There is probably no easier and fun game to play and win than Blackjack. If you don’t want to lose a lot of money then blackjack is the game for you. The rules of blackjack are not complicated and you will soon master the game.
If you have never played Blackjack before you will be able to learn and understand this game in a matter of minutes. Should you find you love playing blackjack you might want to read books and articles written by gambling pro’s. This will increase your odds of winning and avoiding common mistakes.
In blackjack, there is a dealer and you must place your bet before the cards are dealt, this is standard play whether you are in a casino or online. After bets are placed the dealer will deal two cards to all players at the table and one or two cards to himself. If the dealer deals himself one card it increases the odds of the other players to win the round.
The cards have been dealt and now it’s time to look at your hand. The idea of the game is to reach 21 or as close as you can get, but if you go over, let’s say you have 22 you lose your bet.
Value of the cards in blackjack are as follows King, Queen and Jack is 10 Ace is either 1 or 11 and the rest of the deck is face value. So lets say you have a Jack, a King and a 2 this would be 22 and you lose your bet. If you had an Ace and a Queen you would have 21 and if dealt these cards from the start Blackjack.
Blackjack allows you to hit or draw up to five cards and you can hold whenever you think your hand will beat the dealer. When playing in live dealer casinos or playing virtual online blackjack, no matter how many people are at the table you play against the dealer and no one else.
Common Blackjack Terms
- Insurance: This is a side bet of up to half of your initial bet against the dealer having a natural 21, meaning the dealer is showing an Ace. If the dealer has a 10 face down and produces a blackjack, insurance pays at 2-1 odds or loses if the dealer does not produce 21.
- Surrender: This is giving up your hand and you will only lose half the bet.
- Early Surrender: This surrender is allowed before the dealer checks their hand for blackjack.
- Double Down: You can double your initial bet following the initial two-card deal, but you can only hit one card.This is a good bet if the you have a strong hand. Most casinos will let you to double down on any two cards,but some restrict your double down to a hand of ten or eleven. You must keep in mind that when you double down you have got to accept one more card and only one.
- Even Money: This is cashing in your bet immediately at a 1:1 ratio when you are dealt a natural blackjack and the dealer is showing card is an Ace.
- Split Hand: A split hand is when you split your initial two card hand into two hands and play them separately. This is only allowed when your first two cards are of equal value. You then take your two cards and start a second hand and place a second bet equal to the first.
- Hard Hand: This is a hand without an Ace or with an Ace valued at 1.This is called a hard hand in that it can only be given one value.
- Soft Hand: A soft hand contains an Ace counted as 11 making this a Soft Hand.
So that is all there is to Blackjack so pick your place to play and have fun.
Blackjack Betting
Blackjack betting takes careful consideration by players. It begins by knowing when to make the right move according to the cards in your hand. Blackjack is one of the only casino games that a skilled player can actually beat the house and be guaranteed a profit.
The way that people go about this is to count cards, that is use a mathematical formula to keep track of what cards remain in the deck of cards and then alter their bets accordingly. Card counting is a relatively easy skill to learn but almost impossible to implement properly in a casino due to facial recognition technology and the fact the floor staff quickly realize when someone is counting cards, meaning the player is usually ejected from the premises. It is also impossible to do this online due to the continuous shuffling of the cards for security reasons.
Strategy
A good rule of thumb when Blackjack betting is to restrict your bets to about 2% of your total pot. Using this strategy you will reduce your loses if you are on a losing streak but on the other hand you won’t be nailing any big money if you go on a winning streak. The whole point of using this strategy is to keep your loses to a minimum but allowing you to qualify for the bonuses offered by online casinos.
Payout
Average payouts in blackjack are around 97%, so if you play $100 you would get a return of $97 although this will vary from casino to casino so make sure you understand the policies of your casino before you begin to play.
Something else to keep in mind is never take up the casinos offer to buy insurance. This is a lousy way to use your Blackjack betting funds especially when the odds are in favour of the casino.
Variations
The first Blackjack variation is the number of decks used at one time. It is extremely rare to find a casino that offer single deck games as this only give the house a 0.17% advantage, and if you do find a single deck game running you will generally find a number of additional rules that help the house. Adding three more decks increases the edge to 0.6%, whilst the most common eight deck game give the house a 0.66% advantage over the average player.
A common rule in place in most casinos is that the player will only receive one extra card when they split a pair of aces. This is because allowing the player to hit on split aces reduces the house edge by around 0.13% and when the house only has around a 1% advantage to start with this amount is very significant. However, most casinos allow a player to “double-down” on a split pair, other than aces, even though this gives a 0.12% advantage to the player.
The largest variation comes from the payout when a player does hit blackjack. This will, on average, occur in 4.8% of hands so deviating from the standard 3:2 payout massively sways the odds in the casino’s favour. A 6:5 payout reduces the player’s edge by 1.4% whilst some casino who only payout 1:1 do so to give themselves a huge 2.3% edge.
It is worth looking at the rules of the Blackjack table you are about to play at and then research the edge the house has over you. The best table would be one that plays four decks, makes the dealer stand on soft-17, offers late surrender, allows you to double after a split, allows you to double any two cards and pays out 3:2 on Blackjack. Should you find a table that actually offers you this, let me know!
Confident Betting
On a final note always have confidence when Blackjack betting. If you have confidence in your own abilities it will go a long way in the casino. Your confidence will grow with practice and putting betting strategies and tools in place. The more you play your Blackjack betting skills will develop and before you know it you will be playing like a pro.
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