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How Not To Lose Everything

Of all the games available at the casino, blackjack remains one of the most influential and popular all over the world. It’s not hard to see why: more than any other table game currently available at the casino, the blackjack player can substantially reduce the house’s edge through a combination of careful playing strategy coupled with an attentiveness about when to wager big and when to hold back.

In general, card counting on the scale of the blackjack greats like Thorpe (who devised modern counting), Taft (who invented the first computerized and portable card-counting computer), Uston and the MIT crew is over. Casinos have cottoned on to the kinds of techniques that are used to thwart the house’s edge and are able to react and respond quickly and effectively. Here are some tips to enjoy blackjack without losing your mind or your money.

The best blackjack plays are those comprised of strategic and statistical responses to the dealer’s hand and, of course, your own. Although there are scores of people who claim that intuition has successfully worked for them, there are even more who have busted beyond belief and completely lack the resources to even return to the blackjack table in the first place.

There are absolutely times in a blackjack game when it’s statistically important to double your bet and hope for the best. If you’re sitting on a 10, for instance, and the dealer has a 2, it’s the ideal opportunity to double your bet and agree to take that one extra card.

Of course, because blackjack is a game of chance there is the possibility that your move could backfire and you’d lose double money. But, based on probability, there’s an even better chance that you’ll end up winning even more. In general, doubling-down relies on the fact that the player will have a compelling hand and the dealer will bust.

Sure, there are times when you may feel it prudent to take insurance against the dealer’s potential blackjack. If you’re keeping a running count of the table, the obvious best time to take insurance are those instances when the deck is positive (according to Thorp’s arithmetical method), because it’s at these moments that the dealer has the greatest chance of scoring a blackjack.

When the table isn’t positive, taking insurance can actually run counter to good strategy. If the dealer does show an ace, however, you’ll most certainly want to keep hitting to a minimum count of 18, as there’s a high likelihood that if you don’t that the dealer will trump your total and you’ll lose the round. Remember that at its core, blackjack is about balancing the highest hand you can muster without busting, against the dealer’s own probability of either being forced to stand on 17 or busting himself.

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