Blackjack Strategy

Blackjack is a casino game of skill that can be beaten. You need to know a basic blackjack strategy to give yourself some chance of winning money playing blackjack at a casino. Fortunately for both online and land based casinos, the romance of playing Blackjack in a casino has many people gambling on cards without a basic blackjack strategy.

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Basic Blackjack Strategy

Basic Blackjack Strategy tells you what you should do with your cards when the dealer is holding a certain card.

Should you hit or should you stand and let the dealer bust?
When to double down.
When should you split.
What cards shouldn’t you split.

Blackjack Strategy Card (blackjack strategy card courtesy of Wikipedia)

blackjack-strategy-card

The answers to these questions and many others like this all revolve around the card that the dealer is displaying.

Basic Blackjack Strategy also has slight variations depending on the amount of decks being used.

For example, many gamblers believe that you make your profits playing blackjack by winning your splits and doubles.

When the cards are running you can easily get caught up in the excitement of winning and split 99 when up against the dealers 7.

This is an incorrect play. The odds are against you winning over the long run. Now certainly, you may win the hand, you may win the next 10 that you split but over the long haul, the house has the edge when you spit 99 against a 7.

Playing Blackjack Basic Strategy isn’t a guaranteed way to win at the casino tables. It only improves your chances.

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Insurance Playing Blackjack

Being offered insurance when you play blackjack will happen when the dealers card is an Ace. The dealer will offer you insurance in the event they hit their blackjack then you can get your money back. Insurance pays 2 to 1 so you can take insurance for half your original bet.

Never take insurance when you play blackjack either at a real live casino or at an online casino.

A casino does not offer you a way to beat them if they can’t beat you more often. Think about it, a casino is there to make a profit. If the casinos lost money over the long haul letting gamblers take out insurance, do you really think they would offer it to you? Me either!

The dealer doesn’t even have a 1 in 3 chance to hit a blackjack it’s 4/13.

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Counting Cards Playing Blackjack

The one way that you can have a serious chance of winning playing blackjack is by counting cards. There are many stories in recent history of MIT teams and other card counting professionals and card counting teams hitting Vegas for millions.

It’s certainly a romantic story for all gamblers to hear how blackjack players live the life of a high rolling gambler beating the casinos each night.

Counting Cards

Counting cards takes some serious skill to perfect and there are a few different variations to the count that people with these skills employ in an attempt to gain an advantage.

But here’s the thing about counting cards. Did you know that counting cards does not guarantee that you will win playing blackjack?

It’s true.

Counting cards simply tells you when there will be more 10s in the shoe to help you make 20. Remember earlier I said many blackjack players believe that you win money playing blackjack by winning your splits and doubles?

Well, this is when you really can win a lot of money doubling and splitting against a dealers 5 when you know they will probably bust. However, they still may not bust.

Nobody knows what the next card is. As a card counter, you only know that there are more big cards left in the deck than there are little cards.

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How to Count Cards

There are several systems that show you how to count cards. The basic card counting system and the easiest one to learn is as follows.

Cards 2-3-4-5-6 are assigned a value of +1
Cards 7-8-9 are assigned a value of 0
Cards 10-J-Q-K-A are assigned a value of -1

The higher the count the more 10s a left in the deck to help you make 20. How many decks are in play determines what count you need before increasing your bets.

To test your card counting skills you will need to get a deck of playing cards, shuffle them and then throw down 2 cards at a time assigning values to the cards you see. When you have thrown down all 52 cards you should have a count total of 0.

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Blackjack Side Bets

Many casinos offer different side bets that you can also wager on when playing blackjack. For example you can place a bet on getting a pair, suited pairs pays 30/1. Again, as is the case with the casino offering you Insurance, if casinos lost money from these sidebets, would they let you make them?

Side bets are not for those who wish to make a profit playing blackjack.