3:2 vs 6:5 Blackjack: What It Actually Costs
Two numbers on a blackjack placard, "BLACKJACK PAYS 3 TO 2" or "BLACKJACK PAYS 6 TO 5," look like a rounding difference. They aren't. It's the single biggest rule variation on the table, bigger than the deck count, bigger than soft 17, bigger than every basic-strategy decision combined. Here's the actual cost.
The payout, not the odds
A natural blackjack, an Ace and a ten-value card on the first two cards, pays extra because it beats every hand except a dealer blackjack. On a $10 bet:
- 3:2 blackjack pays $15.
- 6:5 blackjack pays $12.
Same hand, same bet, same luck. The player is paid $3 less every single time a $10 wager turns into a natural, just because of what's printed on the felt.
What it costs at the table
| Bet | 3:2 pays | 6:5 pays | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | $7.50 | $6.00 | -$1.50 |
| $10 | $15.00 | $12.00 | -$3.00 |
| $25 | $37.50 | $30.00 | -$7.50 |
| $50 | $75.00 | $60.00 | -$15.00 |
| $100 | $150.00 | $120.00 | -$30.00 |
The cut scales exactly with the bet: 6:5 always pays you 20% less than 3:2 on a natural, whatever you had riding on the hand.
What it costs over a session
Blackjacks land on roughly 4.8% of hands (about 1 in 21) dealt from a standard shoe, so the per-hand payout cut translates into a fixed increase in the house edge, independent of any strategy decision: switching from 3:2 to 6:5 raises the house edge by roughly 1.4 percentage points, depending on the rest of the table's rules. That 1.4% applies to every dollar wagered, not just the hands that end in a blackjack, because it's baked into the long-run expected value of every hand dealt.
| Total Action | Approx. Additional Expected Cost of 6:5 |
|---|---|
| $1,000 | ~$14 |
| $5,000 | ~$70 |
| $10,000 | ~$140 |
| $25,000 | ~$350 |
| $100,000 | ~$1,400 |
These are long-run expected-value estimates, the average cost if you played that much action an enormous number of times. Any single session can land above or below this figure purely from variance. The number that doesn't move is the rate: 6:5 costs about 1.4% more of everything wagered, session after session, win or lose.
Why 1.4 points is a big deal
Playing perfect basic strategy against a fair 3:2, S17, 6-deck game like the one dealt here already gets the house edge down to roughly 0.5%. See 0stakes' own basic strategy chart for the exact rule-by-rule numbers. A 6:5 payout alone adds roughly 1.4 points on top of that, nearly tripling the total edge, more than every common basic-strategy mistake a casual player makes across an entire session combined. You can play every hand exactly right and still hand back three times as much simply by sitting down at the wrong table.
The takeaway
The payout printed on the table can matter more than many of the strategy decisions players obsess over. Splitting 8s or standing on a hard 16 against a dealer 6 matters, but a single glance at the placard before sitting down matters more. Prefer 3:2 blackjack and avoid 6:5 when possible; if a table only offers 6:5, treat it the same as a bad rule variant, not a harmless print choice. 0stakes deals a 3:2 game, matching the player-fair standard used in every number on this page.
Learn the basic strategy chart, drill it on the strategy trainer, read the first-time at a blackjack table guide for what else to check on the placard, or see how blackjack's edge compares to every other bet on the casino house edge page.