I was dealing my friends Blackjack, putting up my own money

it was a 50¢ max bet game and I would shuffle inbetween hands

it seemed I would lose when 5-7 players were playing, but win when there were 4 or less

is this a profitable situation?

You likely have a 2-3% edge against your friends, depending how how terrible they are. It depends what rules you are using, assuming this is single deck if you play with favourable 6 deck rules your friends might have the edge off the top but it is almost impossible for them to be playing perfect basic strategy, hence the inflated edge.

We would use a single deck, Blackjack plays 3:2, Insurance pays 2:1, splitting pairs and doubling down were options

Dealer hits on 16 and under and stays on 17 or over

Double down on any two cards? Double after you split? 1 card to split aces? Resplitting aces allowed or not? Surrender, early or late or not at all?

Double down any two, Double after split, >1 card to split Aces, resplitting of all pairs allowed, no surrender

watch out using a single deck. If they have any sense, counting a single deck is hella easy. I often played with people from my school while waiting to get a live poker game going, and I would just destroy everyone. If you suspect anyone is even capable of counting, you WILL get cleaned out.

edit: just read that you shuffled between hands. This prevents counting a bit, but with 7 people dealt a hand, you will see almost half the deck in a single round, assuming an avg. of 3 cards/hand. while this doesn't affect betting, the last player to act has valuable info and can make better decisions after seeing many of the cards. we dealt out the entire deck and reshuffled remaining cards if needed, and none of the other players seemed to have any problem with it. bunch of idiots.

the deck is shuffled

with all things considered, what are the best conditions/rules that I could implement as the "house" in order to give myself the best advantage (I could bring in a list and call them "Official Casino Rules" or something, they will believe me)

Add the option of late surrender. While it's technically favourable for the player, it will be misused and profitable for you. You don't need to worry about the house edge - your friends will deviate from correct play often enough to create your edge.

dealer hits on soft 17 would be better than standing

LOL at any ******s thinking he's going to get 'cleaned out' at a 50 cent max game with friends because people will be counting....

What spread are they going to use? 25 cents wayyyy up to 50 cents? They're going to have a huge half a cent EV on each bet... uh uh!!

This is about the worst information and advice I've ever seen on this forum.

Almost certainly you are dealing a profitable game. As a player, playing multiple hands reduces variance. This isn't true for the dealer. Dealing to a full table can create a lot of variance. For the dealer (or house) to reduce variance they have to spread multiple games.

Your loss over two hours was almost a meaningless fluctuation in trying to analyze the game. I would use the loss as an advertisement and raise the stakes.

Pay 6:5 on blackjack, or even better, pay 1:1

Deal faster. You already have a significant advantage because the players are probably not playing perfect basic strategy, so the more hands you deal, the more you can expect to make.

-FoR
www.hitorsplit.com

do NOT pay less than 3:2 for blackjack. That's just dirty.

Agreed. But trying to squeeze your friends for a few extra pennies in a friendly blackjack home game is a bit grimy, too, so I figured it was appropriate.

Seriously, not paying 3:2 on BJ is just too obvious. It's like saying house wins on ties.

Faster the better so get 6 decks.

so who is the third party that makes the player's variance not equal to the dealer's variance?

This stems from dumbass movies like '21' where the counters get good counts, make big bets and NEVER EVER LOSE a single one of them.

The EV is some small %, but Hollywood makes it out to be close to 100%.

I groan a lot watching gambling movies...

Multiple independent players.

[ ] understands variance

Your blank check box not withstanding I believe the above poster is correct. This is due to the structure of blackjack and dealer play. If the dealer has a "bust card", especially a 4 or 5 or 6 basic strategy is not to hit a hand which can bust. So, with the dealer having a bust card generally the dealer with either make a hand, and wipe most of the table out (most of the time) or bust, in which case the dealer must pay the entire table (assuming no one knows any index plays).

Perhaps a simpler explanation is in order. The dealer plays one hand of the same value vs all players. Players can play multiple hands of different values vs the dealer.

I am starting to understand more about house advantage and variance, I've started using two decks shuffled after used all the way through

thats bad to anyone thats paying attention. deal between 2/3s and 3/4s of the way through.

if you dont have any cut cards. glue the faces of cards of another color deck together so you just see the back on both sides. make two of these cutcards.

then after you shuffle, offer the cutcard to a player. he slides it where he wants to in the deck. you bring the bottom half of the deck onto the top so the cutcard he placed is now on the bottom. then you take the other cut card and place it 2/3s to 3/4s of the way down. then once you get to that card, you finish up the hand your on dealing the cards below it if you have to, then shuffle. also if that cutcard is on the very top of the deck before you deal the next hand, then you shuffle instead.