Blackjack is supposed to be one of the easiest casino games to beat. After all, it features a low house edge in comparison to most games.
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- Back Counting Blackjack
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- Card Counting Systems For Blackjack
However, you still may find yourself struggling to book winning sessions on a consistent basis. Even when you are winning, your profits can drain out as you continue playing.
In these cases, it really helps to know why you have such a tough time beating blackjack. Below, I’ll discuss 5 reasons why the dealer keeps kicking your butt along with how you can change things around.
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1 – The Dealer Acts Second
The Basics of the Speed Count Blackjack writers tell us that the average hand of blackjack is 2.7 cards, meaning more people take three cards than two. Card counting is a way of monitoring what cards have been exposed in a game of Blackjack and altering your actions and bet sizes to give you an edge over the house. Blackjack, without card counting, is a casino gambling game where no matter how well you play the house will win in the long run. Make your bet, and you're dealt two cards. If you think you can get closer to 21 without going over, have the dealer give you another. Do you feel lucky? Click chips from your bank to move them.
Some gamblers have adopted an extreme strategy that involves mimicking the dealer. Their thought process is that if the dealer wins most of the time, then they can at least match the croupier by playing by the same rules (I.e. hitting until a hard or soft 17).
The same gamblers are dead wrong on this strategy! Mimicking the dealer results in a massive 7% house edge. But why?
The croupier doesn’t win just because they play by a strict set of rules. In fact, being forced to hit until a soft/hard 17 actually lowers their chances of winning.
Instead, the dealer’s biggest advantage comes from acting after you. They deal the cards and wait for you to play your hand before doing anything else.
If you bust out, then you automatically lose. Meanwhile, the dealer beats you without ever having to make a decision.
The casino tries to soften the blow by giving you extra actions that the dealer doesn’t enjoy. You can split pairs and double down when rules permit.
These special privileges help when you’re trying to reduce the house edge. But they still don’t allow you to totally overcome the dealer’s advantage.
2 – Not Everybody Bothers With Blackjack Strategy
One of the most-entertaining parts about blackjack is that it features in-depth strategy. You can improve your chances of winning by knowing how to act in each situation.
Here’s an example of a tricky blackjack scenario:
- You hold a pair of 9s.
- The dealer’s upcard is 7.
- You split these 9s in most situations.
- However, basic strategy calls on you to stand in this specific instance.
There’s one right way to play the above situation and multiple wrong ways. You’ll run into these types of decisions again and again in blackjack.
You won’t automatically know how to deal with tricky situations. That said, a basic blackjack strategy chart can do wonders for your results.
These charts, which are extremely easy to find by the way, show the correct move for every situation. As long as you can read a color-coded chart, you can play perfect blackjack.
Nevertheless, many gamblers still don’t bother to take the two minutes it requires to find one of these charts online. They instead think that they’ve already mastered the game through experience alone.
Most gamblers can play reasonably well as long as they don’t try mimicking the dealer. But they’ll still surrender anywhere from 2% to 4% edge by ignoring strategy.
3 – Blackjack Games Move Fast
It seems like the casino already benefits quite a bit from the dealer acting second. But as I’ll discuss later, you can still lower the house edge to 0.5%–or even less in certain cases.
The problem, though, is that casinos can still beat you badly even if they only have a tiny advantage. Blackjack games are built to move fast so that the house can capitalize.
More action creates more entertainment when you’re gambling. However, it also leads to bigger losses over time.
You might still not feel like taking breaks and slowing the game down after reading this. After all, the point of blackjack is to have fun rather than trying to minimize your losses. But the fact remains that the casino wins more money, on average, when you’re exposed to more hands.
4 – The Rules Are in the Casino’s Favor
As I covered before, casinos give you special options that the dealer doesn’t have access to. Doubling down and splitting in the right situations give you a better chance at beating the dealer.
Even still, any competent casino will still ensure that they skew the rules in their favor. They tweak each rule to ensure that they at least hold a small advantage.
Of course, you can counteract this to some degree by looking for tables with the best rules. Even then, though, you’re not going to find any games that give you the edge.
Some casinos use tricky moves to fool you into thinking that your chances of winning are better. For example, they’ll offer single-deck tables with 6:5 natural blackjack payouts.
A single deck reduces the house edge by 0.59% when compared to the common 8-deck games. However, the 6:5 natural payouts boost the house advantage by 1.39% compared to 3:2 payoffs.
You know to look for this rule and avoid it in the future. But you’re still going to face other rules that increase the house edge.
5 – Casinos Boot Card Counters
Card counting is the most-popular way to gain an edge over the casino in any circumstance. In fact, blockbuster movies have been made about the subject.
However, casinos don’t just let you walk into their establishments and make easy money. They’re private businesses and they have the right to stop you if they think you’re counting.
You might feel that this is unfair when considering that the casino can take your money but is afraid to lose. But every gambling jurisdiction, except for Atlantic City, allows the house to boot counters.
It’s still possible for you to evade casino detection and make money. But you’ll find camouflaging your play to be much more difficult than simply learning card counting.
What Can You Do to Beat the Dealer in Blackjack?
You can see that you’re up against a lot when trying to win blackjack profits. Luckily, you can boost your chances of success by following the tips presented below.
Look for Games With Favorable Rules
Casinos have slowly added more and more rules that favor themselves. The house edge now pushes 2% in some gambling establishments—even when you use perfect playing strategy.
Fortunately, you don’t have to settle for these terrible games. You can still find fair real money blackjack tables both online and in land-based casinos.
The main thing you want to look at before placing a bet is the table felt. Specifically, you need to ensure that natural blackjacks pay 3:2 instead of 6:5. This is lone rule improves your chances of winning by 1.39%.
You can also look for one or more of the following rules that reduce the house edge:
- Single-deck 8-deck blackjack – Lowers house edge by 0.59%
- Double down on any total vs. doubling on 9 through 11 – Lowers house advantage by 0.25%.
- Dealer stands on soft 17 vs. hitting – Lowers house edge 0.2%.
- Double down after splitting (DAS) – Lower the house edge or advantage by 0.17%.
- Re-splitting aces – This reduces the house advantage by 0.08%.
- Late surrender – This lowers house advantage by 0.07%.
Learn Blackjack Strategy
It never ceases to amaze me how many blackjack players refuse to learn strategy. The same gamblers are basically throwing money away by not putting their pride aside.
You merely need to find a strategy chart through Google to get started. You can probably complete the search within 15 seconds.
Land-based casinos don’t want you slowing down the action by referring to your chart on every single hand. But if you’ve already practiced online first, you won’t have to look at the chart so often.
Try Card Counting
Earlier, I discussed how the main challenge associated with card counting is getting away with it. Casinos almost everywhere have the legal right to throw you out for counting.
But you should still consider this advantage gambling method if you’re truly serious about blackjack. You can use card counting to gain an edge over the house ranging from 0.5% to 1.5%.
You might be surprised to know that learning how to count cards isn’t that difficult.
Conclusion
The dealer’s biggest advantage is that they get to act second. Assuming you bust out, then they automatically win before even flipping over their hole card.
The croupier also benefits from the lack of common blackjack strategy knowledge and rules skewed in the house’s favor. If they deal at a fast speed on top of this, then you’ll really have some trouble winning.
Nevertheless, you can still improve your odds by learning strategy and seeking favorable rules. You might even try your hand at card counting to see if this helps too.
One of the popular myths surrounding blackjack in casinos is that the average player can get an edge over the casino if he just plays his hands correctly. In other words, a lot of people think that you can win at blackjack just by mastering basic strategy.
But basic strategy isn’t enough to win at blackjack in most instances.
You need an additional strategy – an advantage technique – to get an actual edge over the casino in blackjack.
This might mean counting cards, but there are other ways, too. I’ve written extensively about counting cards in blackjack in the past.
But today I want to take a different approach.
Here’s how to win at blackjack WITHOUT counting cards.
The First Step to Winning at Blackjack Is Mastering Basic Strategy
In blackjack, you have a finite number of potential situations to deal with. The dealer can only have one of the following face-up cards: ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10.
And you can only have one of a handful of potential totals, starting with a total of 3 and going up to a total of 21.
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And many of those situations offer obvious strategic decisions. You’d always stand with a total of 21, for example. It’s an automatic winner. You’ll also always stand with a total of 20. You have far too many ways to bust in this situation to ever make it worth your while to hit in that situation.
The same holds true for a lot of your smaller totals, too. Any hand totaling 11 or lower is impossible to bust, so you’ll always at least hit in that situation.
But for many hands, you must compare what you’re holding with the dealer’s face up card to determine the playing decision with the highest expected value. In a lot of these situations, your expected value is negative. Imagine having a hard total of 16 against a dealer’s face up 10, for example. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t in that situation.
But, in those situations, some plays have a lower negative expectation than others. Your job is to make the play that loses the least amount of money in the long run.
Luckily, basic strategy is easy to memorize and implement. When you use basic strategy for every blackjack decision, you reduce the house edge to its theoretically lowest possible number. In most casinos and under most rules, this means that the basic strategy player faces a house edge of 1% or less.
You still can’t win in the long run with a house edge of 1% or even 0.5%.
But your probability of being a winner in the short run improve dramatically.
An average blackjack player with no knowledge of basic strategy is probably giving up between 2% and 4% of their house edge.
Advantage Play Techniques and Blackjack
An advantage play technique is a way of playing a casino game that gives you an edge over the casino. The most common advantage play technique is counting cards, but that’s not your only option. You can win at blackjack without counting cards, even though it’s probably the easiest way to get an edge.
How does card counting in blackjack work?
Counting cards is just a means of roughly tracking the ratio of high cards (aces and 10s) to low cards in the deck. When the deck has a higher proportion of high cards, the player is more likely to get a blackjack. That’s a 2-card hand that totals 21, and players love this hand because it pays off at 3 to 2 odds.
Bet $100 on a hand of blackjack, get dealt a natural, and you’ll get a payout of $150.
Card counters raise the size of their bets when their probability of getting a blackjack goes up based on the count.
And counting cards isn’t hard, either.
You just subtract 1 from the count every time you see a 10 or an ace.
You add 1 to the count every time you see a card worth between 2 and 6 points.
If you’re playing in a game with multiple decks, you adjust that running count to account for the extra decks of cards in play. That’s as simple as estimating how many decks are still in the shoe and dividing the running count by that number.
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For example, if the running count is +8, and you estimate that there are 4 decks left in the shoe, the true count is only +2.
Why does this matter?
Because you raise your bets proportionally related to the count. You’ll bet more when the count is +8 than you would if the count was +4.
Not everyone wants to learn how to count cards, though.
You Can Win at Blackjack Without Counting Cards by Getting Lucky
The house edge in blackjack is a long-term phenomenon. In other words, your short-term results might look like anything. You’re mathematically expected to lose between 0.5% and 1% of your action at
the table in the long run.
But, in the short run, anything can happen.
So, one way to win at blackjack without counting cards is to keep your session short and walk away when you’ve won a specific amount of money. This is called having a “win goal.”
Most gamblers who use win goals set a win goal based on a percentage of their bankroll. For example, you might sit down at a $10 blackjack table with a $200 bankroll for the session. Your win goal might be 50% of that $200 – or $100. In that case, if you ever get to a point where you have $300 or more in chips, you walk away from the table and book your win.
Since blackjack is a negative expectation game, you’ll have more losing sessions than winning sessions over time.
But, unless something weird happens, you WILL inevitably have some winning sessions.
Another Way to Win Is to Bet Really Big and Negotiate Better Rules
Don Johnson is a living example of a blackjack player who won really big at the game without counting cards. He won over $6 million on blackjack in a single evening. Here’s how he did it:
To start with, he had mastered basic strategy. Everyone who’s ever been interviewed about him said that he played perfect cards. If you want to duplicate Johnson’s success, start with mastering basic strategy.
The next thing he did was negotiate with the casino. High rollers like Johnson, who bet $10,000 or more per hand, don’t have to play by the same rules as the average casino-goer.
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It’s common for high rollers to get loss rebates. This means that the casino offers a player a discount on his losses. For example, if the casino is offering a 10% discount on your losses, and you lose $100,000, you only really lose $90,000 because of the rebate.
Some casinos also give high rollers bonus money to gamble with up front just to get them started gambling. Online casinos do this all the time, but brick and mortar casinos save this kind of treatment for their higher rollers.
Don Johnson negotiated a 20% loss rebate on his action the night he won all that money in Atlantic City.
On top of that, he negotiated specific blackjack rules that reduced the house edge to a tiny percentage. They played with a hand-shuffled, 6-deck show, and the dealer was forced to stand (rather than hit) a total of soft 17.
In total, all the rules changes wound up making this blackjack game a game with a house edge of only 0.25% — making it almost an even money game.
But on top of that, because of his loss rebate/discount, he was only risking 80 cents for every dollar he stood to win.
He had to buy in for a million dollars, but he was guaranteed a 20% discount on his first $500,000 in losses. Also, he wasn’t required to lose the entire million. He could lose the $500,000, quit, and get his $100,000 rebate – leaving him with “only” a $400,000 loss.
On the other hand, if he started winning – which he did – he could just keep playing.
And that’s how he won over $6 million without counting cards.
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Other Advantage Techniques in Blackjack
Counting cards isn’t the only strategy for getting an edge at the game of blackjack. Advantage players use other techniques, some of which are well-known.
Dealer tells is one of these techniques. This describes the tendency that a dealer has to give some kind of physical clue after looking at his or her down card. The savvy blackjack player can then adjust his decisions based on the information he gleaned from the dealer tell.
Shuffle tracking is another advantage technique. The idea is that even though decks of cards get shuffled and randomized, they don’t get completely randomized.
If you can keep up with clusters of cards that are heavy with 10s and aces, you can raise the size of your bets when the dealer gets close to using those cards.
Hole carding is similar to dealer tells. It’s when a dealer accidentally reveals his actual down card when he looks at it to check for blackjack. The advantage of knowing which 2 cards the dealer has is obvious from a strategic perspective.
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Other advantage play techniques exist that advantage players don’t share in public, too.
Conclusion
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Counting cards is definitely the easiest way to win at blackjack, but you can without this technique. It’s harder to do, though, and I recommend learning to count cards if you’re serious about becoming a blackjack winner.