- In Free Bet Blackjack the casino funds your double on a two-card hard 9, 10 or 11 and your split on every pair except tens; a lost free bet costs nothing.
- A dealer total of 22 pushes every player hand still standing, except a player blackjack, which still pays 3:2.
- Under standard rules (six decks, dealer hits soft 17, 3:2 blackjack) Wizard of Odds puts the Free Bet Blackjack house edge at 1.04%.
- Dealer standing on soft 17 lowers the Free Bet Blackjack edge by 0.31 points; free doubles on three or more cards lower it by 0.66 points; 6:5 payouts raise it by 1.36.
- The core strategy rule is to accept every free double and free split, because a free bet can win real chips and a loss costs nothing extra.
Free Bet Blackjack lets the casino pay for your doubles on hard 9, 10 and 11 and for your splits on every pair except tens. If a free bet loses, you lose nothing beyond your original stake; if it wins, you are paid as though you had put up the money yourself. The price is the push-22 rule: a dealer who draws to 22 pushes every player hand still in play instead of busting. Under the standard rules, six decks with the dealer hitting soft 17, Wizard of Odds puts the house edge at 1.04%.
Origin
The game was designed by Geoff Hall, the inventor of Blackjack Switch, reusing the push-22 rule from that game. Wikipedia’s article on SHFL Entertainment (the former Shuffle Master) records that in 2012 the company obtained the licence to distribute Hall’s Free Bet Blackjack worldwide excluding the UK and Nevada. It has since become one of the most widely dealt blackjack variants in US casinos, usually with a progressive or “Pot of Gold” side bet attached.
The rules
Wizard of Odds’ description of the standard rules:
| Element | Free Bet Blackjack | Conventional six-deck blackjack |
|---|---|---|
| Decks | Six | Six |
| Soft 17 | Dealer hits (standard); some casinos stand | Varies |
| Blackjack | Pays 3:2 | Pays 3:2 |
| Free double | On any two-card hard 9, 10 or 11 | n/a |
| Paid double | Allowed on other two-card hands at your own expense | Any two cards |
| Free split | On any pair except 10-value cards; resplit to four hands including aces | n/a |
| Paid split | 10-value pairs at your own expense | Any pair |
| Double after split | Yes, including free doubles on split hands | Usually yes |
| Surrender | None | Varies |
| Dealer 22 | Pushes all player hands of 21 or less; player blackjack still paid | Bust |
Free double. Holding a two-card hard 9, 10 or 11, you signal a double. The dealer places a lammer marked “free bet” beside your stake and deals one card. Three outcomes:
- Win: you are paid on your stake and on the free bet, so a $10 stake returns $10 stake + $10 profit + $10 free-bet winnings = $30, and the lammer is removed.
- Push: your $10 stake is returned and the lammer removed.
- Lose: your $10 stake is taken; the free bet cost nothing.
Free split. Holding any pair except tens, you signal a split. Your stake stays on the first hand and a free-bet lammer goes on the second. Each hand is then played normally and may itself take a free double or free split where eligible. Winning free bets are paid in real chips; losing or pushing free bets are simply removed.
Push 22. After all players act, the dealer draws to 17 or more as usual. A dealer hand of exactly 22 is not a bust. Every player hand still standing, whether 12 or 21, is a push; only a player natural is exempt and has already been paid 3:2. A dealer 23 or more busts normally.
Why the push-22 rule is the price
Wizard of Odds’ rule-variations table, measured in ordinary blackjack, values “dealer bust on 22 is a push” at 6.91 percentage points to the house. The free doubles and free splits are what buy that back. Doubling is already a profitable action on 9, 10 and 11 against most upcards; making it free turns a two-unit bet with one unit at risk into something close to a free roll on the best spots. Splitting low pairs that basic strategy would otherwise hit, such as 2s and 3s against a 9, becomes correct because the second hand is free.
The arithmetic nets out to a house edge about 0.4 points above a comparable blackjack game. Under six decks and H17, Wizard of Odds’ Appendix 9 figure for ordinary blackjack with DAS is 0.62%; Free Bet Blackjack is 1.04%. The difference is the cost of the format, paid by every player through the push-22 rule regardless of how well they play.
House edge by rule
Wizard of Odds’ figures for the standard game and the effect of common changes, expressed as the change in house edge:
| Rule | House edge or change |
|---|---|
| Standard rules (six decks, H17, 3:2) | 1.04% |
| Dealer stands on soft 17 | −0.31 points |
| Free doubles allowed on three or more cards | −0.66 points |
| Late surrender offered | −0.21 points |
| One deck | +0.14 points |
| Two decks | +0.06 points |
| Eight decks | −0.01 points |
| No resplitting of aces | +0.08 points |
| No free split on 4s | +0.27 points |
| No resplitting 2s through 9s | +0.32 points |
| No doubling or free doubling after a split | +0.70 points |
| Blackjack pays 6:5 | +1.36 points |
Two of these deserve attention. First, the deck-count effect runs the opposite way to blackjack: fewer decks are worse for the player here, because the push-22 rule and the free bets interact with the dealer’s bust distribution differently. Second, “no doubling after a split” is worth five times what it costs in ordinary blackjack (0.14), because free doubles on split hands are a large part of the game’s value. A table that deals Free Bet Blackjack with 6:5 payouts is about 2.4% and should be avoided.
The Pot of Gold side bet, which pays on a dealer 22 and other events, has a house edge of 5.77% on one pay table and 4.64% on another. Wizard of Odds notes that a player can lower the side bet’s edge by splitting 5s instead of doubling, but doing so raises the main-bet edge by 0.15 points; the combined result is still worse than not making the side bet.
How strategy differs
Wizard of Odds’ first rule for the game is to “accept every free double and free split opportunity”. The reasoning is complete in one sentence: a free bet has no downside relative to not making it, so declining is always a mistake. Beyond that, three differences from blackjack basic strategy stand out.
Free-bet hands are played more aggressively. Once a free bet is on the table, a push is as bad as a loss from the free bet’s point of view (the lammer is removed either way), so standing on a stiff total in the hope of a dealer bust is worth less. Wizard of Odds’ charts separate the strategy for hands with and without a free bet riding for this reason.
Push 22 makes standing on stiffs worth less everywhere. As in Blackjack Switch, a dealer who draws out to 22 pushes rather than pays your 13 against a 4, which removes part of the reward for standing. Hitting thresholds on hard 12 through 16 against low upcards shift towards hitting; consult the game’s chart rather than the blackjack chart for those cells.
Paid doubles and paid splits are rarer. You may still double on, say, soft 17 against a 6 or hard 8 against a 5 at your own expense, and split tens, but with the push-22 rule reducing the value of all doubles those paid options are correct in fewer spots than in blackjack. The free options cover most of the high-value doubling and splitting ground anyway.
Wizard of Odds observes that the game is designed to offer more doubles and splits than conventional blackjack and that its strategy is simpler as a result. The doubling and splitting guides explain the underlying decisions that the free bets amplify.
Judging a table
Confirm the soft-17 rule, whether double after split is allowed, and above all whether blackjack pays 3:2. The best common Free Bet game, six decks with S17 and DAS, sits around 0.73%; the worst common one, H17 with 6:5, about 2.4%. The table selection guide applies the same reading order. Blackjack World Tour is a free iOS blackjack game played with virtual chips; it is a social casino with in-app purchases and no real-money gambling. Free Bet Blackjack in a live casino is a real-money game whose free bets are real only when they win.
Related reading
- Blackjack Switch
- How rule variations change the house edge
- Double and split rule variations
- Side bets explained
Frequently asked
How does a free double work?
What is the catch in Free Bet Blackjack?
Should I ever refuse a free double?
Is Free Bet Blackjack better than regular blackjack?
Sources & editorial notes
By Blackjack World Tour · Updated 2026-10-12 · Owner review pending. Sources were checked on the update date.
- wizardofodds.com · games / free bet blackjack ↗
- en.wikipedia.org · wiki / SHFL_Entertainment ↗
- wizardofodds.com · blackjack / rule variations ↗
- wizardofodds.com · blackjack / switch ↗
Where this guide states a strategy decision without naming rules, it assumes the site profile: six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split, no surrender. Basic strategy cannot guarantee a winning hand.
Practise the decision.
Ten hands under the stated profile, with the reasoning after every answer.
Open the trainer