Month: April 2010

How Card Counting Works

Card counting is a skill used by blackjack players as a part of their blackjack strategy, more specifically their betting strategy. The purpose of card counting is to give the player an idea of how the cards are flowing in order to manage their betting.

Card counting allows a blackjack player to keep track of whether more low cards have passed out of play, leaving the remainder of the deck rich in high cards and vice versa. Blackjack players know that low cards favor the dealer while high cards favor them.

Knowing which type has mostly been played and what still remains is what helps a blackjack player determine when to raise and lower his wager. For example, if the remaining cards are rich in high cards, the player knows to raise his bet. When the count changes and reveals that the high cards have been played and the remaining deck is rich in low cards, he knows to lower the amount of his wager.

The most basic card counting system, Hi-Lo, assigns low cards a +1 value while high cards have an assigned value of -1.

During the course a game if a lot of low cards have been played the count will become positive. This is because for every low card played the player adds a +1. The more low cards that are played, the higher the count goes in the positive range. A positive count of +3 or higher is a good indicator that the remaining deck is rich in high cards. At this point blackjack players that are card counters will begin raising their bets.

Conversely, when more high cards have been played, adding in -1 for every high card played will bring the count lower and lower until it slips into a negative count. This means that more high cards have been played and that the remaining deck is rich in low cards. This is when blackjack players will lower their bets.

You can see how blackjack players who have practiced this skill can use it to control their betting. This is why card counting factors into the betting strategy portion of a blackjack strategy.

Card counting also influences your blackjack odds. The more money you win from the house, the more you are taking off the house edge because it puts them at a disadvantage and causes them to lose more money.

Application to Help Teach Blackjack

Any novice blackjack players out there with an iPhone? You will be glad to know that recently an application was launched for the iPhone that helps teach blackjack to you on the go.

The application can also be used on an iPod or one of those new iPads. The only thing required of any of these Apple machines is that they have touch screen capabilities. For interested iPhone, iPod and iPad users the application can be found in the Apple Apps Store for $0.99.

With this new application users can be taught two different types of blackjack: Vegas Strip Blackjack and Atlantic City Blackjack, which is, for the most part, standard blackjack. The only difference in these two variations is that the dealer checks for blackjack before plays make their plays in Vegas Strip Blackjack.

In addition to having both blackjack variations to train with the application will also have blackjack strategy available

To Take or Not to Take Insurance

For players who are new to blackjack, the concept of what insurance really is not be entirely clear to them. And since this is a house friendly playing option, novice blackjack players need to know exactly what insurance is and what to do about it.

What I

Blackjack for Community College

If you love blackjack there just might be a program at community colleges that would be right up your alley.

Remember earlier this year when Pennsylvania approved their casinos to have table games like blackjack? With all those new tables and casino patrons wanting to sit down to play some blackjack, those casinos are in need of something: blackjack dealers.

Northampton Community College purchased the blackjack dealer training course from a community college in southern New Jersey. This way Northampton could offer the course to those who were interested in becoming blackjack dealers.

Imagine going to school and only studying blackjack.

The training is necessary if those who are interested in becoming dealers really want to be blackjack dealers. By the end of the course dealers in training have studied the game of blackjack, all the rules that apply to it, card and chip handling and CPR. Yes, CPR too.

But becoming a blackjack isn