Reno Travel Tips - Reno Travel Guide

The game of Blackjack, also known as 21, used to always employ a single 52 card deck. However that changed after the publication of Beat the Dealer by mathematics professor Dr. Edward O. Thorp in 1962 that showed how card counting techniques could give a player an advantage in the game. Casinos begin to deal games with multiple decks in order to thwart would be card counters.

Multiple deck games were perceived as harder to count. Actually using multiple decks increases the house advantage in the game for non-counters and counters alike as less blackjacks occur. In addition, favorable situations available to be exploited by card counters occur less frequently when additional decks are used.

Reno (including the rest of Northern Nevada like Lake Tahoe) continued offering single deck games after the Las Vegas Strip shifted towards multiple decks. However, there were two major differences between Reno's game and that in Las Vegas. In Reno, players could typically only double down when the first two cards totaled ten or eleven. Whereas in Las Vegas, players could double down on any two cards. In addition, the dealer would hit a soft seventeen in Reno and stand on it in Las Vegas. A soft seventeen is when a hand includes an ace that is being counted as an eleven. Having the dealer hitting a soft seventeen favors the house.

The terms "Reno Rules" or "Northern Nevada Rules" were used to describe the game typically dealt in Reno and would usually employ a single deck of cards. "Las Vegas Rules" defined the game being dealt further south. Some multi-deck games could be found in Northern Nevada, however Reno Rules with a single deck were by far the most common.

In the late 1990s blackjack in Nevada deteriorated as more multi-decks games became common. Even Reno succumbed as two, four, and six deck games infiltrated the casinos that had for so long held out dealing single decks. However, it is still common to find many hand held single and double deck games dealt in Reno. (Single and double deck games tend to be hand held by the dealer, whereas four or more decks are dealt from a "shoe.")

Today the single deck games typically employs traditional Reno rules, but can employ more favorable Las Vegas Rules. When preparing to play, it is important to look and examine what rules are in use. Typically this will be in small print on the placard that shows table limits and is located on the side of the table.

In recent years, casinos have introduced an extremely unfavorable game called 6:5 blackjack. In this game the house only pays blackjacks at 6 for 5 instead of the normal 3 for 2 (which would be 7.5 for 5). The house advantage on this game is several times that of the normal 3 for 2 game. In fact, the odds are so bad that no one should ever play when a blackjack only pays 6 for 5. The 6:5 games are most commonly found at the lower limit single deck games at the larger casinos.

In Reno, you can still find a good single deck game. But be sure to avoid those with the 6 for 5 payout. Reno is still a fun place to play single deck blackjack.

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