Month: March 2011

Fighting for Blackjack Tables: Maryland

Over the last couple of years we have see several states put forth legislation that would allow their slot parlors to expand with table games such as blackjack, poker and roulette; other bills have been for the allowing of new fully fledged brick and mortar casinos. Now Maryland is moving forward in their lawmakers scraping for blackjack tables.

The name of the bill that would give the state blackjack tables, poker tables and other table games is House Bill 331. House Bill 331 would allow the five establishments that already offer casino gambling in the form of slot machines the opportunity to apply for a gambling expansion in the form of table games.

Naturally the reason for the bill is to allow Maryland to generate more revenue and to allow their existing gambling facilities to compete with neighboring states who are now offering gambling establishments with both slot machines and table games. Delegate Frank Turner, who is the head supporter of House Bill 331, said,

How Card Counting Odds Work for the Blackjack Player

If you look at explanations of card counting and which cards favor whom, you might begin to wonder something: if high cards, such as 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces, favor the blackjack player then they also favor the dealer right?

Well, in truth, yes, they do favor the dealer too. Yes, it is just as likely that the dealer will be dealt a blackjack as you. But there are a few things built into the game of blackjack that, when combined with card counting, bring better odds for players when the remaining cards are rich in high cards. Today we are going to look at how payouts impact odds when the deck is rich in high cards.

Let

Being Dealt Two Aces in Blackjack

There is some debate among novice blackjack players about what happens when you are dealt two Aces. Some say split and some say stand for a hand total of 12. But if you were at the blackjack table, what would you do if you were dealt a pair of Aces?

There are two things for a blackjack player to do when being dealt two Aces straight off in a round: split and then smile because you know the house would rather you not have two Aces.

But back to the splitting part. Yes, the best statistical play is to split and start two hands with 11 apiece rather than working with only one hand that is essentially going to be played out as a hard 12. True you could hit a 12 made up of two Aces, but the odds on splitting are better than playing out two Aces in one hand.

The thing with splitting a pair of Aces is that you have two hands to work with on the blackjack table, and already having one card worth 11 is a good start to building not one, but two strong hands. Of all of the pairs that a blackjack player could split, Aces are the best to have.

There is one more thing with a splitting a pair of dealt Aces that novice blackjack players wonder about: if the pair of Aces is split and a card valued at 10 is dealt to both Aces, do you have two blackjacks or only two hands each worth 21?

As much as I would love to tell you that you are receiving two 3-2 payouts, a blackjack is only considered to be one if the very first two cards dealt add up to 21. Receiving a two hand totals worth 21 on a pair of split Aces does not count as a natural blackjack, either of them.

So now we all have an understanding to split a pair of Aces when dealt one, and that two hands of 21 from a split pair of Aces does not mean two 3-2 payouts will happen.

Blackjack vs. Tournament Blackjack

If you think that playing in a blackjack tournament is no different than playing blackjack on any night of the week at a casino, you would be wrong. Tournament blackjack has some other considerations for one reason: you are playing to beat the other players.

I know, that sounds like it goes against all things blackjack, against the core concept of blackjack. And I can see how you would think that. Blackjack is the casino game in which you are playing one on one against the dealer; you could not give a fig about the other players because what they do has no impact on you and your game. You always hope that the dealer loses since you profit from beating him.

In tournament blackjack you are playing against the other players for a shot at the grand prize. Yes, there is a dealer and yes, you have to beat him in order to win chips. But at the end of the tournament it is the player with the most chips who wins even if you won more individual hands than he did.

That is the core point behind tournament blackjack: you have to beat the dealer to wind up with more chips than everyone else in the tournament. It is here that how the other players play out their hands and how they wager becomes important, so you had better give a fig.

Strategy for tournament blackjack will vary from some from the strategy you use in ordinary blackjack. This is because an increased skill level is necessary for you to beat both the dealer and the other players in the tournament. Tomorrow we will look a little more closely at some basic strategy points for tournament blackjack.

Seminole Blackjack Under Threat

Here we go again down in Florida. The Seminoles have had their exclusivity to blackjack for less than a year, and already it is being threatened. Although this time the threat is not coming from the pari-mutuels backed with Florida lawmakers.

Not this time. In fact, the pari-mutuels are on the same side as the Seminoles this time.

The threat to the Seminole

Billionth Hand of Online Blackjack Dealt

This past Friday saw a truly historic moment in online blackjack. The one billionth hand of online blackjack was dealt at Bodog. While there are many online casinos out there, each of who have dealt thousands and millions of hand of blackjack, not one had reached the one billionth mark at any of their online blackjack tables. Bodog was the first online casino to deal that many hands.

Naturally there was a special prize for that lucky online blackjack player. He or she had the choice of either a billionaire vacation trip to Fiji

Spanish 21 vs. Blackjack

Think Spanish 21 is not all the different from standard blackjack? You would be a tad on the wrong side.

They have different names for a reason. And while I would take blackjack over Spanish 21 any day, Spanish 21 can make for a nice break now and again. It is certainly a better blackjack variation to play with compared to others out there. I am talking to you, Perfect Pairs.

But like with any variation, it pays to learn some about a new game before diving in. That is unless you feel like losing more money than you plan on. Same goes for Spanish 21.

To begin with, Spanish 21 does not have as many cards in play. The 10 cards have been removed from the deck. Rest assured that the face cards, still worth 10, are in the playing deck; only the cards with 10 printed on them are not to be found.

Now this removal of 10 cards does impact your odds a bit. In traditional blackjack high cards, the 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces, are the cards that favor the player. So removing twenty four cards from a six deck shoe is going to impact your odds. This would have a similar effect to a shady dealer removing any ten value cards from a deck.

So right from the start you have to play Spanish 21 knowing that the odds are stacked higher against you since none of the low cards, 2s, 3s, and 4s, that favor the dealer have been removed. True there are some payouts that offer better than average odds, but those do not happen every hand while the card removal does. Keep that in mind.

Also do not go in with the idea that what basic strategy does for standard blackjack will do the same in game of Spanish 21. Because of the removal of the 10 cards, basic strategy is thrown off. Because of such differences in deck makeup and the subsequent throwing off of normal blackjack strategy, playing Spanish 21 with any degree of seriousness requires study of the game.

Seminole Blackjack a Success in its First Year

When I say first year, I do not mean its first year since Florida legislatures began squabbling with the Seminoles over the exclusivity and where the revenue from the blackjack expansion would go. I am talking about the first full year since the Seminoles installed their blackjack tables and threw open the doors, so to speak, to the new blackjack tables.

Since then the Seminoles have pulled in $2 billion, which they owe to the new blackjack tables and the traffic and subsequent profit from patrons playing other games when taking a break from blackjack.

Furthermore, since the gambling expansion that brought them blackjack, the Seminoles made the list in the 2011 Indian Gaming Industry Report as the fourth richest state when it came to tribal gaming. The State of Florida, home to the Seminole Tribe, came in at $2 billion. The richest state in tribal gambling was California at $7.7 billion. After California came Oklahoma at $3.1 billion and Connecticut at $2.2 billion.

It is my opinion that Florida could easily surpass Connecticut in the next year now that the squabbling between the Seminoles and Florida legislatures over the compact struck between the Seminoles and former governor Charlie Crist in 2007.

But seeing that $2 billion profit had to make state lawmakers happy that they did come to an agreement with the Seminoles and allowed them to keep blackjack in five of their seven brick and mortar casinos. After all the state profits from tribal gaming. Over the next five years the Seminoles are to pay $1 billion to Florida: $150 million in years one and two, $233 million in years three and four, and $234 in year five. However if 10% of the tribe