Therefore, the amounts a player could win on their initial bet in case of victory are much smaller than during a traditional blackjack game.

Indeed, if you trust probabilistic calculations: a player loses between 1 and 1.5% more than if they had played other equally popular variations of blackjack.

This 6:5 blackjack variation consequently offers players, whether they are beginners or experts, much smaller chances to win.

Let's take an example to illustrate this change of payment ratio.

Traditional blackjack offers a ratio of 3:2, which means that with an initial bet of £10, if the player wins they will receive a payment of £15. However, with 6:5 blackjack, if the initial bet is £10, they will receive a payment of £12. The bigger the initial bet, the greater the gap according to the payment ratio, and the less interesting 6:5 blackjack becomes in terms of winnings.

Conversely, the fact that only one deck of cards is used to play gives a serious advantage to the player, as it allows them to develop basic blackjack strategies more easily.