Month: November 2010

Things I Do Not Like About Blackjack

I love the game of blackjack. The one on one feeling that you get from playing only against the table, even if you are at a full table. The smooth feeling you get when you know your blackjack strategy is doing its thing against the house edge. The feeling of knowing that I am playing the one game in the entire casino or online casino that has the best odds for me to win and make a profit.

But it is true that there are some things that I just do not like about blackjack.

For one thing I do not like insurance.

I do not like the sneaky way the casinos present this playing option as something that benefits the player when in fact it is designed purely to try to take more money from the player

Blackjack Tournaments for Almost Nothing

While online casinos will prominently display their list of slots tournaments that they are hosting, it is possible to find online blackjack tournaments. I do not need to say again why blackjack is superior to slots. Actually some of the online blackjack tournaments that are offered are quite nice.

Take for example the online blackjack tournament series being offered by Online Vegas. Every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday players can play in a twenty four hour blackjack tournament for all of $0.99.

Yes, it will cost you one penny less than a dollar to play in one of these blackjack tournaments. Granted you are only playing for a percentage of the pot, but it is better than nothing. And not too shabby when you consider that you are playing for only $0.99 and it is a twenty four hour tournament.

The $0.99 entry fee will get you 50 tournament credits to play with. After that rebuys are $2.49 for another 50 tournament credits.

Each tournament starts at 8 pm on the starting day

Blackjack News, Players and Shadows

I think of blackjack as a respectable casino game. It is not all loud and rowdy like craps. It does not have a steep house edge like slots. And you can actually use strategy to impact your odds of winning, unlike roulette. In fact, I think blackjack is right up there with poker as one of the best casino games.

But I am a blackjack player, not a poker player.

Also in my opinion blackjack players tend to behave themselves better and are not the subject of gossip like poker players. In fact blackjack as a game is not surrounded by the aura of gossip, further increasing its respectability.

This is why you never hear about all the little scraps blackjack players get into like how the poker players do. Blackjack players do not show up in the news for having dressed up as a member of the opposite sex to enter a tournament. On top of that blackjack tournaments are not steeped in controversy like the women-only poker tournaments.

So that is the positive side of blackjack

Online Blackjack for Florida

Now that blackjack tables have been straightened out between the state and the Seminoles, the state of Florida is now turning its attention to online gambling and the possibility of regulating it. This would mean that online blackjack would be available to those in Florida.

There are two aspects of this online gambling regulation that fit together. One, there are one million residents in Florida who gambling online be they online blackjack players or online poker players or a fan of some other online casino game.

Two, despite the Seminole compact and the $1 billion in revenue it will generate, Florida is still around $2 billion short of its budget after considering the compact revenue.

So what can Florida do with its one million residents who gamble online and its budget shortfall?

They can regulate online gambling, thus allowing revenue to be generated from the online gambling.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) allows for each individual state to choose whether or not to regulate online gambling within their borders. This compliments the enforcement of UIGEA by the financial institutions. See, US citizens are not banned from gambling online, but financial institutions are banned from knowingly processing transactions between citizens and online casinos.

But if a state were to regulate online gambling, residents of that state would be able to gamble online legally, and financial institutions would not be prohibited from processing those transactions going to online casinos licensed by the regulating state.

In short, if Florida were to regulate online gambling, those of you who are in Florida and play blackjack online would be able to do so. So you would get your online blackjack and Florida would get its revenue.

How much revenue? It is estimated that Florida could make $200 million in the first year and $100 million in subsequent years. While it will not entirely cover the budget shortfall, the revenue would certainly help Florida

Incorrect Blackjack Dealer Payouts

Blackjack dealers are human just like the rest of us. While they have been trained and have practice in dealing the cards and making payouts, every now and then a mistake happens and the payout is incorrect.

By incorrect I mean that perhaps a player is paid for a push. Or the player might have lost and be paid anyway. Or the incorrect amount for a blackjack or win might be paid.

When such a thing happens novice players wonder what they should do about it and whether or not it is legal in the game.

First off, if you receive a payout that is more money than you are supposed to receive or receive one when you are not supposed to be paid it is not illegal in the casino. It is not considered cheating in blackjack. This is a mistake on the dealer