blackjack rules
Basics:
In the first phase, before receiving cards, the players
have to place a bet. After this, players face up two
cards . The dealer receives one card side and one card
side down. Each in turn take 1 or more cards, or
stop trying to get closer to 21 without busting. Players
who are not bust wait for the house's call. When all
players are made, the dealer turned down until the card.
As a general rule, on counts of 17 or more must remain
the house; on counts of 16 or less the dealer must
draw.
Playing Blackjack:
Before receiving any cards players must place a wager.
Then the players are served with two cards face up. The
dealer serve himself with one card face up and one card
face down. Everyone in turn take 1 or + cards, or stop trying to get closer to 21 without busting.
Players who don't bust have to wait for the dealer's
turn. When all the players are served, the dealer turns
up the down card. Following the rule, on counts of 17 or higher, the
dealer have to stay; on counts of 16 or lower, the dealer
have to draw.
If you make a total score of 21 with the first two cards
(a face or a 10 or and an Ace), you win automatically.
This is called “Blackjack”. If you have a Blackjack, you
win one and a half times your stake unless the house has
also Blackjack, in which case it is a push or a tie (or a
stand-off) and you get your bet back .
The other players with better point than the house earn
an amount equal to their bet. Players with a lower count
lose their bet. If the dealer busts, all other players
win. There are other betting options namely insurance,
assignment, Double Down, even money and Split.
Insurance:
half the initial bet against the dealer with a natural 21
- allowed only when the dealer show an ace as card. If
the dealer has a 10 face down and makes a blackjack, the
insurance pays the contrary 2-1. Surrender: giving up
your hand and loose only half of the total bet. Top of
surrender: surrender allowed before the dealer checks for
blackjack. The end of the assignment: the distributor
first checks to see if he has blackjack. If it does,
surrender is not permitted. Double Down: double your
original bet after the first two-card deal, but you can
hit a single card. A good bet if the player is in a
strong position.
Even Money:
cashing your bet immediately at a ratio of 1:1 for
payment when you are dealt a natural blackjack and the
dealer shows the card is an ace.
Split Hand:
split the first two cards in two hands and play
separately - allowed only when the first two cards are of
equal value. Use each card as the beginning of another
side, and a second bet equal to the first.
House advantage:
(approximate, May vary with different rules) Without
basic strategy average of 7%. With a basic strategy of
0.5% or less. Counting's card can reverse the advantage
up to 1% to the player.
Some blackjack variations:
Using different number of decks: all other conditions
being the same as general rule, less decks, the better
for the player. To allow the house to achieve a soft 17:
a disadvantage for the player. It gives to the dealer the
possibility to improve. Allowing a double split the
following pairs: can be advantageous for the player if
used wisely. Allowing new Aces Splitting: a clear benefit
to the player.
Understand how you can beat the
odds:
The competition in the online gambling scene is HUGE.
This causes sites to offer great Bonuses for people to
sign-up. They're actually giving you free money
(depending on the fact that you wager a certain amount of
money on their online gambling services). Some sites will
actually give you 100% of what you deposit. So if you
deposit 100$, you get 100$ FREE! You have to Wager 2000$
and playing Basic Blackjack Strategy you will probably
lose about 2000$ X 0.5% = $10 loss. You profit 90$ !
How about that?! That was Just to get you psyched up! I
will explain about that later in “Why Bet at Online
Casinos?” Now its time to start learning. Do not panic,
it's really simple.
Getting started: Basic Strategy:
Players can reduce the casino advantage to a little
percentage by playing basic strategy because blackjack
has an element of human choice. This determines when to
hit or to stand, and also determines when to double down
or split. The basic strategy is based on the dealer's
visible card and the player's point. There are little
variations depending from the house rules and from the
number of the decks. Simply, it is a table of actions for
every situation. There are many tables, for different
numbers of decks and different sets of rules. But here I
will show and explain the most common ones.
Finally, The Basic Strategy table:
That's all there is to it. Stick to these basic actions
to improve your odds! For example if you get a 7 and a 6,
and the dealer has an 8, you have a hard 13, and
according to the chart, it is in your best interest to
HIT. If you have an Ace and a 5, and the dealer has a 5,
according to the chart, it is in your best interest to
DOUBLE. If you have two Aces, no matter what the dealer
has, you best odds are to SPLIT. This is a Multiple Deck
Strategy Chart But it's still pretty basic, there are
more accurate charts for specific numbers of decks and
certain rules. In General, this chart will improve your
odds dramatically, but if you're going to gamble a lot,
and really want to hit a homerun, I recommend a chart
that is more specific to the kind of game you are playing
(4,6,8 decks in the shoe and so on). You can get these on
various sites on the web, or from computer programs (but
I'll explain about computer programs in the Easy
Counting's card section). However, many casinos won't let
you sit at the tables with many confused charts, but you
can have a small one (like the size of a credit card),
they don't mind and even sell them at the Casino's gift
shops. You can get these on many sites on the net for
about 5$ or from eBay at less than 2$ a piece.
Advanced: Easy Counting's card:
OK, now it gets interesting! I know what you're thinking
“I'm not the d**n Rainman! How does he expect me to
remember all the cards played in the game?!” Well, I
don’t. Actually, there are very simple methods of
counting's card is that practically anyone can master
very fast. I will only explain one of these simple
methods and if you want to learn more complex methods,
search the web for relevant information. Before doing so,
you should know that these complex methods only give a
0.15% edge over the simple ones, so I recommend not
bothering with them. So what is counting's card?
Counting's card is a mathematical system meant to take in
mind every card dealt in the game, implementing on which
cards are still left in the deck to be played. The reason
this helps us is that if we know what 'kind' of cards are
left in the deck (generally, more high cards in the deck
are better for us, and more low cards are better for the
casino), we can manage our wagers accordingly. If we know
that 10 low value cards have been played, but only one
high value card, then we should increase the size of our
bets, because our odds have improved. That's why it's
very important to take in mind each and every card
played. Most counting's card systems begin with a count
of 0. This means that when you first sit down at a
blackjack table, the count is 0. It depend on which
counting system you are using, this count will change
with every card that is dealt. You have to remember not
only the cards that you are being dealt, but all the
single card served to all player and dealer too. When the
card count is positive, this generally means there have
been more lower cards played and the deck now has a
higher percentage of larger cards. When the deck has a
high percentage of larger cards, the player has several
different advantages:
• You Will Be Dealt More Blackjacks
• You Will Be Dealt Higher and Stronger Starting
Hands
• Dealer Will Bust More Often
When a card count is high, the player bets larger amounts
of money because they have a higher mathematical
advantage (better odds). However, when then card count
drops, you must wager smaller amounts, or even leave to a
different table. Sometimes people believe they have a
'lucky table'. That is basically wrong. If you had nice
profits from a table, the odds will usually change back
the other way, it's not luck, its statistics. In most US
jurisdictions, counting's card is legal and is not
considered cheating. However, most casinos have the right
to ban players, with or without cause, and counting's
card is frequently used as a justification to ban a
player. Normally, the casino host will just inform the
player that he is no longer welcome to bet at that
casino. Players must be careful not to signal the fact
that they are counting. Make use of electronic or other
counting devices is not legal and almost always denied by
the casino. As mentioned, I will describe a simple
counting method known as Hi-Lo count.
Hi-Lo Count:
Hi-Lo is the most common balanced counting system, this
means that if you count the whole deck with this system,
you would end up exactly how you started: with 0 ! All
you have to do with this system is to learn the following
table:
As you can see, there are separate groups of card values.
The 20 little cards (2- 6) are counted as plus 1 as they
are played. The 12 middle cards (7-9) are seen as neutral
cards and do not change the value as they are played. The
20 big cards (10- Ace) are counted as minus 1 as they are
played. With this simple system, it's very easy to
remember. Let's say the cards drawn on the first round
where 2, Ace, K, 9, 4, 5, 7 and 6. The 2,4,5 and 6, each
subtract 1 from the count. The seven is neutral. The Ace
and King each add 1 to the count. So we are left with
0+4-2= 2. The count is positive, so now would be a good
time to increase our wagers. Easy right? This system is
my personal favorite and there's a reason it's the most
common system used in black jack teams, it's simple and
effective!
Picking a table:
Part of a gambler's strategy is picking the right bets on
the right tables. If you had some good first rounds, with
many tens, royalties and Aces, leave the table with the
small profits you made when you Hi-Lo count is at -4!
Don't hope that the luck will continue because that was
your luck, and if you continue playing you'll end up
where you started. It's time to move on to a different
table. If you had profits although the majority of the
cards dealt where Positive count cards, this is the break
you've been waiting for! This table has a high revenue
potential, since the good cards are yet to arrive! Stay
at the table and play by the system. If you lose money on
the rounds with many good cards (tens and aces), leave
this table, don't wait for the upper hand, you won't have
it on this table. In most games, the count will stay
about even, you will have to play by the strategy, count
cards, and wait for the right opportunity to strike (or
quit). Never join tables if you sense the other players
there are amateurs; this will distract you and hurt your
odds.
Dealer Tells:
This is only relevant to a real live Casino! You don't
have this benefit at Online Casinos (you have much better
benefits online). On the latest James bond feature
“Casino Royale”, James Bond meets the villain “Le Chiffre” at a poker table for a game wagering about 100
million dollars (can't remember the exact number and it
doesn't really matter). Le Chiffre is a mathematical
genius and wins hands by calculating his odds, as opposed
to his opponent's. James Bond is a spy and his gift is
reading people's facial expressions and body language,
helping him in calling his opponent's bluffs. Every
strategy I've explained so far is Le Chiffre's style,
based on mathematical calculations, and statistical
certainties. The 'Dealer Tells' method is James Bond's
style; it's based on reading people and requires a
certain talent at it. 'Dealer tells' are subconscious
gestures or expressions that a Blackjack dealer might
make without knowing about it. If you can learn to spot
dealer tells, you can greatly increase your edge in
blackjack. Though some people will discredit it, the
'Dealer tells' definitely works and improves your edge if
you use it correctly. One thing to remember when it comes
to dealer tells is that not all dealers will show
expressive tells. You might play several different tables
before finding a blackjack table with a dealer that has
noticeable tells. One of the most common types of dealer
tells is that the dealer accidentally reveals his hole
(under) card. To pull this tell off you must carefully
watch how long the dealer glances at the hole card and at
what type of angle he bends the card at to be able to
clearly see his under card before continuing game play.
This tell has two common variations:
• Dealer has a stiff card (2,3,4,5,6) in the hole, and is
required to lift the card a bit more than usual to make
sure it's not an Ace. The hardest card to spot at first
glance is the 4, and even experienced dealers might
sometimes have to re-lift it.
• The opposite of that is obviously a high or paint card
(8,9,10,J,Q,K). The dealer will need a very brief glance
at the under card (that seems faster than usual), there
is a good chance he's holding a paint card or a card
larger than a 7.
If you're looking for additional information on blackjack
dealer tells, Search the web…
