| Blackjack
Online Blackjack is a
smart game that should be played the smart way.
Blackjack is not as
random and unpredictable as most of the
other online Casino games. You can still play and win intuitively
without any premises and rules, but in order to play as
efficiently as possible you
will want to learn the smart ways to play
online Blackjack and the strategies used to maximize
your chances and lessen the advantage of the house.
All casino games have a mathematical advantage built
into them. A strategy can only advance the player's
chances and reduce the average advantage but it cannot
provide a way to overcome the advantage. In other words,
there is never a sure way to win in online casino.
The purpose of a strategy is to
make winning most likely, not absolutely guaranteed.
Just like with investments, no system can
guarantee you a return.
An
Online Blackjack
strategy is basically a set of recommendations how to
play the game. It is very important to understand
that under "How to Play" we refer to all game-related
decisions - both betting and playing the game
itself.
As
Blackjack remains the most popular game in
both online and land Casinos, it has an avid history. A
lot of mathematical research was invested into studying Blackjack and
devising a mathematical system that would provide the
player with the best chances to win.
A
betting system
is a strategy that suggests an optimal way to manage
bets. Betting systems rely on
duration of the game and one's bankroll, basically
"riding" the winning streaks. An example of
such a system would be the Martingale System. Martingale system is an
old and deprecated way of managing bets that doesn't
really work in online casinos today. The opposite of
Martingale is the Paroli System which is more effective but has its own
disadvantages and implications. There's also a
lesser-known
Labouchere System
which
is somewhat more complicated and the
D'Alembert system.
A
playing system
is a playtime strategy that prescribes an efficient way
to make decisions during the game round. As opposed
to the progressive betting
systems, playing systems rely on game situation and
layout of the card decks. The playing systems vary
severely between different incarnations of Blackjack, and often
depend on player's ability. Not every playing system is
easy to handle. The most
popular and probably most efficient playing system is
card counting combined with the basic Blackjack
strategy.
The basic strategy
is an essential tool for every Blackjack player while
card counting is an advanced skill that borders with an
art. Another new and advanced technique for Blackjack is called Shuffle Tracking.
Shuffle tracking is a scientific way of tracking
interesting cards throughout the shuffling.
Unfortunately for most online Casino players, card
counting and shuffle tracking along with the Labouchere
system are useless in online Casinos because
computer generated deck drawing is much more even and
random than a real deck of cards that these systems try
to analyse.
A
strategy is therefore a combination of betting and
playing systems that the player finds suitable for
himself.
It depends on the player's skill and ability, bankroll, game
duration and table rules (especially the number of decks
the table plays with).
As you can see there is no
single and specific way to maximize your odds.
Mastering strategies is a daunting task that can only be
beaten with experience and wisdom. It is not
something a newbie player should try to pursue during
his first steps in Blackjack
because it will probably make the game more confusing,
but once the player becomes well familiar with the game
and gets used to playing it freely, strategies become
an essential study.
Beware!
Three
things are a menace to newbie
Online Blackjack players and we must share
these with you so that you know what to avoid.
The
first evil is wrong assumptions.
Some things may feel intuitive but in reality they only
harm your chances.
|
1. |
Don't play the dealer rule. Standing on 17 is
not going to give you the same advantage as
the dealer: the dealer rule prohibits splitting,
doubling or taking insurance effectively taking
your advantage of options from you. |
|
2. |
Do not assume that the hole card (the dealer's
card that's left face down) is of 10 points.
Actual mathematical likelihood is under 1/2
so such assumption is pointless |
|
3. |
Do not play "stand on 12" or "never bust", as it
gives a tremendous advantage to the house while
giving you an illusion that you are safe and could
win whenever the dealer busts |
The second evil is people who sell
"strategies" in form of "strategy guides", offering them
on eBay and by mail order. Prices vary from $5 to
$10,000.
These are worthless and usually
describe one or more strategies we write about here.
Paying for information that is freely available on the
Internet along with insightful and scientific comment on
its real effectiveness is worthless.
The "strategy
sellers" are practically scammers who often go as low as
resorting to spamming to promote their fictional
"product".
Favourable
Table Rules
Variations exist to the rules
between different Casinos both online and land based.
Variations to the game of Blackjack
from Casino to Casino affects the expected win rate, or
the amount the player can expect to win or lose. The
players expected win rate using basic strategy depends
on the Casino's Blackjack
rules and the number of decks being used.
Some
of these variations favour the house and some favour the
player.
A set of conditions for which the player using proper
basic strategy can make the win rate even out is as
follows:
To
gain an advantage using basic strategy the player must
locate casinos offering the following rules variations:
 |
Blackjack's paying 2 to 1 increase the expected
win rate by 2.3% |
|
|
The option to double down an any number of cards
increases the expected win rate by 0.24
|
|
|
The option to double down after splitting pairs
increases the expected win rate by 0.14 |
|
|
The option to early surrender increases the
expected win rate by 0.70% |
|
|
The option to late surrender increases the
expected win rate by 0.06% |
|
|
Blackjack's paid when the dealer ties increases
the expected win rate by 0.30% |
Blackjack players
should always attempt to locate and play the playing
conditions described above.
Unfavourable
Table Rules
Some of the variations favour the house more than the
player.
The following is a list of unfavourable conditions and
how they affect the players expected win rate.
|
|
Dealers hitting soft seventeen decreases the
expected win rate by 0.20% |
|
|
Playing with two decks decreases the expected win
rate by 0.30% |
|
|
Playing with four decks decreases the expected win
rate by 0.48% |
|
|
Playing with six or eight decks decreases the
expected win rate by 0.56% |
|
|
The inability to double down on nine decreases the
expected win rate by 0.13% |
|
|
The inability to double down on soft hands
decreases the expected win rate by 0.13% |
Blackjack players
should always attempt to avoid the playing conditions
described above.
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