What Is Card Counting?
What is counting cards all about? The reason why counting cards is so famous when it comes to talking about blackjack is because it is the one system that actually minimises the house edge against a blackjack player when playing at a casino. Card counting entails continually maintaining a running count of the cards at the blackjack table, to work out what type of cards are remaining in the deck or shoe. The idea of card counting is based on looking at the cards that are coming out of the shoe, assigning them a weight, and using the weights to maintain a running count. By continually adjusting the count as cards are dealt out, the count fluctuates and can represent whether the cards in the shoe are going to advantage the blackjack player or the blackjack dealer. Imagine if you are trying to work out how many people are in a room. You are standing outside and the only way of finding out is by counting how many people leave the room and how many people enter the room. You have then have a good idea of how many people will be in the room relative from when you started counting the ins and the outs. Once the count shows that the cards remaining in the shoe are advantaging the blackjack player, then it is time to take advantage of this and bet in bigger units. At this point, it is mathematically proven that the best should have a good chance of winning so the bigger profits are made when the deck is hot according to the count. By making big bets when the deck is hot, generates profit and recovers the losses of whenever the deck is cold, and betting units are lost. Counting cards is an excellent way of minimising the edge a casino has over blackjack players and gaining an edge over the casino given favourable conditions. It takes many hours to master so practice hard for it.
Why Use A Strategy?
Why Do I Need A Strategy? Blackjack is unlike many other casino games out there, where this game actually requires a lot of skill to be played profitably. Sure there are plenty of blackjack players out there who rely on intuition or luck and sometimes they have a really good session and walk out telling the whole world how lucky or what a great player they are, but these are always short term. The lucky blackjack player on one day might be telling the world how much he won from the casino, but he often does not disclose how much he actually lost at the casino in previous sessions. Sometimes they brag about how they had that gut feeling and decided to hit on 17 and managed to land 21 which beat the dealer’s 20, or how they stood on 14 when the dealer showed an 8, for the dealer to bust itself. These are all short term examples of when a player just purely gets lucky. Casinos actually love these types of blackjack players since they actually donate the most money to the casino and provide them with the revenue to actually pay staff and offer players free drinks. The type of blackjack player that the casino fears are the ones that know how to minimise the house edge by using basic strategy and card counting. Good money management is also required as a strategy when going to the casino, so when you actually win a few hands, you walk away from the casino a winner rather than walking away with losses. Short term wins based on no clear strategy will always be short term. The laws of mathematics and statistics always state so, otherwise casinos would go bankrupt. To actually win in blackjack, learn how to count cards, use basic strategy and have good money management.
Why Insurance?
Should Insurance Be Bought? Insurance is offered in blackjack whenever the dealer shows an ace card. The blackjack player is given the option to purchase it with half the original bet and pays two to one on the bet. The idea of this insurance is the blackjack dealer actually has a very high chance of the second card being a ten and being blackjack, so that the blackjack player would automatically lose the hand. If the blackjack dealer does not have a ten to make the hand blackjack, then the insurance bet is forfeited. For fans of all types of insurance like travel insurance, life insurance or car insurance, then maybe this bet seems like a very attractive bet to protect one from the dealer having blackjack. However, do not be fooled by the name of it being insurance since it is more a side bet of whether the blackjack dealer’s next card is going to be a ten or not. Whether this insurance bet is value or not is easily worked out since only 4 out of 13 cards are tens in a deck of 52 cards. Since the bet only pays two to one, it is a very poor bet, meaning that the chances are that the blackjack dealer will not have blackjack, and the bet only pays two to one. The house edge on this bet is 7.69%. So in a hundred insurance bets, each being 1 unit, the house will win an extra 7.69 units over the player. Knowing this information, it is advisable to never take the insurance offer. Just continue to play the game, and if the dealer happens to have blackjack, then it is just bad luck that can be blamed rather than not taking blackjack.
Is This A Hard Game To Learn?
Is Blackjack A Hard Game To Learn? Blackjack is regarded as a game of skill so it is relatively more difficult to play than games like roulette, sic bo or baccarat. There are decisions to be made once a hand has been dealt and a beginner blackjack player can stand to lose a lot of money if they do not understand the rules well enough and do not know what they are doing. However, since blackjack has been played for such a long time there are a host of reading materials and strategies that are used to master the game and allow it to be learned very quickly. As long as a budding blackjack enthusiast is patient , applies the teachings and is willing to learn from their mistakes, they can easily become an advanced blackjack player. The first steps to learning blackjack is to learn the rules of the game. Blackjack consists of hitting, standing, betting, and is also added with different variations of the game that include options like splitting, doubling down, surrendering, insurance, etc. All these need to be understood. After learning all these functions, it is time to learn basic strategy. Blackjack’s famous basic strategy is a chart of all the most optimal moves given a dealt hand according to the hand of the dealer. It is advisable to actually learn the chart back to front, but just knowing how to read it is the very start to learning how to use it. You can actually have the chart at the blackjack table at most casinos, so using it while you play is an excellent idea as it completely minimises the edge a casino has over a blackjack player. After learning how to apply basic strategy, a blackjack player’s next step is to learn how to count cards. This will require more practice and research in order to master this, but with patience and perseverance, knowing how to count cards is highly profitable. Blackjack is more difficult to learn compared to other casino games, but still worth spending the time and energy to learn.
Why Double Down?
Why Do We Need To Double Down? The double down option in blackjack allows blackjack players to increase their blackjack bet by double and receive one more card from the dealer. Most blackjack players know how to use this when they are dealt a total of 11 and they are highly likely to hit 21, a hand that cannot lose. The double down is actually an excellent option to help minimise the house edge against the casino. Use it correctly and the house edge drops at least 0.08%, but use it incorrectly and the house edge will gain a little further. Apart from doubling down when the player total is 11, it is important to know when to double down using the dealer’s card and when the total is not 11. If the blackjack dealer is faced with a situation where they are more than likely to bust, and the player can hit without any threat of busting, anything with 11 or under, then it is time to double down and take advantage of this favourable situation that has been dealt. So whenever the blackjack dealer is showing a 3, 4, 5, 6, then it is time to double down when you have a safe hand. When the blackjack dealer is showing 7, 8, 9 it is still wise to double down if you have a 10 card, since you are more than likely to make 20. Some blackjack players out there like to think that there is no need to double down since they are already betting and will more than likely win the bet so they are happy with that. To think like that is optimally incorrect since a blackjack player needs to take advantage of such favourable conditions to make a bigger bet to make up for all the hands where the player lost their bet due to busting before the blackjack dealer.
