What should my bankroll be?

July 11, 2008 11:12 AM

How much money would it take to deal blackjack for a night?

I've been asked if I want to deal and be "the house" at blackjack at a party. Assuming a $5 max bet for the first few hours and a $10 max bet for the last couple, what's a reasonable estimate for the amount of money I should have in order to cover winnings? I don't expect to have a full table the whole time, probably full every once in a while and empty others. If it's easier to estimate we can just assume two players the whole time.

posted by samph to work & money (5 comments total)

If you want an informed answer to this question, you should ask in the Other Gambling Games sub-forum on www.twoplustwo.com. Someone there will not only be able to tell you the correct bankroll for being the house, they can also advise you on the best rules to offer, optimum number of decks to deal from, etc.
posted by mosk at 11:23 AM on July 11, 2008

It's essentially a blackjack risk of ruin calculation. The house edge on Blackjack isn't much, maybe 1-2% depending on the rules, so the player risk of ruin isn't that different from the house's.

Looks to me like somewhere between $1000 and $2000 would give you a 1% risk of ruin. If you were willing to settle for a 5% chance of being cleaned out you might go as low as $500.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:03 PM on July 11, 2008

You can also mitigate risk by adjusting the ruleset -- play a single deck, dealer hits on soft 17s, no surrender, no insurance, etc.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:12 PM on July 11, 2008

Of course, if it's your own money you're putting up in the hope of making a profit, you should be wary. If you show up with a single deck and there's a counter waiting for you, you could lose it all.

Even if the host puts up the money, he could get angry and ask you to pay him back.

Whether there is some collaboration going on or not in these examples, things could be bad for you.

Make sure you trust the people there, and if you're putting up your own money be sure you have a handle on proper game procedure.
posted by splice at 1:42 PM on July 11, 2008

You can easily stop counters by tweaking the rules a bit in ways that shouldn't annoy recreational players at a private party.

Make the minimum bet the same as the maximum. For your $5 game, that means players may bet exactly $5 and only $5.

Don't allow "mid shoe entry". A player may only play a round if he played the previous round or the deck has just been shuffled.

You can also just shuffle between each round.

Counters win by betting more when the odds are in their favor. These measures prevent them from doing that.

Casinos don't do this because they'd win less money over millions of hands of blackjack. You have much fewer hands so you can assume a more defensive posture.
posted by chrchr at 5:26 PM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]