Blackjack Tips for Beating the Dealer

  Blackjack Split – Not A Must Blackjack Split is a move that becomes available to players when the initial two cards dealt happen to be of the same rank. Under these circumstances the original dealt hand can be split into two as shown in the image above. It requires the placing of an additional equal bet, thereby doubling the staked amount.   Players that are not aware of the optimum blackjack strategy tend to split hands whenever the occasion presents itself. You must split certain hands to gain maximum advantage and if you split the other hands, you will endanger not only the initial stake but the additional one as well. I will discuss blackjack split strategy in a later blog. Here I want to highlight a rule that has insidiously crept in some blackjack games, mostly at online casinos.   Split is available only if the initial cards are of the same rank. Tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings all have 10 pints, but are not of the same rank. So, in normal blackjack games, you cannot

  Blackjack Tournaments There are many ways poker is played. You can play at home in an informal manner with friends. All the money in the pot is taken by the winner. Or you can play cash games in the glitzy setting of a club or casino. For that you pay a price in the form of a rake taken from every pot. Or you can play in poker tournaments where all entrants start with the same chip stack and the last person standing wins the announced fixed prize. World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour are the most popular of these.   There are not as many options for blackjack. You really cannot play blackjack for real money at home because the game is played against the house. At casinos there is no rake from the bets. The blackjack odds and payouts are designed to give the casino an edge, often referred to as house edge. Blackjack tournaments exist, both online and in brick-and-mortar settings, but are not as popular as poker tournaments.   World Series of Blackjack was launched in 20

  Blackjack Card Counting – Is it Worthwhile? Having confirmed the legality of blackjack card counting , I now address the next logical question. Is blackjack card counting worthwhile. My experienced answer is an unequivocal NO. And these are the reasons why.   Blackjack Card Counting Is Difficult   The simplest form of card counting, which offers the least advantage, involves assigning a value of -1, 0, or +1 to each card, as shown in the image above. You have to keep track of the cumulative total of all exposed cards on the blackjack table– not only yours and the dealer’s, but also for each player. And this needs to be done discreetly, without giving any signs to the casino staff. Believe me, this is extremely difficult. Very few people can be successful.     Blackjack Card Counting Offers Only Marginal Advantage   Optimum blackjack strategy results in an average expected return of 99.5%. This means that for every $100 that you bet you will get back only $99.5 in

  Blackjack Card Counting – Is it Legal? Under US law, blackjack card counting is legal, provided the player or team does not use any mechanical or electronic or any other type of device for the card counting. If you are counting cards in your mind and get caught, you cannot be handed over to the police, cannot be charged with any crime and will not face any fine or jail term. However, there is a “but” – and a big one.   Casinos are private property and right of admission is reserved. If they ask you to leave, then you must and you have no recourse in law against that decision. Just as unruly casinos players are ejected from the premises, so are suspected card counters. Those who follow blackjack news, will realise that the frequency of removal of card counters is on the rise. This is hardly surprising, because card counting still results in losses to casinos of millions of dollars every year.   Two thoughts arise from this discussion.   ·        How do casinos catch black

  A Snippet from Blackjack History To the uninitiated, a black jack would be the Jack of Spades or the Jack of Clubs. In the game, “blackjack” is a special two card hand consisting of an ace and any 10-valued card . Tens, jacks, queens, and kings all have a value of ten in casino blackjack. This special hand has an enhanced payout of 3 to 2, or now of 6 to 5 in some casinos . However, this was not always so.   Though blackjack originated in Europe, the modern game evolved in the United States. In the first half of the twentieth century, gambling was illegal there and was conducted in “underground casinos”. To draw more players to the fold, gambling houses offered a bonus payout of 10 to 1 for being dealt a hand of the  ace of spades  and a black  jack (the Jack of Spades or the Jack of Clubs) . This hand was called a "blackjack", and gave its name to the game, which was until then more popularly known as 21, from the French vingt-et-un. The name stuck to this hand even after

  How Vegas Casinos Dupe Blackjack Players Ever since I started playing the game 40 years ago, blackjack has paid 3 to 2 at all land and online casinos. Last year, news began to trickle in that some Las Vegas casinos started paying at a lower rate of 6 to 5. At first there was disbelief, because this was like ripping off the casino player. However, the news was persistent and my sources were good. Then in June 2023 Mike Aponte went public on this issue in an interview to ABC News . Aponte was a part of the famous, or should I say infamous, MIT Blackjack Team and his word carries weight.   This is not a blanket, boldly announced decision taken by the casino fraternity, but has been executed in an insidious manner. Even within a casino you will find blackjack tables with the older 3 to 2 payouts and also those with the new 6 to 5 payouts. The higher limit tables where the pros hold sway will be 3 to 2, because an expert player will never accept the lowered odds. Today, “tourist gamblers