Tag: How to play Blackjack

Blackjack Tips

When sitting around a blackjack corner, you know that you are only playing against the dealer, no matter how many players there are. What if there was a way to get an edge on the dealer? What if you could sneak into their head and know the psychology of what is in their hand?

I am going to share with you a few tips about dealer’s “tells.”
Learning the dealer’s “tells” is a skill that must be perfected to be useful. It involves facial expressions as well as subconscious movements. Sitting down at your first table, you will not really know what I’m talking about, but with practice and a keen sense of your surroundings, this skill will become second nature.

Of course every dealer is different, your best bet is to survey the casino and familiarize yourself with the different dealers. Get a feel for which one you think is giving away the most info with their demeanor. Some are stone cold, while others have a more lackadaisical approach to dealing.

Your second step is to figure out the dealer’s hold card, or facedown card. Unlike you, the dealer is not playing with his or her own money, so they tend to be a little less careless with their “poker face.”

Pay attention to how long the dealer looks at their hold card. Also how much the card is bent plays a key role in figuring out what the dealer’s card is.

If the dealer is holding a paint card, they will look at it for almost a nanosecond. They know as soon as they see the color, they have a ten.

If their card is a stiff card (2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) they will bend it more, and higher. They also do this for an ace though, so you have to be careful, and pay attention to the cards that are already on the table.

Ok check back often for more Blackjack tips you can take to the table!

How to Play Online Blackjack

Sometimes it never hurts to go back to the basics. We get so caught up in blackjack strategy and odds and house edge that sometimes we lose perspective of what it is we are playing. So today we are going back to the basics and back to how to play online blackjack.

First let’s look at the objective as that is the one thing about blackjack that gets misconstrued the most. This game is not about getting 21. Blackjack is about beating the dealer’s hand without making your own hand go over 21. Always remember that and focus on that rather than trying to get an even 21.

Online blackjack starts with the player placing their wager. Once that is set, they click Deal. Two starting cards are dealt and so is the dealer’s up card. This is the part where strategy comes into play as strategy determines how you will play out your hand. Every hand gives you the choice to Hit or Stand. Hit means to receive another card and Stand means to not receive any more cards. Sometimes, depending on the house or variation rules, you can Double Down, Split a Pair or take Insurance.

Double Down can only happen on certain hands. It is when the player doubles their wager and only receives one more card. This is only done in highly advantageous situations. Splitting a Pair can, obviously, only happen when you have two cards worth the same amount. Players make a second wager equal to their first, the pair is split and each original card receives a new partner card. Players then play out each hand normally.

Strategy can be used to determine which play is best for each situation. Basic strategy is an online blackjack player’s best tool for strategy. It is a chart that gives the best possible statistical play for each player starting hand/dealer up card combination. You will not win each time, but you will lower the house edge to 0.5% if you play every hand according to it.

Insurance is a bit different. It is only offered when the dealer’s up card is an Ace. This is one of the two cards needed to make a natural blackjack—and it is the less common card hence insurance. Insurance has the player placing a second wager that is equal to half of their original wager. If the dealer does indeed have a natural blackjack and the player loses, he receives a payout on his insurance wager which will equal the amount of his original wager. The majority of online blackjack professionals do not recommend taking insurance.

Now that we have revisited the basics of how to play online blackjack you can move on to refocusing your game to that objective of beating the dealer with or without a natural blackjack. Good luck!

Mis-advice About Looking for a Place to Play Online Blackjack

I have seen it time and again. Those informational websites that are full of articles on how to do something that the person who wrote said article probably has not done themselves. I take for evidence an article I found on what to look for when looking for a place to play online blackjack which had a piece of advice that was very not correct.

This particular article advised players to not register at an online casino that offered less than 10 variations of blackjack. I had to laugh at this because this does not exist. There is no online casino that has 10 variations of online blackjack available, and the reason is because there are not 10 variations that are all played popularly today. You do not believe me? Here, I will show you:

Online Vegas: 4
Millionaire: 4
Rushmore: 7
English Harbour: 4
Aladdin’s Gold: 6
Cherry Red: 7
Go Casino: 4
Silver Oak: 7
Silver Dollar: 3

As you can see right there half of the online casinos listed have less than half of that particular article’s “required” amount of blackjack variations necessary for it to be a good place to play online blackjack. As for the two online casinos that offer 7 variations of online blackjack, they are the same variations: Blackjack, Face Up 21, Blackjack Perfect Pairs, European Blackjack, Match Play 21, Pontoon and Super 21.

And of those variations most of them are true variations in which the rules have been restricted for doubling down and splitting pairs, along with side bets being added, to increase the house’s edge and win more money off of the players. So why would you want to play them anyway?

The number of variations of online blackjack that are offered by an online casino is not indicative of whether it is a good place to play online blackjack or not. There are other more important factors to consider when looking for a place to play online blackjack and tomorrow I will share them.

Blackjack Gimmick to Beat Online Games to Watch Out For

Not every new player is savvy in finding help when they are first learning how to play blackjack and learning a blackjack strategy. There are plenty of gimmicks and scams out there aimed at duping new players out of their money in exchange for some supposed uber tip on how to beat the house.

Such is the case with a recent eBook that I heard of that does not have an author.

That right there, no named author, is the first indicator that there is something fishy about this eBook claiming to give players the secret to beating multiple online blackjack games. Never trust someone who is giving beat the house advice and who will not identify themselves.

By the way, my name is Lucy and I came by my blackjack knowledge the old fashioned way—meaning that I read a lot of professional blackjack players’ books, practiced a lot and have done a lot of research while following the writings of gambling experts. In other words I learned and now feel compelled to help other blackjack players—which is why I will tell you that there is no legal way to beat online blackjack.

Now back to this eBook I found. The author who refuses to name him or herself claims to have worked at several online casino game software developing companies in the last few years. The list included Microgaming, Cryptologic and six other names plus the requisite “and more,” thus claiming that the number of software developers he or she worked for outnumbers their total number of years working for all developers combined. In short, he or she has a high turnover rate in the industry, which is not something I trust as it shows to me that this person does have the endurance to keep a job—why should I trust him or her to have the patience to learn the intricacies of a game?

But not only does this mysterious author claim to be revealing the secret to beating online blackjack, he or she is claiming to be revealing the secret in regards to multiple online blackjack games—one for each of the developers he or she worked less than a year apiece at.

But on top of all of the fishy feelings coming from this illusive author’s claims, there is the underlying fact that online blackjack cannot be completely beat. Yes, with basic strategy players can bring down the house edge of online blackjack to less than half of a percent; combining that with opportune double downs and split pairs you can make a profit from online blackjack.

But without an idea of how the cards are flowing, you cannot anticipate how to bet and therefore cannot overcome that last half of a percent—which is what card counting is for, and I have already explained more than once why card counting is not possible in online blackjack.

The safest thing for you and your money is to not trust those who are selling secrets to beating the game. Your money—and your time—will be better spent on the words of professional blackjack players who put their names on their books and on the words and advice of gambling experts.

Introducing Blackjack Strategy to New Players

After you have learned how to play blackjack and have taken some time to practice and become familiar with the feel of the game and are comfortable playing, it is time to introduce blackjack strategy into your game.

New blackjack players should be very thankful. Blackjack offers one of the easiest to use strategies that also happens to be the most effective. This is called basic strategy. And it is so basic to use that even players that are brand new to the game can use it and be successful with it.

Basic strategy’s most common form is a chart. This makes it easy for players to take it along to the casinos. And basic strategy is legal to use in casinos, so take a chart with you to play with.

What this chart gives you is the best statistical play for every single hand in the game against any dealer up card: hard hands, soft hands and pairs. All the player needs to do is look at where the row of their starting hand intersects with the column of the dealer’s up card. Where the two intersect is the best statistical play for that situation. All the player needs to do is make that play. It is that easy.

If players play every one of their hands according to basic strategy they can lower the house edge to 0.5%, which is the lowest house edge of the casino games.

So if basic strategy is that easy to use and if it lowers the house edge so much, how could it possibly be legal to use in casinos?

Basic strategy has a misplaced idea attached to it that it will beat the house and allow players to win every hand. Casinos are more than happy to allow players to believe this; in fact, there are some casinos that will give out basic strategy charts. What happens is a player will lose a few rounds and toss the chart away, going back to playing without strategy. Playing without strategy is where casinos can make their money.

Other players will only play according to basic strategy part of the time. And it is only effective if every hand is played according to it.

As a result not every player is successful with basic strategy. So in order to lower the house edge to 0.5% you must play every hand according to it. Thankfully basic strategy makes it easy for a new player to not only play an effective game and lower the house edge, but it also teaches them more about the game, especially if study the chart and think on why each play is what it is.

Basic strategy allows new players to have an impact on their odds at an early stage in their learning of blackjack. Now the only thing left is to practice using basic strategy.

How to Practice Blackjack

This morning I discussed how a new comer to the game could learn how to play blackjack. But once you learn the objective, rules and flow of the game what do you do then?

The next step is to practice playing blackjack. Thankfully we live in the Time of the Internet and the Time of the Online Casino, so this is not a daunting as it would have been, say, fifteen years ago. All you need to is find an online casino that you like and play.

Okay, let me expound on that. When I say play I do not mean depositing money. The majority of reputable online casinos have two ways of playing. One way is the most commonly known way, and that is to create a player account, deposit money to said player account and play online blackjack for real money. The other, lesser known way is to create a player account and play in the Play for Fun mode.

Online casinos do offer free play versions of their software, and the most commonly played casino games can be found in these free play versions. Thankfully blackjack is a popular casino game and it can be found in free play modes.

Online casinos offer free play modes for a few reasons. One, they allow potential real money players to try out their casino software. Two, it allows established real money players a way to try out new games to see if they like them. And three, free play modes are available so that players new or experienced can practice their game and their strategies.

Yes, practicing does not end once you are familiar with the game. Blackjack, if you intend to be good at it and especially if you intend to make money with it, requires continual practice to always be sharp in how to use your strategy. So once you have read the basics, your next step is practice so that you become used to the actual flow of a blackjack game. Tomorrow we will look at introducing strategy to new players.

How to Learn How to Play Blackjack

I have extolled the virtues of blackjack—how it is one of the easiest casino games to play (the only thing easier is slots and I am not going there today) and how it offers the easiest yet most effective strategy. But what I have never touched about is how to learn how to play blackjack. Because you cannot very well play if you do not know how to learn.

First you need to learn what the basic rules are, like what the objective is—the true blackjack objective I might add—and what the basic plays are: hit, stand, double down and splitting a pair. Hitting is when you take another card to increase your hand total; standing is when you do not want any more cards; double down is when you double your wager and receive only one more card; and splitting a pair is, again, when you double your wager and split the two cards with the same value into new hands.

You also need to know how a round of blackjack is played. First players make their wagers. Then the dealer deals two cards to each player; those two cards are your starting hand and they, along with the dealer’s up card, will determine how you play out the round.

After all of the players have their cards the dealer then deals himself one card face up—the up card—and one card face down—the hole card. Starting with the player on far right, if you are playing in a brick and mortar casino, each player will take their turn to play out their hands attempting to beat the dealer without going over 21.

Once the last player has made played out his hand, it is the dealer’s turn to play out his hand. House rules will dictate how he plays. For example, he has to stand on a hand of 17. So even if, as an individual, he wanted to hit, he could not. He also cannot double down or split a pair—those are advantages left to players. He also has to hit the hard hands that players usually stand on.

When the dealer reaches a total that he has to stand on or busts payouts are made to players who have won and wagers collected from players who lost. Unlike in poker, it is possible for more than one player to win a round. While seven players might be sitting at the table, blackjack really is a player-versus-the-dealer kind of game. What the other players do and whether they win or not has no impact on your own hand, especially know that third base has no impact on you despite what you might read or hear.

Reading up on the game and its rules and flow are how you learn to play blackjack. It is important to know the basics before sitting down at a blackjack table. Knowing how to play blackjack, its rules and flow of a round, helps you to play better and keep from losing more money than you would if you came to the blackjack table unprepared.

Understanding the Objective of Blackjack and How to Play

It is okay to admit that you once upon a time did not truly understand the objective of blackjack. Not understanding the objective actually has an impact on how to play blackjack.

I will admit it. There once was a time that I did not know how to play blackjack correctly because I did not know the true objective of blackjack. Granted, this was a long time ago, but there was such a time. I was eleven years old waiting for classes to start in the morning; my friends and I would play blackjack thinking all we had to do was get 21.

Most often brand new players or non-regular players will hear that blackjack is all about getting a hand of 21.

This, however, is not the true objective of blackjack. The true objective is to beat the dealer without getting a card total of more than 21. And it is important to know the difference as these two objectives require two different playing and strategy mindsets.

If you were to play blackjack according to the idea that all you have to do is get a hand total of 21, it would not matter what the dealer had since all you have to worry about is getting 21. This difference in objectives becomes most evident in the hard hands.

About half of the hard hands in the game you stand on in hopes that the dealer will bust. But if you are not worried about the dealer, then a good many of those hard hands you would not stand on since the potential to get 21 is all the exists in this particular idea of the game.

But when taking the dealer into account it becomes evident how the game changes. Beating the dealer does not mean getting 21. It means getting a strong hand or playing defensively on a rough hand and hoping the dealer busts.

There are more hitting options in a game based only on getting 21. But there is more strategy involved in when you are playing a game in which you are trying to beat the dealer—in a game of blackjack. Knowing the true objective does have an impact on how to play blackjack. It is important to know the objective if you want to learn how to play blackjack right.

Table Manners for Blackjack: Cards and Touching

Yes, blackjack has table manners. It is played at a table after all. Actually that is a more relaxed term for blackjack etiquette, and the things that make up blackjack etiquette are kind of like the unwritten rules for blackjack.

Fist off we are going to talk about the cards and touching.

In a face up game the cards are obviously dealt face up on the table by the dealer. He will then quickly calculate the totals. Player then make hand signals to show what play they would like to make: a two finger scratch on the felt for a hit; a palm-down wave over the cards to stand; doubling your amount of chips to signal a double down or a split depending on what cards you have. Hand signals are a part of blackjack etiquette and a tradition of the game. Oh, and they also can back you up if there is some discrepancy on what play you wanted to make since there is a camera above the table.

But above all in a face up blackjack game do NOT touch the cards.

Not touching cards in a face up game prevents players from cheating or marking the cards.

The only type of blackjack game in which you can touch the cards is a face down game. The dealer deals the cards face down and the player picks them up with one hand. Signals in a face down game are a bit different: to hit scrap the cards towards you on the felt to hit; to stand scoot your cards under your wagered chips; to double down or split, turn the cards face up and add the appropriate amount of chips to your wager.

Do NOT use more than one hand to handle your cards.

Handling the cards with one hand helps to cut down on switching or adding cards or marking them for cheating purposes.

You have the etiquette for how to handle your cards down now, and are all set to grab your clip-on tie and head to your favorite casino.

Dealer Hitting Soft 17 is Not Good

Some players think that working in games that allow the dealer to hit a soft 17 is good for their blackjack strategy.

They would be mistaken.

Sure, on the surface a dealer hitting a soft 17 sounds like a good thing. Players might think that the dealer has a better shot of busting because he is so close to 21. But what these players are forgetting is that Ace. The Ace that makes that soft 17 soft can be reduced to a 1 if the dealer hits and receives a card that would cause him to bust.

Because of that Ace, dealers can actually reduce that 17 to an 8 and hit to rebuild a stronger hand. He might then wind up with a hard 17 or higher that stands a shot of beating the player. Just like how an Ace can benefit a player, so too can it benefit the dealer. A soft 17 can be rebuilt whereas a hard 17 has a better shot of being beat by the player.

With that ability to rebuild his soft 17, the house’s edge goes up by 0.2%.

That is quite an increase. Think about it. Basic strategy can lower the house edge to around 0.5%. But if one of the house rules allows the dealer to hit a soft 17 and the house gains 0.2% on their edge, that puts the house’s edge at 0.7%.

In short, playing in a game of blackjack that allows a dealer to hit a soft 17 undoes just under half of what basic strategy works to accomplish. That is a big impact to a player’s blackjack odds and to a player’s opportunities to make a profit from blackjack.

Hence trying to play in games that allow the dealer to hit a soft 17 are not just bad for blackjack strategy—they are very bad and should be avoided.