Want to know how to boost your blackjack strategy? You’ll want to use this technique to win big at your next game. In this article, we’ll teach you how to play winning Blackjack.
Blackjack strategy lets you know the right play to make to maximize your winnings. It tells you what to do based on your hand and the card that the dealer is showing. If you perfectly follow the strategies outlined in this guide, you can reduce the casino’s advantage to less than.5%, making blackjack the most advantageous game to the player. Tips and Tactical Advice for Winning at Blackjack Remember that even after you have mastered basic blackjack strategy and black jack card counting techniques, it is impossible to win all the time. Blackjack is a statistical game and professionals know that to win big means playing lots of hands, riding out fluctuations and perfecting their.
Whether you’re a fan of the casino game or online blackjack is more your thing, sooner or later, you’ll come across a technique called “Basic Strategy”.
So, what is it? Essentially, this blackjack betting strategy tells you exactly how to play every possible hand you could be dealt in a game of blackjack. Mastering this strategy means that you’ll know when to hit or stand, or whether to split, double down or surrender in all your blackjack games.
The strategy originated from early computer models and is applied using computer simulations and maths.
What it gives you is the statistically accurate answer for every single hand, although it’s important to understand that there are no half measures to using this strategy.
If you want to use it and rely on it to help you win, you have to commit to learning it all.
It’s also important that you appreciate Blackjack Basic Strategy does not mean that whenever you play blackjack, you’ll win every hand. What it does help you with is:
Learning this trick for playing blackjack means that the casino’s advantage is down to less than 1%. But to win at Blackjack, you’re going to have to learn the Basic Strategy technique perfectly as well as how to count cards (legally). Card counters always know whether they or the casino have the edge.
To learn Basic Blackjack Strategy, you will first need to download one of the many strategy charts you can find on the internet, put together by other blackjack players, to help you memorize how to play each hand.
Take note that you need to make sure you’re using a chart that included the most common rules at the blackjack tables today – not one from 15 or 20 years ago!
Secondly, if you want to memorize the chart quickly, there are numerous videos also available on the internet, teaching fast ways to learn the technique.
Thirdly, to be able to understand the chart, there’s some basic and fundamental terminology you’re going to need to know:
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The term “double down” means you can opt to double the amount of your initial bet in return for drawing one card only. Depending on the casino you’re playing at, there’s likely to be limitations and restrictions in place as to when precisely you’re allowed to double down. The reason for this is because when you do double down, the house advantage is reduced.
Now, assuming the rules of the casino you’re betting at permit it, a good tip is to make sure that whenever you have an 11 in your hand, you double down – unless the dealer’s got an Ace. Another good time to double down is whenever your hand totals 10 e.g. 5/5, 6/4, 7/3, but this time, not if the dealer has an Ace or a 10. Similarly, double down if your hand totals 9 and the dealer isn’t showing a 6, 5, 4 or 3.
There are other variations, of course, depending on the rules and nuances of the casino you’re playing at or even the type of blackjack game you’re playing. But if the game is calling for you to double down, it’s a good sign that you’re probably going to win that hand! For exactly that reason, you want to make certain that you’ve considered it as an option before moving on.
Eventually, you’ll find yourself in a situation when the dealer offers you the chance to make a side bet – also known as an insurance bet (including the “even money” bet). These types of bets occur when the dealer’s upcard is an Ace.
The way the insurance bet works is that if you take the dealer up on their offer, you’ll be given your original bet back should they land a blackjack. To take out the insurance bet, you’ll have to layout an extra amount totalling half (or less) of your original bet. With this type of bet, essentially, you’re betting against the dealer hitting blackjack. So, if they don’t hit blackjack, you will lose the insurance bet and the game continues with the original bet still to play for.
Most blackjack players will recommend that you never take the insurance bet because, most of the time, it’s considered to be a bad bet. Why is this? Well, back to basic math again. The odds that the dealer will hit blackjack when their card is an Ace are 9:4, and basic math tells us that, more frequently than not, this means this bet will be lost.
However, there are a few specific occasions when taking the insurance bet is wise; this is one example of where knowing how to count cards accurately is going to give you the edge.
Before you’ll be able to take advantage of being offered an insurance bet, you need to ensure that you have a good understanding of tracking card ratios which, when all is said and done, is the basis of card counting. It’s no accident that the majority of the most popular systems for card counting come with a breakpoint factored in when the insurance bet becomes the more appealing option.
Taking insurance occasionally won’t do too much harm to your game overall, but generally, you might want to avoid it, especially if you can’t or don’t count cards.
The option of “splitting” in blackjack only becomes available if your first two cards are a pair or you have two 10-value cards, such as a King and a Jack.
When you’re dealt such a hand, you can choose to split the cards into two new and separate hands which you continue betting on by placing a further bet on each hand that equals the initial bet. Play then continues, as usual, across all hands.
Now, just because you have a good pair doesn’t mean you should automatically split them. But you should always consider it because, when done properly, splitting allows you to lower the house advantage.
You should always split a pair of Aces because 11 is a fantastic starting point in blackjack, even if you can only draw one further card on each.
In the long run, another good pair to always split is a pair of 8s. Although, many players don’t realize it’s better to play two hands each with a starting 8 than play one hand of 16. If you find yourself with a pair of 5s or 10s though, these pairs should never be split.
Multiple deck games and a single deck game will also call for different splitting strategies. Unfortunately, most players fail to utilize this potential opportunity to lower the casino’s advantage because they adopt the same strategy in every game they play – they either never split pairs or they always do, or worse still, they do so on a whim! That kind of strategy is never going to pay off in the long run. Start with the basic pair splitting rules and then specialize in the rules and decks for specific games to gain the most benefit from this often-misunderstood feature.
Once you’ve worked through all the above options, as well as whether it might be best to simply cut your losses and surrender the game. You should start to think about whether you should hit or stand.
In layman’s terms, “hit” simply means you ask the dealer for another card.
“Stand” means that you don’t take another card and your turn ends.
You should hit when you believe that being dealt an additional card would improve your score, edging you closer to 21, which is the object of the game. However, you don’t want to go over this, so the time to stand is when you believe your hand already holds a higher score than that of the dealer, so you don’t need another card.
As long as the cards in your hand do not exceed 21, you can choose to hit or stand. If the hand totals more than 21 then this is a “bust” and you lose the bet.
Oftentimes, when new to the game of blackjack, many a player stands on soft 17. This is because they think this is a good hand to hold, but the general rule is that you shouldn’t ever stand between soft 13 and soft 17. If you have a hand like that, you need to double down with a good doubling strategy or hit instead. Remember, you’re aiming to get a hard 17 or a soft 18 to 21.
One exception to this is when you have a soft 18 but the dealer is showing a strong 9/10/Ace upcard. In that kind of scenario, there’s a slight advantage to you if you hit on soft 18.
Some game variants do allow face cards to be treated as pairs, even when they’re non-matching face cards. This is because all face cards are worth the same value, which is 10. As such, in many casinos, if you get any combination of a Ten/Jack/Queen/King, you could choose to split them.
However, stricter house/game rules require that the cards be an exact match, so you’d have to have a King and a King, for example, in order to split.
As with pretty much anything else, you can if the casino and game rules say you can. Some will allow re-splits up to a maximum of 3 times per original hand (although some offer even more than this). Others only permit one split per original hand.
Allstar Gambling USA / Guides /For centuries, the strategic potential of blackjack has defied the chances and reduced the house edge to the point of complete elimination. The advanced card counting strategies were fought off by the casino operators through a gradual increase of the card decks inside the shoe.
Nowadays, it is next to impossible to find a live blackjack variant played with 1, 2, or even 4 decks; instead, 6 and 8-deck blackjack games are dominating the market, thwarting the beginner-level card counters. This, along with the RNG (Random Number Generator) blackjack, has created the need for alternative solutions, and a number of players resorted to blackjack betting strategies that exploit the winning and losing streaks, focusing on money management rather than trying to predict the next card. At the same time, these are much easier to master than some of the advanced blackjack techniques, such as Shuffle Tracking, Zen, or Omega 2.
The complexity and dedication are not the only reasons people shy away from card counting techniques. Casino operators frown upon any skill that will give you an unfair advantage over other players (and the house), which is why advanced budget management methods are your safest resorts. They can also be arranged according to the difficulty level, starting with the simplest form of betting (flat) and gradually advancing to the complex patterns used by experienced players (Labouchere):
Apart from the complexity level, each of the systems can also be classified according to the risk degree and the type of progression it entails – negative or positive.
Flat betting is somewhat of an exception, and many do not even consider it a strategy at all. The only requirement of this “system” is to remain in the game by constantly submitting the same size bet. Ideally, the player needs to establish a budget and divide it into equal portions of up to 5% of the total balance. Clearly, flat betting will not make you rich, but the strategy is deemed successful if you manage to generate around 10-20% profit.
Apart from the extreme simplicity, the strongest suit of flat betting is the damage control it delivers. The fixed stakes will prevent you from suffering a sudden, substantial loss that some of the other methods are prone to.
On the other hand, the results that flat betting can produce are modest and rest on the assumption that you will win more than 50% of the time. This is why most players outgrow this strategy fairly quickly. The monotony makes it quite easy to abandon this process and move onto potentially more profitable (and riskier) blackjack betting strategies described below.
Risk Rate: Low
Positive Progressive Betting Systems – Definition and Popular Variants
Positive progressive betting systems are designed to get the most of the players’ winning streak, commanding a bet increase every time you score a winning blackjack hand. The stakes are raised systematically and lowered after the first losing hand. The most popular representatives of positive progressive strategies are Paroli and Oscar’s Grind.
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Play NowParoli is often defined as a reversed Martingale system, prompting the players to top the stake after every winning hand. Every next bet should be doubled and re-set after three consecutive winning rounds. For example, if we are to start our betting session with a $1 stake, the next two stakes should be increased by 2:
$1 > $2 > $4
For the sake of illustration, let us assume that you have placed a $10 bet and your hand trumped the dealer’s, resulting in an even money payout. Your next bet should, therefore, be $20, which is your base bet + $10 that you have won in the previous round. If you manage to win that hand as well, the follow-up stake should amount to $40 – again, the $10 base stake, plus the winnings from the previous rounds. The third win will result in an $80 bet, after which you will need to go back to the initial $10 bet, regardless of the outcome. Looking at the starting point, we can easily deduce that a $10 starting bet generated a total of $160.
As you can see, the Reversed Martingale is very easy to use, as it requires the player to press the bet only 3 times and revert to the original wager in two cases – after a loss or when a series of three winning hands in a row is completed.
An added value of Paroli is that you do not need to have a substantial budget to implement this strategy, which is the main drawback of some other progressive betting patterns.
On the downside, three linked winning hands are not that easy to land, and the players may find themselves operating at a loss before long.
Risk Rate: Medium
A medium complexity system with a low-risk rate, Oscars Grind (aka Hoyle’s Press) starts off with a single unit bet and aims at generating an equivalent profit amount. The losing hands will follow the flat betting pattern whereas the winning hands will be followed by the bet increase – but only if it will result in the desired profit of one unit. Otherwise, the bet size is decreased to assure that the accurate amount is acquired, as shown in the table below:
Bet | Outcome | Return | Your next move |
---|---|---|---|
$1 | Loss | -1 | No change in bet |
$1 | Loss | -2 | No change in bet |
$1 | Loss | -3 | No change in bet |
$1 | Loss | -4 | No change in bet |
$1 | Loss | -5 | No change in bet |
$1 | Win | -4 | Next bet increases by 1 unit |
$2 | Loss | -6 | Bet remains the same (2 units) |
$2 | Win | -4 | Next bet increased to 3 units |
$3 | Win | -1 | Next bet adjusted to 2 units needed for a single unit profit |
$2 | Win | 1 | Round completed |
The desired result is a single unit win on every session as well as the increased damage control during the losing streaks.
The method is not aggressive which means that you will be able to sustain longer losing streaks without suffering irreparable damage to your finances. The proceeds, although modest, will gradually accumulate, recuperating the losses incurred across ten rounds in no more than 4 wins.
At the same time, you may find the system frustrating as it requires a lot of self-discipline and restraint.
Risk Rate: Low
As opposed to the progressive betting methods, the negative strategies demand that the bets are increased during the losing streaks; the idea is to recover all that you have previously lost and to gain a profit. By default, negative progressions are more aggressive than their counterparts and they carry a somewhat higher risk rate. The representatives of this methodology are Martingale, D’Alembert, and Laboucher systems.
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Play NowWhen you first come across to Martingale, it may seem like a heaven-sent system that simply cannot fail. You will soon discover that not all share your initial enthusiasm; there will be those who might urge you to avoid this strategy, especially if your gambling budget is limited.
As a negative progression system, Martingale mandates that you double the stake after every losing hand and go back to flat betting after a win. In the perfect world, this should generate a series of cumulative winnings and recuperate the losses in a course of a single losing streak.
But what happens if the streak prolongs and you budget dries out? Even if you start wagering with the betting minimum, you are running a risk of leaving the table empty-handed. To illustrate, let us assume that you begin the session with a $5 wager and start losing. To get back on the track, you will now need to double every next wager, which means that it will take no more than 8 consecutive losses to find yourself short of $1,275:
Bet | Outcome | Total in Losses |
---|---|---|
$5 | Loss | $5 |
$10 | Loss | $10 |
$20 | Loss | $35 |
$40 | Loss | $75 |
$80 | Loss | $155 |
$160 | Loss | $315 |
$320 | Loss | $635 |
$640 | Loss | $1,275 |
If the trend keeps up, you can soon end up with a considerable debt, which is probably not what you have signed up for when joining the blackjack table and introducing a betting structure to your game. High rollers will, of course, be able to disregard the elevated risk rate of the Martingale system, but average online or land-based casino visitors will probably need to adjust their strategy to the amount of money they can afford to lose. For most of them, this means that Martingale is off the limits.
The benefit of using Martingale is that it can produce excellent results in a relatively short time span.
As you can see, the cons, in this case, outweigh the pros, which means that you may want to leave the strategy to those with more money to waste.
Risk Rate: Extremely High
D’Alembert is a great alternative to Martingale, since it offers a reduced risk rate but has the same complexity level, which makes it suitable for beginners. The system has an alternating pattern, urging the players to increase the stakes by a single unit after a loss or deduct one unit from the follow-up wager after a win. So, if you should happen to lose $5 bet, the next amount that you need to wager is $10 and the one after that $15 (as $5 is considered a single unit). Should the $15 result in a win, the subsequent bet should be re-set to $10. Example:
Bet | Outcome | The follow-up bet | Total Balance |
---|---|---|---|
$1 | Loss | $2 | $99 |
$2 | Loss | $3 | $97 |
$3 | Win | $2 | $100 |
$2 | Loss | $3 | $98 |
$3 | Loss | $4 | $95 |
$4 | Win | $3 | $99 |
$3 | Win | $2 | $102 |
The entire scheme is very easy to follow through – all you need to do is remember your previous bet and act accordingly. Also, since the increase is moderate, you will not risk losing a large portion of your budget. Last but not least, thanks to the controlled variations in bet size, you are less likely to hit the table limits.
The main defect of this system is that it’ll take forever to recover the lost bets, not to mention the perils of the long losing streaks that are likely to severely affect your balance.
Risk Rate: Medium High
In Laboucher, the players start with any sequence of numbers, where the first and the last number in the chain determine the bet total. Let’s say that you select the following string:
2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 9
When you add up the first and the last number, you will get a total of 11, which should be the initial bet. If you happen to win, the relevant numbers should be eliminated from the sequence, leaving you with 3 – 4 – 6.
Assuming that you win again, the remaining number (4) should be doubled.
If, on the other hand, you lose the initial bet, the total must be added to the chain:
2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 9 – 11
The bet will now amount to $13 (2 + 11), adding the number $13 to the string if the player loses again, or removing both 2 and 11 if the outcome is favorable.
The sequence total will depend on the target amount, which means that the players whose objective is to make a profit of $20 will create any sequence that can add up to that sum.
The increased control of both the budget and the progression of your bets is the main perk of Laboucher, but the players should make sure to use it at high limit tables.
Just like Martingale, this system threatens to hit the table limits, although, not as fast.
Risk Rate: Medium
Seemingly complicated, the 1-3-2-6 blackjack betting strategy is actually much simpler than it looks at first glance. After deciding on the betting unit, the players will just need to make sure that the system is executed correctly, in accordance with the 1-3-2-6 sequence. On a $5 unit bet, the process would look like this:
The upside of this betting pattern is that you will have no difficulties mastering it – the formula is in the name itself, so it does not get any easier than that. The losses will not be severe, and you will be quite happy with the results this system provides in the short-run.
You might not need a huge bankroll to execute the 1-3-2-6 betting scheme but bear in mind that the system’s “expiration date” is just around the corner. While the maneuver is efficient enough to be included in the list of the best blackjack betting strategies, it will not eliminate the house edge and provide lasting results.
Risk Rate: Low to Medium
Adding some structure and limitation to your gambling routine might be just what you need to handle your money more efficiently. Still, you will need to remember that these systems are flawed, especially in the long run. As they have zero effect on the house edge, the end results they produce will be modest, but some of the low-risk systems mentioned above will prove quite handy in cutting down the unwanted losses.
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