Blackjack Investment

Deck estimation: nothing beyond practices

2011-03-03T08:34:00.001-05:00

Deck estimation: nothing beyond practices

Once coming to the card counting skill with hi-lo system, we need the parameter of the number of remaining deck to get the true count. There are some estimation by number of players, rounds dealt, and other factors, rather than by sight though I’ve never heard of that any player try to keep counting the actual number of dealt cards. Actually, the trouble is not worth the reward, since it needs more complicated mathematical calculation during the blackjack game. In stead, you can train your eye to estimate the remaining decks with good accuracy in a short time rather than keeping counting. I assume that deck estimation is an important course for the players to be familiar with so as to calculate the true count for blackjack playing and betting. A great master of the deck estimation skill would increase the return of profits from casino.

Deck-estimation is definitely something that from my point of view should be practiced regularly with real cards (If possible, playing cards from casinos and discard trays would be the best option), as we practice other blackjack skills. In terms of the theoretical advantage, which kind of total recall would yield over perfect deck estimation, either full, half, or quarter deck? Computer sims that calculate the true count using the exact number of cards and one that uses 1/2 deck estimation doesn't show enough difference to talk about after several million hands. That is, there is only minimal importance is produced between higher deck resolutions and simply calculating the true count, and the advantage you gain from perfect deck estimation is not as big a factor as the harm caused by sloppy estimation. There is nothing too desirable on the advantage.

Then anyone has the ideas on how to judge how many decks the cards on the table are, 3.25 or 3.5? It seems that there is nothing special except continuous practices. One thing you can do is go out and buy maybe ten decks of those cheap dollar store cards. They are a bit off from regular casino cards but they should be ok for this purpose. Take four decks and pile them up; then three decks and pile them up; then two decks and pile them up and one deck and pile it up. Line those piles up next to one another in that order and set them some where that you spend a lot of time. Maybe do this with another ten decks and set them in another location. So through out the day you to see these decks as you do for one thing and you become very familiar with that sight. When you come back to check those piles in other time, you remain yourselves that this is one deck; this is two decks; this is three decks; this is four decks. After a while you will finally know what is what when you see it again. The other way suggested here is to practice card cutting like some players. For one, to cut a deck of cards out of a pack of cards say eight decks here. Of course that would much better if you could accurately distinguish the half deck or even quarter-deck of cards. Honesty to say, after only a day or two of staring at these I bet you can pretty accurately estimate them to at least a half deck.

However, as for calculating the true count, it is really difficult to use the half-deck or quarter-deck resolution for conversion. It is recommended to apply full-deck resolution instead of half-deck that make the whole calculation process much easier, although practice of 1/2 deck resolution is still required. That is because resolving by half-decks would be more accurately to round to the nearest deck for the true count calculation.

Bankroll size for blackjack players

2011-02-27T19:48:00.002-05:00

Bankroll size for blackjack players

We have to mention about the bankroll in the game of blackjack, since its importance should never be ignored in any kind of investment as well as any gambling experience. The bankroll is referring to the amount of cash you choose to bring to a live or online casino for advantage play in a session of blackjack. Players are required to be able to use bankroll management techniques in order not to go broke when sitting down at the blackjack tables. If you don’t know or even look down on how to manage your bankroll for the game, then you’ll generally lose your money much faster than someone who does know something about managing their bankroll. For a card counter, it is more significant to have comprehensive knowledge on the bankroll management, since there are always the chances to lose money even though big bets are placed when the odds are in his favor. A statistical advantage is only evident in the long term, and in the short term players still have to be confronted with losing the wagers often do.

Thus, the first things you need to understand is that the bankroll should large enough for the tables you’re playing on so that you would well control the risk of ruin in the blackjack game. Generally, the minimum bet is determined by the bankroll. For instance, if you have a $100 bankroll then you definitely shouldn’t be playing on a table where the minimum bet is $15. The reason is that if you do this then you’ll find that once you hit a bad deck you’ll go broke since there always is a wide fluctuation in the money. It’s recommended that you always have at least 50 times the size of your bet for a session playing. In this regard, if you have $250 in your bankroll then you should be playing on a blackjack table where you’re allowed to bet $5.

There are some statistics for you to determine how to set up your total bankroll for blackjack play. To start with, if you want to have 100 max bets for the bankroll, then there would be only around a 5% risk of ruin (RoR). That usually means 800-1200 minimum bets with the bet spread of 1 to 8 or 1 to 12. So if you play at the $5 tables you would want at least $4000 for a $40 max bet or $6000 for a $60 max bet, etc. If you want a lower RoR then you will need more money than that to support. It all depends on what your expected value and standard difference are for the game you are playing. Another option is that you can also take 50 max bets as the bankroll, but the RoR would increase to 13%, a bit higher than the 100 one. In this system, at least 600 minimum bets are required with the spread of 1 to 12. These are the bottommost requirement in bankroll size for professional players, but if you are an amateur counter with a regular day time job, then the requirement could be to some extent reduced with at least 300 minimum bets. That is because the bankroll size is also determined by the hours you would like to spend in the game. More hours you play on the table, more bankroll is required. Of course, it is safer to take the lower risk in the game. If possible, take as much money fro the bankroll as possible.

Besides, only use the money that you can afford to lose for the blackjack bankroll, never spending every cent you deposit in the bank and never borrow money from anyone else. It is not merely to make the bankroll last with appropriate bankroll management, but ensuring you would not have any financial problem in your daily life because of your bad betting habits.

Choosing a blackjack dealer

2011-02-26T23:31:00.002-05:00

Choosing a blackjack dealer

Besides many aspects in blackjack learningskills like card counting and betting strategy, it is another key point to choose a blackjack dealer that you are in favor of, because the dealer would sometimes give a great impact on the outcome of the game. A good dealer could make you more confidential to gain profits, while some evil dealer would deprive of the players advantages and even cheat to increase the chance of bankrupt of the players. Thus, selection of a blackjack dealer before heading to a table is must-be stuff to conduct.

The good thing is, sometimes you may encounter a dealer who is sloppy, exposes cards, occasionally pays you for pushes and gives you a push when you should bust. You may be able to see under the hole card as the dealer takes her peek, or double when you are not allowed even if the game does not have the DOA rule. This may be worth a little bit for a single session, and identifying a sloppy dealer can be worth a lot more over several sessions, but it is certainly not too obvious for your profits in the long run. A good name and reputation are worth a lot more at the casino, especially if you are a frequent player or a card counter. More, some dealers deals the card in a slow speed so that the beginner player could have more time to count the dealt card so as to make a correct decision on their playing strategy and betting strategy.

However, it’s too horror when the reverse is true at casinos. You have to protect yourself from dealer errors that hurt you, so pay attention and double-check the dealer on every hand. You also have to identify dealers who are purposely cheating you. There are dealers who steal directly from the casinos, and there are dealers who steal from players on behalf of the casinos. Either way, it’s going to hurt your bottom line. In fact, dealer cheating is the largest source of stealing, on a cash basis, that casinos battle against. However, given that professional blackjack players, dealers, and casino management all claim that it is a serious problem; it cannot go without mention here. Thus, some knowledge about how dealers cheat can go a long way towards helping you protect yourself.

Shoe game is the safest game you can play in the casinos with a cut card, and a mirror to check for blackjacks. If, however, you prefer a hand-held game, either single deck or double deck, then you had better learn to check out each dealer as he begins dealing to you, and then watch the dealer carefully for the duration of his stay. At most casinos dealers do not have pockets, and therefore cannot hide a chip that they might decide to palm. If you notice that the dealers at the casino you are at have pockets, be especially careful: the dealers may be palming chips right off the table. Thus, to be aware when the stack of 8 green chips you bet are revealed only 7 high when it’s being paid off. These amazing acts of magic can and do happen at times.

Due to the capability of both good and evil sides the dealer can offer, it is recommend playing at the same casino and getting to know the dealers, though this task can detract from your enjoyment of the game. The behavior of a dealer would be interfacing the player with his expectation, therefore, be sure that the dealer do not have any influence over that expectation, whether good or bad. After all, to make money from casino is not that easy anyway, since there are more beyond card counting.

Choices of seat at blackjack table

2011-02-25T07:33:00.001-05:00

Choices of seat at blackjack table

Gambling for some people is the matter of luck, so choosing where to sit could be a profound course for them. They always think that different seats would bring varying responsibilities, and that their expected return will vary based on the seat they select. In fact, this is absolutely wrong. All seats are equal in terms of rates of wining or losing. It is evident that if players would play enough hands in each seat, the identical results can be nearly proved, which could approach the expected rate in statistics. From the long term, player would have exactly the same expected value regardless of which seat he choose. However, there are really some differences sitting at various positions. In an extreme case with seven players, the advantage difference between seats 6 and 7 is about 0.05%. The two most controversial seats are the third base and the first base.

Often, the card counters prefer to take a seat at the third base. That is because as many cards as possible can be seen at that position so that the counter could have a more accurate count to decide how to play. From the first box to the final one, there would be enough cards to be dealt to make the true count change, so the playing efficiency can be regarded the most accurate. In this point, players can also rely on the changed count to vary playing strategy such as hitting 7-5 against the dealer’s 6, or standing on T-6 against the dealer T, and get more advantages. There is no other seat that yields the advantages of third base for the counter. But there is a definite social cost for playing third base. Common players often become angry at counters for taking the dealer’s bust card or ruining the order of the cards. They assume that the counters hold the responsibility for the outcome of the hand sitting at the last position. Many players believe it is a team game, that all the players have to make the right moves or else the dealer will get better hands and make hands that he shouldn’t. This is sheer nonsense. The thing to be aware of is that, even playing basic strategy, each seat comes with a price tag that may affect your enjoyment of the game.

However, when the first base is chosen instead, the players would find that less connections and interruption from other players will emerge at your play with the outcome of the round. Therefore the first base is the most anonymous and hence most socially enjoyable seat. Also, at the first base, the players could make more effective betting decisions as the betting amount completely depends on the true count gained from last round. This at the same time lowers the possibility of other players making a mistake (hitting instead of standing, etc).In words, at either third or first base, players may get the opportunity to see the dealer’s hole card which could benefit counters greatly in some special situation when you hit the hard 18 against the dealer’s 9 since the hole card of T has been known.

Of course, sometimes you would face with one-on-one playing; and from the view of mathematics, nothing would affect the efficiency of playing or betting, so you could try to pick a chair which is easier for the dealer’s motion, and sit there because sometimes the dealers would have some physical problem like sore back. This is not only the respect to the dealers, but depresses the chance to be detected as a card counter.

Spread the profits with effective betting systems

2011-02-24T06:46:00.002-05:00

Spread the profits with effective betting systems

In the process of blackjack investment, there exists a very important concept – bet spread which indicates the range between the lowest and highest bets players will place at the table. If a player implements a bet spread of 1-10, this means that their largest bet is 10 times the size of their smallest bet. In other way, if the minimum bet a player places is $10, then his maximum bet is 10 times of this which is $80.

In blackjack, the playing strategy by itself does not produce any visible improvement to the BasicStrategy disadvantage of the same -0.5% (here suppose the house edge of casino is 0.5%). This guarantees that confirmed basic strategy players would lose 0.5% of their total betting amount in a long term if they just use flat bet. Thus, whether in theory or in practice, a legitimate bet spread is necessarily required in order to overcome the changes in advantage that a player experiences. The importance of betting should be realized as only spreading could make sure the profitability of advantage players. Normally bets should be staying low when the deck favors the house and progressively higher as it swings in favor of the player. Proper application of bet spread strategy can produce a positive theoretical expectation and also the corresponding advantage.

In practice, the bet spread will be affected by many conditions such as the game rules, the offered penetration as well as the tolerance of a particular casino to large bet spreads. It is highly suggested that never place a bet in excess of 2% of total bankroll on any hand, as this will help to limit your risk of ruin. It is always happening that bankrolls go up and down dramatically at times, but the longer you play the greater the chances of your bankroll remaining on the positive side of the curve. Here is an example. For betting spread of 1-6, 1 unit is bet on all true counts with the negative advantages and neutrals and 2 units is bet on +2 true count, 4 on +3 and 6 on +4 and higher. This could yield the result of +0.145% which have the average bet of 1.5 units. That translates into a positive advantage for a player of +0.145% / 1.5 = + 0.096%. From other perspective, this advantage will generate in theory an average profit of $9.60 on a $10,000 action, which is really minimal. In an 8 deck game, 1- 4 spread would probably be the bare minimum to beat the game as in pennies per hour; 1- 8 would probably be the bare minimum to beat the game for any appreciable amount of money; 1- 12 would probably be more reasonable if not getting spectacular penetration. Of course whether you are playing all or wonging is another factor to be considered. 1-4 spread when playing all is probably an even game at best, while 1-4 wonging in on positive counts is still a winner.

Obviously, a betting spread is imperative when investing blackjack. No matter how skilled a card counter is and how accurately he memorizes all the indices from card counting strategy tables and how perfectly he applies the playing strategy, he still needs a betting spread if he wants to get a theoretical advantage. Without betting spread, even in theory, a card counting is not much better than Basic Strategy. Unfortunately, bet spread is one of the main indicators used by a casino to detect card counters, so it is of importance that a counter has a good understanding of a particular casino’s tolerance of large bet spreads to avoid being detected.

Advantage based betting system

2011-02-19T20:38:00.001-05:00

Advantage-based betting system

Casinos could have long term profits because the players are innocent to the games. Even if you have handled the basics of card counting skills, and also can adjust the basic strategy on the changed index numbers, it does not mean you're ready to play. Thus, first Forget about the things to the casino, and all you need to do now is to manage their own funds to develop for their own betting systems. For a card counter, money management is referring to how to bet for the game to have you get more opportunities to win at the lowest level of risk of ruin. The advantages of the casino off card counters are very small, but in the process of gambling the oscillation amplitude of the bankroll can be large. Proper money management is to make sure you can survive on at the table long enough to wait until the best opportunity comes to you. At most of times, you will fail when start, and it would takes many hours of work, to begin to make a profit, this is the reality of blackjack playing.

Here, using the advantages converted from the true number to decide how much to be is one of the most scientific methods. This is called Kelly Criteria which can help players get the maximum profit with minimum risk. Under this rule, when you have the advantage of 1%, you could place 1% of the bankroll for betting. In practice, When by Hi-Lo card counting true counts increased by 1, 21 players in the gambling game have an increase of 0.5% advantage. Assume that the casino has the house edge of 0.5% under the application of basic strategy by players. When the true count is plus 1, the casino and the player equal in the advantage, meaning that players with the basic strategy does not lose or win at the long time gambling with casinos. And the advantage of player increases to 0.5% when the true count reaches 2, and so on. According to the amount of advantage, the player can accurately know the next hand, how much to bet. Even if there is a good card counting off the next card, counter will only bet a small part of the funds, because in the long run there could be have an average winning, but may still be losing money temporarily. Thus a good counter can determine the amount of betting is based on the advantage he gains. Because in the blackjack, doubling and splitting could be occurred which would increase the risk and meanwhile change the attribution of card dealt, the actual bet amount should be 76% of the player advantage. For instance, in accordance with the advantage of 0.5% of dealer, when the true count arrives at +2 seriously, the size of the player should bet: Bankroll * 0.5% * 76%.

In addition, in the betting process we need to consider the practical operational factors. First of all, the minimum unit is required by casinos sometimes would be not identical with the betting amount you calculate using Kelly equation, so appropriate carry should be performed. More, it is difficult for players to place the bets only when the true count is +2 or above, thus most of time players have to bet when the dealer have more advantages. All these would exert a negative influence on the expected value. Thus, it is necessary to develop a suitable betting system. Make endeavor to be familiar with it, and then confidently applied in the actual situation. Of course, before that, you need to have enough capitals to resist to fluctuations of fund while playing. Additionally, to be strict with the betting strategy developed before is a necessary condition for you to gain the profits.

Wonging in the crowd

2011-02-19T10:25:00.002-05:00

Wonging in the crowd

A rider strategy for blackjack is called Wonging, which is also known as “back-counting " requiring the players to await behind a blackjack table where other players are playing, and applies card counting techniques to determine the time when the more favorable cards will be dealt before taking part in the game. This method is first put forwarded by Stanford Wong and the term "Wong" comes from his name. Wongers are also considered as card counters but have an additional advantage of sitting out during the parts of the game where players have a less chance of getting blackjacks thus avoiding having to lose money unnecessarily.

The player will enter or "wong in" to the game when the count reaches a point at which the player has an advantage with the increase of true count. The player may then raise the bets as their advantage increases, or lower their bets when their advantage drops down. And while the count goes down to a point where players can no longer have a positive advantage, they choose to wong, or leave when the shoe is finished and sent for shuffling. Back-counting is generally done on shoe games, of multi decks. The reason for this is that the count is more stable in a shoe game, so that a player will play longer. Also, the casino regulation is another factor which limits players to wong in the middle of the single deck table.

Wonging provides players some advantages because player does not have to play every hand he sees. First, this strategy in turn reduces variance and fluctuations, and increases the total advantage of the player since the players only bet at a level when the true count has a mathematical advantage. It makes perfect sense for any player to want to lessen the chance of losing money, as wonger shares only with the favorable cards. You can also speed things up a little by abandoning the hopelessly negative shoes from the beginning. Another advantage is that the player does not have to change their bet size as much, or at all if they chosen which makes counters less detectable by casinos. Wonging is like sharing a cake that everybody else helped bake. Of course, if less bankrolls should be required when back counting since you do not have to spend the money on the situation where you have negative expected value.

However, there could still be some back draws for back-counting. One is that the player frequently does not stay at the table long enough to earn comps from the casino which could be another income for advantage players. Besides, some players may become irritated with players who enter in the middle of a game, and believe that this interrupts the "flow" of the cards. Further, player who hops in and out of games may attract more unwanted attention from casinos, and may be detected as a card-counter. In a whole shoe of game, 25% of the time you will see positive counts, and thus most people don’t have the patience to wait for the count to a positive point.

Wonging is absolutely painfully boring and you may feel bad that you do not get to play at all, but you should feel good that you do not waste your money on any bad bets. Sometimes you could feel like a creepy old man skulking around the casino, but remember the only thing that makes you to be at blackjack tables is to make money. So, restrict your wonging strategy: try counting the positive shoes, don't waste your time back counting negative ones. If you have counted for two or three decks and there is still considerably negative count, just turn to find another table if one is just starting off the top.

Game with mixed colored cards

2011-02-18T08:50:00.004-05:00

Game with mixed colored cards

Normally, casinos would use playing card decks in two different colors of red and blue, but they don't mix them together. At the same time of playing one set of cards, they put the other set through a shuffle machine. Interestingly, if you have been across the European casinos, there would be a reversible situation: mixed card blackjack game can be found in some casinos. Here, there has been an interest topic that whether it is possible to count the cards by color. That is, for 6 decks of cards with 3 red decks and 3 blue ones, player count the red cards separating from the blue cards.

Personally, a greater advantage could be gained by counting each of the colored decks separately, but it would be much more difficult to achieve, since separate counting may give rise to increase of information and it makes counters overloaded with conversion of counts into betting amount in the casino situation. Keeping separate counts for the red and blue decks would definitely affect playing decisions. You will know the color of the next card coming out and thus you can have a better idea of when to hit or stand, but this advantage is reduced a little by the fact that if you have one positive and one negative count, and you either hit or stand based on the color of the next card, the following card that the dealer than takes could be the opposite color, meaning that your decision may not have been the best in the situation.

From my perspectives, tow main aspects could make it hard. If taking note of the cards both before and after they come out of the shoe, there would be no counting in pairs, and players have to be very quick to see the back of one card in the shoe to check its color and get your eyes back quick enough to see the back of the next card. This could be even harder if you are facing a fast dealer to keep track of two counts in your head also. Other, even if you can keep the two running counts, how to calculate and converse them? That would only be approximate because of the neutral value cards in the deck. It is conceivable that once you are nearing the cut card there would be a heavy bias towards one colored card, and if you were ignoring the neutral cards that have been dealt you would have no way to know this, resulting in skewed counts when big bets could be at stake. If you take an average of the counts to make your bets, then it would be just like regular counting. No too much advantage on betting can be gained from having two decks.

Overall, if this situation is performed on compute, it is likely to yield a great advantage compared to one-colored shoes, but whether it is possible to develop a practical system with a worthwhile increase in edge is still a big problem. Perhaps, from the view of mathematics, more chances could be acquired especially for those shuffle trackers since the cards are at an angle and ever so slightly separated whereas the discard tray is most likely colored thereby masking the difference in colors. However, is it worth to count the differently colored cards separately?

Crazy to split 10s?

2011-02-16T19:10:00.001-05:00

Crazy to split 10s?

Generally speaking, 10s are the most frequently occurring pairs in blackjack game with the receiving probability of 9.40%, and it’s 2.85% against a dealer’s 10, while against any other rank it’s 0.73 percent individually and 6.56 percent together. Such frequent emergence of 10s arise a concern that whether blackjack players should be splitting a pair of 10s, especially when the dealer has a 5 or 6 up. Some may say: Why not? To split the 10s as to make more money on the table when the dealer has easily busting card like the 5 or 6 up. It sounds profitable and reasonable.

If you split a pair of 10s against the dealer 6, you are going to win 64% of the times and lose only 36% with the net gain at 28%. You are overwhelmingly the favorite and stand to win money when you split. In fact, for every $100 you bet on the 10s, you’ll wind up with a $56 profit on average (twice of 28%). There is not big difference against a dealer’s 5, where you’ll also expect to be ahead by 26% when you split the 10s.

If you stand on the 10s pair, you have a 20. That’s a pretty good standing hand. You’ll win about 85% of the time when you stand on 20 against the dealer’s 6, which is roughly a 20% increase over splitting. This means when you stand on you 10s, against the dealers 6, you can expect to win roughly $70 per $100 wagered. Similar potential profit can be made against a dealer’s 5. However, when you split 10s, you are not guaranteed to catch two 20s, and often the split hands will be less than 20 in total.

As a matter of fact, only the ploppy and card counter would split the 10s. The above explanation tells that you will make more money by standing with 20 even though you could still get profits from splitting 10s against a dealer 5 and 6. Therefore, it is suggested that if you are a basic strategy player, you should never split 10s no matter what the dealer shows.

Nevertheless, this situation is changed when you are a card counter. It is supposed to split 10s sometimes against the dealer 5 or 6, but only when the remaining pack of cards is loaded with 10s, which card counters would know by tracking the high and low cards. In this regard, you are creating two hands and with an abundance of high cards out are likely to draw at least one good hand, so if the dealer doesn't break as desired, you most likely push. That is because when the deck is rich in 10, the card counter has a good chance of drawing 10s for two pat 20 hands or even 21 fortunately. In addition, the dealer’s chance of busting increases when the deck is loaded with 10s and she has to draw. As illustrated in the Illustrious 18, splitting on 10 against dealer’s 5 and 6 is allowed when the true count is larger than plus5 and plus 4 respectively. Therefore, the odds are in the card counter’s favor to make more money splitting 10s when the deck is 10-rich.

So, when you see a player splitting 10s next time, don’t think of him as a crazy man, because the skilled card counter could do this at sometimes. To highlight, if you are not counting cards, please be strict to follow what the basic strategy says: never split 10s.

16’dilemma: hit or stand?

2011-02-16T04:44:00.001-05:00

16’dilemma: hit or stand?

At much of the time, we would see a hand of 16 vs. dealer’s 7 or 10. As can be found in the basic strategy, it is advised that players should always hit 16 when dealer has the up-card with value above 7, but it seems easy to bust with 16 in hand. Thus, many people are confused about hitting or standing with such a high probability of busting. Actually, when the dealer has a 10 up, he'll bust 23 times out of 100. Interestingly, when he has a 7 up, he'll bust 26 times out of 100 -- not really much difference. And when you hit 16, your own chance to bust is exactly the same whether the dealer shows a 10 or a 7. So far, the two hands seem extremely similar for playing purposes. Then on earth, is it worthy of hitting for getting a lower card or waiting for the busting of dealers?

Suppose you hit your 16 vs. 10 and manage to catch a small card. In fact, you're still probably going to lose the hand because in this situation, only a 4 or a 5 would help. There is only a very slight difference with about 5 hands out of 1000 between hitting and standing on your 16. Because if you hit you won't be losing as much as if you stayed. Here, surrendering would be the best selection if possible. Commonly, mistaken ploppy likes to assume the dealer has a 10 for the second card. In fact, if you did hit your 16 against a 10 and caught a 3 to make 19, you actually only have 53% favorite to win the hand.

Nevertheless, there is a suggestion with many of your 16's containing a 4 or a 5, such as 8/5/3, or 9/4/3, or 7/5/4, or 4/4/4/4, etc., even a confirmed basic strategy player should not hit against a 10, but hit multi-card 16's such as 6/3/7, 2/6/8, or even A/6/8/A (no 4 or 5), since a 4 and a 5 are good for the hand of 16 against dealer’ 10 and there is less chance to get a 4 or 5 with more 4 and 5 cards dealt. Another strategy is that, you can also hit with 16v10 if you have 2 cards, and stand if you have 3 or more cards in your hand. The reason is that with a 2-card 16 you hold rather higher cards, thus leaving more low cards for drawing. But if you have a 3-card-16, you already holding lower cards and chances are reduced for drawing another lower card. But as mentioned before, surrender is the best option. Players who try to play as an A.P. need to realize that you are still going to lose half your hands regardless of what you behave. Knowing the count can give a clue on hitting or standing, but it won't change the outcome: 16 vs. a 10 will still result in a loss.

With regards to 16 against a 7, player should never stand it as there are just too many "outs" that would help to win the hand. That is, if you catch any deuce against a 7, you've probably just made yourself a winner. Though you have exactly the same risk to bust when you hit 16, whenever you don't bust, you have a much better chance to win the hand against a 7 than against the 10. That makes hitting much more worthwhile against the 7 up. Though with 16 against a 7, you will probably lose either way, however, your probability of winning or pushing is better by taking a hit. Statistically, the extra 6.79% decent savings would be met with hit in the 6 deck game.

Card counters, can vary the playing depending upon which cards have been eliminated from play. But if you're not a card counter, although you should often stand with 16 against a 10, you'll virtually always be confident to hit with any kind of 16 against a dealer's 7 regardless of how many cards it contains. How about when you have 16 against an 8, 9 or A? Same story -- hit it every single time as your habit in which you'll be approaching the destination of success.

Most valuable index numbers: Illustrious 18 and Fab 4

2011-02-14T01:24:00.001-05:00

Most valuable index numbers: Illustrious 18 and Fab 4

When coming to the freshly shuffled shoe, basic strategy is the best choice for players to play the first hand off the top. However, if you are counting cards, you can detect the changed situations where basic strategy is not appropriate with the fluctuation of true count. Then, how do we adjust the basic strategy? Here, the term of 'index numbers' in the card counting systems is introduced to indicate when a particular play is mathematically correct.

Assume that you are dealt 12 against a dealer 2. Basic strategy says to hit this hand. However, if you know the remaining deck is packed with tens, sometimes you are better off standing. If you are using the common Hi-Lo count, you should stand with 12v2 if the true count is +3 or higher. If the true count is +2 or less, you should stick with basic strategy and hit. The "+3" number here is called an index number, and these index numbers can be derived for each decision. They are specific to a particular counting system of course, and can also vary depending on the rules of the game.

Actually, there is a specific indices in the strategy table for each play, some of which are rarely used or they make little profit difference between the two choices to meet your expectation on the hand, so it is wise for player to select some most frequently applied index numbers in the playing process rather than have to remember full list of the numbers. If you are the advocate of the popular Hi-Lo counting system, the best recommendation is to use the index numbers from the Illustrious 18 which is suggested by Don Schlesinger delivering most of the possible gain from strategy deviation for a card counter. The Illustrious 18 is a group of 18 index numbers selected as the most profitable ones that a player should know and utilize. I-18 delivers around 80% of the value of knowing every last one of the index numbers. You can also review more detailed information about the I18 appears in Schlesinger's book Blackjack Attack. Below are respectively the lists of illustrious 18 indices and its revised version.

http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/tcindex/i18index.htm

http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/tcindex/r18.htm

One exception where I believe other indexes are also valuable is the very one: Surrender. You should learn these 4, right along with the first step of Insurance and 16 vs T and the original I18. The Fab 4 surrender indices brought to you by Don Schlesinger who also coined the I18:

14 vs 10

15 vs 10

15 vs 9

15 vs Ace

Of course, if you wanna find out full list of indexes, Wong's book ‘Professional Blackjack’ are recommended which includes all the index numbers mentioned as well as surrender indexes in it. They are quite useful. But keep in mind, the Illustrious 18 was based solely off the Hi-Lo system. So if one is using another counting system like unbalanced, or even a level 2 balanced, the index numbers will be totally different.

Mathematical genius conquers blackjack

2011-02-13T04:04:00.003-05:00

Mathematical genius conquers blackjack

In March 2008, Columbia Pictures released the movie of ‘21’ which follows the life of Ben Cambell, describing an MIT student participate in the blackjack tem to beat the casino in order to to afford the daunting medical school tuition. Many actors containing Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey are included in this film. This 21 blackjack movie exemplifies the possibilities and excitement of playing blackjack.

In fact, this movie is based on the best selling book’Bringing Down the House’ by Ben Mezrich, which tells about the real story of a Chinese American - Jeffery Ma who was a student of MIT. Accidentally, he was invited by his classmates to join a card counting group to learn playing "21" and the card counting skills. In theory, we can use mathematical statistics and precise memory to "calculate" cards beat the dealer at 21 game. Although in real life, few can do it, it is Ma Wizards in this regard, the "Intel" nickname. After sufficient exercise, Ma with his team members, who fought in the major U.S. casinos, every weekend, are fixed to carry $ 100,000 to Las Vegas and Atlantic City casino to "test ", sometimes they can win a night walk for almost million dollars. Soon, they aroused the vigilance of the casino. In order to prevent their counter identity being exposed, Ma and his colleagues, often cleverly disguised, sometimes dressed as tennis players, sometimes disguised as businessmen in suits and ties. But over time, they were pegged, as long as Ma enters the casino, the casino staff will keep a close eye on them, or even refuse to provide services. After that, the introduction of the m high-tech casino shuffle machines makes them have to finally give up this business.

Among the many gambling games, blackjack is a relatively fair. The so-called relative fairness is that if you can take each hand using the according basic strategy, then you can minimize the advantage of the casino - there is still a bit a few percent, but compared to slot machines, roulette etc., it has less losing rate. Besides, in blackjack game counters can predict the possibility of following cards by calculating the dealt cards. Ma and his companions reversed the tables of the situation and tilt the probability of winning to their sides through personal skills with experienced skilled team. In spite of bad luck sometimes, they still hold the advantage mathematically. For common person, it is more frequent to see losing than wining, but the situation is changed for them: the longer they play, the more they win. Although the film does not disclose the specific contents in terms of counting cards, but it is a factual description of the fact that blackjack game can be beat. Of course, if you are a novice, the film's entertainment also allows you to generate more interest for 21.

Survival philosophy in Casinos

2011-02-13T00:27:00.005-05:00

Survival philosophy in Casinos

It is an indisputable fact that Casino staff, particularly table managers do not like card counters playing at the blackjack tables because they all know that the 21 game is easy to be beat by skilled players. For the winners, the casinos always suspected them as card counters and closely monitor. If you make great note, you will find that whether you win or lose, high-stakes players is always being concerned. So a good card counting player must be able to hide the good of his ability, when you win look like a loser. Proper tactics can help you camouflage your counter identity, so that you can continue to work in the casino. Thus, when you feel that casinos would be possible to post a big "card counter" label at your back, if we can avoid the errors committed by card counting novices, you might survive. Here we will talk about how to cheat the casino with some tricks, and make you look like a normal gamblers:

● Make sure that you wear appropriately depending on the games you play. A person who bet for large amount is better to be well dressed. To avoid being monitor by the cameras, sometimes a ball cap would be a good choice to cover the face.

● Play games other than blackjack in the same pit prior to playing blackjack by buying chips from other games.

● Not change too many chips and call the chip in dollars not in color.

● Do not always start with minimum bet at the beginning of shoe, try twice or triple of mini unit to start sometimes

● Not to intentionally change your basic strategy since many staff in casinos do not know much about the basic strategy. Thus when you completely rely on the strategy, it at times looks like an idiot. For example, when you double A7 on the dealer’s 4, it is crazy from their perspectives.

● Attempt to be hesitant when you plan to hit 12-16, or you can also ask others for some advices.

● Occasionally bet for the insurance even if you only placed a small bet.

● To have some interactions with other players or dealer, but not talking about your capacity of card counting as well as assisting or instructing other players. Meanwhile, never admit you have read any books on blackjack

● Not to shuffle chips and always look at the cards, not moves his lips with the count and try not to be familiar with the rules: touch the cards.

● Show your emotions at the table: complain loudly that you've lost much money playing blackjack and talk a lot about winning your money back, and looks exited and happy when you win.

● Orders bottled water, coffee or soda--never drinks alcohol like most everyone else, but of course you can order 1 bottle of beer and makes it last his whole session.

● Randomly slips black into pocket to reduce your "Stack" when no-one is looking so as to produce a false appearance of losing.

● Please leave until you lose one hand with small betting if the true count is below minus one, as a normal gambler never leave the table when they win.

Surely, these are only some tips to help the counters escape from the supervision of the casinos. You could learn more from the actual experience. Remember to behave as a junior gamblers, and make yourself looked as a beginner not an expert. After all, the precondition to win the casino is to ensure you are not blacklisted regardless of how skilled you are. Survival is the first, followed by other development.

Strategy adjustment and deviation

2011-02-12T17:56:00.002-05:00

Strategy adjustment and deviation

In blackjack card counting, when faced with changes in true count, you need to adjust the strategy to play cards at the time, so as to get better results. In fact, according to true count to adjust the strategy can also get an additional 0.2% to 0.3% advantage for players. When the true count is very high, that is, the big cards take a larger proportion in the remaining cards, this will give gamers a greater advantage, so that you can never hesitate to stand with the cards valued at 12 in hands vs. the dealer’s 3, as the rest of the high cards can make the probability of busting for dealers soared. Adjusted strategy is premised on the basic strategy, which is a series of strategy adjustments to coordinate the change of true count to enable the players to obtain greater advantages.

In About 10% of the time, you must adjust your basic strategy according the true count. You should have less doubling, more hitting and less splitting when the true count drops, while more doubling, less hitting and more splitting are required when the true count increases. For example, player’s 9 vs. dealer’s 2, the basic strategy is to hit, but doubling is executed when the true count is high enough. Insurance is another important point in the strategy adjustment, since there would be the probability of 7.5% for dealer to have Ace in hand. Thus, it is significant for us to know when to bet for insurance. If you play multi-deck cards in the gambling game, it is worth to buy insurance when the true count is above +3. In the Hi-Lo cardcounting system, the insurance efficiency is 80% indicating that you have eight times out of ten chance to win when buying insurance based on true count.

The existence value of adjustment strategy is the emerging probability. On average, if you play 100,000 hands a year, you can expect to see 16 to 10 in 3,500 times, which is the most common case. Reversely, you only get 43 times of pairs 9 vs. dealer’s 2 in the 100,000 samples. Thus the adjustment strategy has less value at this moment, because the frequency that it turns up is relatively low. However, in the game, we have 54% of chance to see cards with value of 12 to 16 in the first two cards, so it is wise to give priority on learning the advanced strategy under these cases with high incidence rate. Also, the adjustment strategy is applied in the case of combination of three or more cards. Here, when you have A, 5, 10 (together 16) in hand vs. dealer’s10, standing should be chosen when you face the true count of 0 or more, which is the same situation as the combination of 10 and 6.

If you can make good use of the advanced strategy, you can respectively see at lest 10% and 25% increase in your advantage when playing six-deck game and signal deck. In addition, the use of these adjustments can make you look more like an ordinary gambler. It is typical habit for the gamblers not card counters that you sometimes hit and sometimes stand with 16 in hand vs. dealer’s 10. Also, the casino would treat you as s a coward, when you stand on dealer’10 despite of 15 in hand. Nevertheless, these adjustments are all based on the corresponding true count. Obviously, adjustment strategy can not only increase the advantages for blackjack players, but camouflage the counter identity of the players.

Balanced and unbalanced card counting systems

2011-02-01T08:08:00.004-05:00

Balanced and unbalanced card counting systems

As discussed in ‘Acquaintancewith card counting’, we know that high cards and low card are two important types of cards in counting system which play various roles in dealers’ hands and players’ hands. When more low cards have already been dealt with the remaining decks rich in high cards, this is favorable for player, while having dealt more tens and aces out of the decks would make this situation reversible. Thus, all blackjack card-counting systems keep track of the high cards versus the low cards. How high cards and low cards are value-assigned and classified is the main factor to make the difference between balanced and unbalanced counting systems.

A balanced card counting system is a system where the point values assigned to the cards balances out. That is, there are an equal number of positive and negative point values. When you count through an entire deck using a balanced system, you start your running count at zero. You expect to end your running count at zero. If you do not reach zero, then you have made mistakes. The most popular balanced system is Hi-Lo system. Actually, most professional-level counting systems are balanced point-count systems since the balanced systems are more accurate.

However, the difficulty in a balanced point-count system is that you must use the count to determine how much to bet and how to play your hand. First, the running count must be converted to a ‘true count’. Then, the player must memorize, and be able to apply, the correct playing and betting wager according to a true count. Though learning to keep a running count is not difficult for most players, using the count properly at the tables, however, may be such a mental strain that may result in many abandon in playing as advantage players. Besides performing division to calculate the true count, the player also need to accurately estimate the number of decks remaining in the shoe through estimating the number of decks in the discard pile. It seems to be a lot of work when applying the balanced systems.

Fortunately, in stead of the balanced systems, the unbalanced systems which are systems where the point values do not balance out, simplify and eliminate the extent of tasks such as division and decks estimation. When you count through an entire deck with an unbalanced system, you would not end a zero, even though you start with zero. Examples of unbalanced systems include the Red Seven Count and the KO Count. Most unbalanced systems begin at an "Initial Running Count"(IRC). Starting at an IRC other than zero means that the unbalanced system will finish at zero. Using an IRC also means that zero is the pivot point at which the odds change to favor the player. In unbalanced systems, a positive count still signals a player advantage. However, the drawback is that unbalanced systems sacrifice some accuracy to achieve simplicity.

As everything has its own merits and flaws, balanced card counting systems could produce more accurate and efficient while unbalanced card counting systems are rather easier to remember and track cards with less calculation. It is your favor to determine which one to use, but do remember that correct counting with a simple system is much better than frequently miscounting using a complex system.

How the Hi-Lo System works

2011-01-30T07:53:00.002-05:00

How the Hi-Lo System works

Among the card counting systems, the Hi-Lo system is one of the easier and more popular card counting systems for blackjack. This system has the betting efficiency of 97% and playing efficiency of 51%，though the best system in the world has the higher betting efficiency and playing efficiency of 98% and 70% respectively.

Each card played in Hi-Lo system is assigned a specific point value of +1, 0, or -1. This system is known as a balance system with the total point value for one deck of 0 as there are an equal number of high and low cards. Here, three kinds of cards can be found in this system:

The Low cards: Two, three, four, five and six are assigned a value of positive one. Because the dealers have to hit the cards until the total value of their hand is not less than 17, these low cards are good for them to reduce the possibility of busting.

2 3 4 5 6

+1 +1 +1 +1 +1

The High cards: Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace are assigned value of negative one. With these high cards in hand, the player can easily get a natural blackjack and meanwhile these cards are easy to make the dealers bust their hand especially when they have the cards of 12 to 16.

10 J Q K A

-1 -1 -1 -1 -1

The Neutral cards: Seven, eight and nine have no value and are not counted. They are thought as meaningless cards which have no influence at playing and betting.

7 8 9

0 0 0

Another term called the running count has to be mentioned in this system. The running count is referring to the total point value of the cards dealt. For example, If player 1 is dealt a 2 and 8 (+1, 0), player 2 has a 10 and a 5 (-1, +1), and the dealer's up-card is an Ace (-1), the running count in a single deck would be 0.

The True Count is one of the most important concepts in the Hi-Low system. When counting cards with this strategy, you have to convert the running count into the true count to get a more accurate estimation whether or not you have an advantage. The true count can be gained from the division of the running count by the total number of decks of the remaining cards yet to be dealt. After the true count is calculated, a counter can effectively place betting and adjust playing strategy according to the index, in which the casinos will be faced with the risk to be beat.

Of course, to become a proficient card counter in blackjack needs lot of practice. Thus, you should spend plenty of time to practice at home before entry to the casinos. The speed of counting through the whole deck in 30 seconds can make you catch up with the realistic casino situation. If possible, good software is fantastic to help with improvement of counting skill. Remember that, stay away from casinos if you still have no sufficient confidence in counting cards.

Side count of Aces

2011-01-30T03:23:00.003-05:00

Side count of Aces

In the cards counting systems, the betting efficiency and playing efficiency are two main factors to be considered to gauge the system. There is a tricky thing that the higher a system's betting efficiency is, the lower the playing efficiency becomes. In other words, a system which has no point value assigned to an ace will decrease betting efficiency in game, with an increase in playing efficiency. You know why? That is because of the unique role of the Ace card in blackjack. As for betting, the Ace is an excellent card since it can give the player a chance to gain blackjack which pays 3 to 2. But with regard to playing, it really sucks to hit an Ace. For instance, if you have a 13 in hand, hit and get an Ace, there is nothing worse than this. Thus, to better deal with Aces, an additional strategy called Ace side count is introduced.

As a matter of fact, there is an exact dividing line in choosing a counting system. Some counting strategies treat the ace as zero (ace-neutral), while some count the ace as negative (ace-reckoned). The ace is unusual as it is both a high card and a low card. According to the fact mentioned above, the Ace is not for playing efficiency since it does not bust the cards and is welcome in betting efficiency. So the player should decide to take use of side count or not based on the different situations. Generally, ace-reckoned strategies (e.g. Hi-Lo, KO) are better for shoe games, because betting is more important in those games, and ace-neutral strategies (e.g. Hi-Opt I, AO II) would be best option for single-deck, with playing being treated as an important aspect in pitch games.

Of course, if you can not find a best strategy to balance both playing efficiency and betting efficiency, you can use an ace-neutral strategy for PE, with a side count of aces for betting purposes. In this case, at the blackjack table, players should ignore the ace to yield higher PE and at the same time use a side count to detect additional change in expected value for the player to find out a good betting opportunities. This would be the ideal situation in winning efficiency, although it to some extent shows more remarked difficulty in game playing.

Despite that to keep a side count of aces is great for a player to achieve a balance of BC and PE, and even that the player could pursue a side count of every card that would probably achieve a perfect situation in PE, however this would make the card counting more complex at an exponential rate as this would give rise to over-tasked burden on the human mind and to a large extent decrease the ability of computation. Thus, the ease of use is another consideration to be suggested. There is a rule demonstrating that the simpler the better.

How to pick a card counting system

2011-01-29T20:30:00.004-05:00

How to pick a card counting system

As mentioned before, the major aim for a counting system is designed to weaken the effect of house advantage in blackjack so that the advantage player can get an effective access to vanquish the casinos. Like the colorful life, card counting systems vary widely with their own advantages, so if you're just starting out, you are likely confused by all the different existing systems. This article looks at the factors used to rate each card counting system and assist you to determine which one is the best for a player.

Ideally, a welcome system should be is usable by the player and provide the highest rate of money return per period of time. With this in mind, systems are always assessed in three aspects with aim at achieving a balance of efficiency:

1) Betting efficiency (BE)

When all the permutations of the undealt cards are summed with a positive expectation to a player, there is a positive expectation to a player placing a bet. The BE of A counting system measures how effectively the system produces the signal for gamblers to bet.

2) Playing efficiency (PE)

Playing efficiency means the portion of the expected profit earned from modifying playing strategy based on the known altered combination of cards. That is, in a system PE evaluates how effective a system is to alert the player to modify strategy in terms of the actual composition of undealt cards.

3) Insurance efficiency (IE)

Insurance efficiency indicates the portion of expected gain from taking the insurance bet with card counting at a high count, where an increase in IE will offer additional value to a counting system.

Normally, when choosing a system, first the player should make sure the type of blackjack he usually play, since there are some difference between the one-deck blackjack and multi-decks games. To make it simple, if you are going to play single-deck blackjack, choose a system with good playing efficiency and ensure the Ace is counted as a neutral card in a side count. But if you are playing multi-deck games, you need a high betting efficiency, so select a card counting system with Ace as a "good" card. Another factor is the length of time you spend on the games. It is surprise that if you want to have a long-term play at blackjack, a simple system would be suitable as this sort of systems would devote the attention of players on the game playing. Conversely, a complicated system can be picked to fit your short-time play (say about 3 hours per week), because the complex one have more power on efficiency. Of course, it is better to master two different systems with one for single-deck and the other for multi-decks games. Besides, your skills and level of playing experience is the important thing to be mentioned. If you are new to the game with no experience try starting with one of the basic systems, then move to one of the more advanced level strategies after mastering that strategy.

A card counting system with high betting efficiency to have a large change in betting amount will attract the attention of casinos, and a system with high playing efficiency would reduce the range of betting spread to help disguise what you are doing. Therefore, a skill for players to conceal themselves is necessary if wishing to make a long-time profit.

Acquaintance with card counting

2011-01-29T06:47:00.005-05:00

Acquaintance with card counting

Card counting is considered as a rather efficient and useful strategy to seek when a player has a positive advantage which is the key factor for players to beat the house in casino games, in particular the tracking of the ratio of high cards to low cards in blackjack and its derivatives such as Spanish pontoon. It is worthy of looking squarely at the importance of blackjack card counting as it really works and is considered to be completely legal to use in both land based and online casinos. Sure, casinos has realized the power of card counting if it can be used skillfully, so they use up to 8 decks of cards to prevent counting as well as continuous shuffling machine. In fact, most card counting system is based on the theory formed by a professor of mathematics - Dr. Edward Thorp who published the book ‘Beat the Dealer’ in 1960. This was the first time a book of this sort actually proved that the player with a sense for math stood a chance in winning against the casino in Blackjack.

The basic principle behind card counting is actually that the high cards, particularly aces and tens which are better for the player whilst low cards, particularly 4s, 5s and 6s are better for the dealer, as cards valued at 10 and 11 give a higher chance for player to obtain Blackjacks which pay at 3:2 unless dealers get blackjack as well, and also tens improve the value of doubling. More, a high number of ten-value cards also make the insurance bet more profitable since it is easy to make the dealers gain blackjack when they have Aces in hand. On the other hand, low cards are good for the dealer, because the dealer must hit if the total value of cards below 17, unlike the players who can hit or stand whenever they need. Tens easily bust all stiff hands (12-16); this will actually increase the possibility of loss for dealers. Perhaps, you would be confused whether the card counting is so difficult that only the profession in mathematics can do it. This is completely wrong. Actually, in the Blackjack card counting system, high and low cards are tracked and assigned a special score ( normally it is called ‘count’) which is the foundation for betting; thus you do not have to memorize the own value of cards. By remembering the assigned score of cards being played and sum them up, a gambler can raise his bet when the cards in the deck remaining are in his favor. So, it is sure that card counting is only concerning addition and sometimes subtraction, not a technical task in the area of mathematics. All you need to do is to have quick eyes, a sharp mind, and a sense of order so that you can both count cards and use the information you have to assist you in your blackjack play.

There are approximately over hundred different card counting strategies and it is rather difficult to choose the right or the only one of them to follow and use. If you are a beginner at blackjack, it is highly recommended to use basic systems rather than to learn any complicated counting systems as it can be very difficult to understand and remember them. Typically, the more complex a system is, the more efficiently would you play in the game. However, the difference between various counting systems is usually so small that ease of using the system becomes more important than gaining an additional minor advantage. It is advised that the players should choose a most suitable system to fit with their situation and keep practice till they can handle it entirely in the casino environment. With proficient card counting skill, you will be approaching the success soon.

Etiquette at blackjack table

2011-01-27T05:55:00.003-05:00

Etiquette at blackjack table

When you visit a land based casino and play at a blackjack table, there are probably some manners and behavior that you have to follow to perform as a professional player. Unlike other gambling games, wining or losing at blackjack sometimes is relevant to playing strategy, so what you behave will at times affect other players’ emotion as well as a little of luck. In order to avoid the dissatisfaction from the other people at the same table, you are recommended to learn some basic etiquette to cooperate with others.

1. Ask and wait before join the table

If you want to participate in a blackjack table, you’d better to ask the players who are playing if they mind you joining. Sometimes, card counters are betting big amount with high true count, so it is impolite for you to bet $10 against with the counters’ $1000 to share the good cards. The best way you can choose is to wait for the end of that shoe and play with them after shuffling.

2. No card cutting if you do not track cards

Perhaps, there are players at the same table tracking cards during shuffling, which would benefit the players including you. For example, they can cut the bad card like 5 or 6 to dealers, so the players can increase the chance to win.

3. Know the basic operation at table

For example, you should know how use the hand signal when being asking to hit or not. Also, normally you are not allowed to touch the cards dealt and the betting chips can not be moved after the first card is dealt.

4. Do not hold up the game

It is no problem for you to play without knowing any knowledge about basic strategy, since you can play at a table with no other players. However, if you always spent plenty of time to think how to play when others waiting for you, it would be not a good habit in which you probably reduce the speed of playing which would have positive impact on the profit of counters and waste time of other player. It is suggested that you have been familiar with the basic strategy before playing the game.

5. Do not complain other players’ playing strategy

It is no need to blame the players with wrong strategy at blackjack table, because they would sometimes save you and sometimes make you lose, but from a long run there is no effects on your profits.

6. Avoid excessive talk

Most people are there to play, not chat, so it is good for player to keep quiet when playing. Meanwhile, don't tell other players how to play like a teacher or correct their mistakes, you should respect their own decision and from the other hand it is easy to make yourself be exposed in the monitor of casino as a card counter.

7. Try not to drink

First, you will take the risk of spilling the liquid. More, if you get drunk, then you can control yourself so that you often make mistakes on the game and also have some impolite behavior on somebody else.

Varied rules on hole card

2011-01-25T08:21:00.003-05:00

Varied rules on hole card

Frequently, when we go to a site to find a basic strategy, we are required to input what type of blackjack rules applied in the casino we plan to go: dealer peeks or no peek? Actually, we can be very clear if the difference of American style and European style blackjack is given. In European blackjack, the dealer only gets a face-up card and no hole card, while the dealer receives two cards with one face up and one face down in American style. However, whether the dealer takes a hole card or not is irrelevant to the game. It's what they do with your bets that matter. Next four kinds blackjack variations would be presented: BB+1, OBO, ENHC, OBBO.

BB+1 (Busted Bets Plus One): at this situation, the dealer will take all busted bets, plus one more unit from everything else the player may have bet from doubling and/or splitting. That is, In BB+1, you will lose one bet per box to dealer BJ, regardless how many times you doubled or split.

OBO (Dealer takes original bets only): Under this rule, only original bet will be taken, regardless of what the player did. The player may split and/or double under this rule, without fear of losing more than the initial bet. Mathematically speaking, this is equivalent to the American rule where the dealer peeks for blackjack. That generally means that the dealer will deal herself a hole card, and check underneath tens and aces to see if she has blackjack before continuing the hand. That's the typical rule in the

. With the OBO rule, if the dealer has blackjack, you'll only lose one of the three bets. In most casinos in the US, the dealer would have peeked under the ten before you split anyway, so you'd never have even placed the other two bets. But there are a few casinos that use OBO without peeking.

ENHC (European No Hole Card): With this rule, you'd lose all bets if the dealer draws a blackjack, including doubles and splits, if the dealer gets a blackjack. So if you double or split, then the dealer pulls a blackjack and you lose both your original bet and your double or split. In most casinos with the ENHC rule, the casino doesn't draw a hole card at all. Instead, they have only one card until all the players finish their hands.

OBBO (Original and Busted Bets Only): Based on this rule, the dealer will take any busted bets, and one unit from each un-busted hand on the table. In other words, the player is at risk to lose his additional bets from splitting, but not doubling. In this case, if the dealer ends up with blackjack, you'll lose the busted bet on hand (which is removed from the table immediately upon your busting the hand), and also one of the two bets on your doubled hand regardless how many times you have doubled. Obviously, the more you have split, the more hand you have, therefore you will lose more. This rule can be found in Australian blackjack.

Because of the difference we mentioned above, there are of course some changes in the calculating advantage and customizing strategy as follow:

Variation effect in house edge (assume that BB+1 has the house edge of 0%):

BB+1 0

OBO 0.03%

OBBO -0.02%

ENHC -0.10%

Changes in basic strategy:

BB+1 OBO ENHC OBBO

8, 8 vs. T split split hit hit

8, 8 vs. A hit split hit hit

A, A vs. A split split hit split

11 vs. T double double hit double

11 vs. A double double hit double

Insurance Tactics

2011-01-25T02:01:00.002-05:00

Insurance Tactics

Insurance is a type of wager when the dealer get A. Players can raise bet at most half of their original betting for insurance, to bet whether the dealer would get Blackjack. If the dealer gets Blackjack, double insurance betting amount would be awarded to the player. If not, the gambler will lose their insurance. The insurance betting is actually invented by the casinos in Macau, and then popular in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other casinos.

Without card counting, only based on the basic strategy the players should never bet for insurance. This is not the painful experience of many gamblers, but also there is a strong support in mathematics. From the empirical study: it seems good for the players from the surface, and provides more choices for players to bet, but in fact this is another kind of method to make profits for casinos. Why is betting the insurance not a wise decision? Let numbers to explain the questions. When the dealer's card is A, players bet 1 unit for the insurance (for convenience, not considering the players initial bet size), the chance for dealers to get a card at the value of 10 is 4 / 13, because there are 13 type of cards per deck, and only 4 species (10, K, Q, J) can represent 10; and the probability of card which is not value of 10 is 9/13. In other words, players only have 4 / 13 of chance to obtain Black jack, and 9 / 13 is not in charge. Therefore,

Expected value for betting insurance: E (ξyes) = 2 × 4/13-1 × 9 / 13 =- 1 / 13 =- 7.69%

Expected value when the player not bet fro Insurance: E = (ξno) = 0

It can be seen, on average and from long term, not betting for the insurance t is a wise decision, since the player has -7.69% of advantage when betting for Insurance, which is worse than the expected value of 0 when the insurance betting is not considered.

As for card counters, insurance can be only considered when the true count is not less than +3. However, many players with card counting skill, still feel confused on buying insurance, and bet for insurance based on the cards on hand. When the players’ cards are valued at 20, they bet for the insurance despite that the true count is still below+3 at that moment. They think that the spent money for insurance will ensure them to certainly win with 20 in hand and at least they could get half back whenever the dealer gets blackjack. More, if the value of the cards the players have in hand is 13 to 16, they refuse to buy insurance, because they think they would finally lose even if the dealer is not BJ, and it is better to save the insurance bet. As a matter of fact, this is a wrong concept, as the "insurance" term, is easy to make ones to reckon to buy insurance for the cards they hold. In fact, there is nothing to do with the cards you have already been dealt when betting for insurance. When the true count is + 3 or more, the probability for dealers to get blackjack is greater than 1 / 3, so betting the insurance at this point has a positive win rate. That is, insurance is only betting on whether the dealer gets BJ, not being affected by the cards in hand.

In short, you never bet for insurance if you only use the basic strategy, and if you are a card counter, the true count of + 3 is key indication for you to decide if buy insurance, because only when the index is greater than +3, can you gain the advantage to beat the dealer, in which case it makes sense to bet for insurance.

Common errors when using basic strategy

2011-01-23T22:31:00.003-05:00

Common errors when using basic strategy

If you just spent very little time to play 21, then luck plays a large part, so the result is essentially unpredictable, you may win or may lose a lot. As in the independent events of probability, each event is independent, free from other effects. However, if putting the probability of events into the law of large numbers, then from the long run, in accordance with the basic strategy, the outcome will be close to the losing rate of players pre-set by the casinos, in which we can avoid a lot of loss due to the ignorance of basic strategy. For example, according to the typical blackjack rule, assuming the dealer casino advantage of 0.5%, if player bet $ 20 per hand, then the total betting amount expected is $ 1200 per hour(here assume that we play 60 hands in one hour). Players will lose averagely $6 per hour using the basic strategy, and $24 which is 4 times higher than the loss when using basic strategy would be lost if the players abandon the application of basic strategy. It can be seen that, wrong playing strategy will result in more loss in money. Here we'll discuss some errors blackjack players most likely to face during the process of blackjack game.

Assuming the following rules are based on six decks of cards where the dealers hit soft 17 and the player can double after doubling.

1) A, A vs. 10

Correct action: split

When you split A, you can only get a card for each A. Some players would think this is a bad play. Actually you can consider them as two 11 and double in which you can increase the possibility to win. It is not wise to treat it as 2 or 12.

Hit: lost 6.6%; Split: win 18.2%

2) A6 vs. 7

Correct action: Hit

I guess a lot of players want to stand to wait for 17 of the dealer. However, if you choose hit on this hand of cards, at most of time we can win from bad situation on average.

Stand: lost 10.4%; Hit: win 5.5%

3) 8, 8 vs. A

Correct action: Split

This is a very common mistake. Many players do not understand why to increase the risk to split and add more betting on table even in adverse conditions. In actual fact, when you split, you have the worst hand 16 points become two hands of 8 which is not too bad. Although we may still lose, at least less loss is proved mathematically.

Stand: lost 66.3%; Hit: lost 51.4%

4) A7 vs. 9

Correct action: Hit

This is another mistake many people would make. 18 is not enough in fact, making the dealer very easy 19 points with 9 in hand, and let the players in a passive state.

Stand: lost 18.3%; Hit: lose 9.8%

5) 11 vs. 10

Correct action: Double

It is believed that when the dealer has 10 on hand, many people are afraid to lose, especially when having lost money, but do trust probability.

Hit: win 11.8%; Double: win 17.8%

6) 12 vs. 2

Correct action: Hit

Many players do not like to hit with 12, in particular at the last box of the table. They think they will take the big cards for dealers.

Stand: lost 29.6%; Hit: lost 25.2%

Blackjack basic strategy

2011-01-23T08:05:00.004-05:00

Blackjack basic strategy

Basic strategy means that betting with the strategy will get a best result. But many people have not even heard of the basic strategy, and think that blackjack is very simple, and play on the table (visible everywhere in the casino), in which case, casinos have the advantage of 1-5%. This leads to loss even for no reasons, and only attribute to their own bad luck. Therefore, knowledge is power. In fact, in blackjack, the greatest disadvantage for players is that if the player's cards bust, then the dealer takes their betting wager on the spot, even if the dealer subsequently bust in the end. Thus, if the player imitates the way the casino plays: hit below point of 16, and stand on 17, then the player will finally lose. In order to attract more players, the casinos add a variety of functions into the blackjack game: split, double, surrender, pay 3 to 2 for blackjack. If players can play correctly and strictly observe the basic strategy, the advantage of dealer can be reduced to 0.5%.

The basis of winning each hand at blackjack is to use the basic strategy correctly. This means that one should accurately decide in each hand to hit, stand, double, split, or surrender. This all comes from basic strategy rather than by virtue of intuition, feeling, or guessing. Even when you face the situation that you lose the betting after double 11 vs. dealer’s 10 for several times, you still have to choose doubling down. The same actions make victory, so the important thing is to be a proper player, simply ignoring the dirty looks and sigh from other gamblers on the same table. The only reason for one to play blackjack is to make money. Thus, using the correct basic strategy can bring you money, regardless of how other people think.

The correct basic strategy is based on the game rule of the casino you choose to play. That is, the basic strategy corresponding to different rules may not be the same; for example, the strategy for one deck blackjack has some difference with the strategy of blackjack with eight decks of cards. And if you want to find a suitable strategy, you must first know the rules of the casino. More specific information about the basic strategy, you can browse basic strategy generation website, select the corresponding gambling rules, customize your basic strategy, print it out, in and memorize it before playing at table, so as to improve the odds of beating the casino.

However, it is necessary to mention that, the basic strategy can reduce the casino’s advantage, but the casino still cannot be easy to be beat even if players implement the basic strategy completely correctly. That is the basic design of the casino games, or else how the casino can make money. Of course, some clever counters still have the chance to win the casino, because in addition to the basic strategy and luck, there is some artistic stuff, such as card counting, fund management, as well as betting strategy.

The power of continuous shuffling machine

2011-01-23T00:34:00.006-05:00

The power of continuous shuffling machine

It is believed that most people who have been to casinos saw more and more shuffling machines used. Shuffling machines can speed up the pace of card shuffling and save a lot of time so that the casinos can more profits. It is these benefits-driven force that give rise to large numbers of machines and applications of machines. However, is this the only intention of casinos?

In fact, many companies in the world provide such equipment for the casinos. It is understood that instead of handy shuffling, the original shuffling machines simulate cross-shuffling processes, and put the shuffled cards back to the shoe box, which is similar with the process of manual shuffling which also begins card shuffling after that shoe finished. This type of machine shuffling improves the efficiency of dealing and has no influence for card counting. Then the situation is changed when the continuous shuffling machine was invented. The shuffling machine called Shuffle Star, made in

Austria

. Each of this type of machine worth more than U.S. $10000 and is usually used in the blackjack tables to deal with professional counters.

Many people may be confused that how much impact the continuous shuffling machine has on the card counting. In fact, the key point is penetration of cards, which indicates the more advantages will be obtained if we have more cards to play in one shoe, and vice versa. Blackjack can be beat by card counting because there are loopholes in its rules, and the role of the shuffling machine is to prevent the loopholes. In the tables with these shuffling machines, the dealers take the used cards back into the upper port in the machine each round, where the machine will according to the predesigned programs automatically shuffle the returned cards. This means that the number of the cards can be used for playing is reduced since shuffling occurs each hands. Professional gambling players can no longer calculate the beneficial extent using card counting for them to win. The continuous shuffling machine is an exciting invention for casinos to release the harassment of monitoring card counters and greatly increase the efficiency, as the role of card counting is almost negligible. According to statistics, the use of CSM will save much time which means the players can have twenty percent of playing hands in number within the same time as before; this can bring the casinos more revenue.

From manual shuffling, to the original machine, then to the continuous shuffling machine, the feature of gambling entertainment is in fact very weak from one angle. All kinds of gambling play tables in casino seem like a machine to make money from their customers. Mankind has entered the information society, especially with the emergence of the Internet, which makes an unprecedented exchange of information easier and faster to let the strategy and method to beat the dealers well known by increasing number of people. Besides, the casinos pay more attentions to the players who have the ability of card counting, but do not be so disappointed since there are still many casinos operating without the CSM. If you have skilled experience and sufficient fund, to win the casinos at black is not a difficult thing.