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Do you want to learn some tricks of winning blackjack?
Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games in the world. A lot of people know how to play blackjack, but there are specific techniques and strategies that you need to learn to play well and win. It helps you make the right decisions and create good plays that will lead you to a win.
Blackjack can be more advantageous against a casino if you carefully study and apply probability theories with computer simulations for every session that you play.
The strategies that you can find for blackjack can be a bit of a challenge, but they work well in increasing your chances of winning. You need to pay close attention to details to winning blackjack games.
There are basic strategies for new players to learn and improve themselves as a good blackjack player. These strategies contain core principles that are helpful and accurate in producing good outcomes.
Key to Winning Blackjack: Knowing the Rules
The concept of blackjack is to defeat the dealer’s hand, but your hand should not go over 21. Before the session starts, all players must place their bets first then the dealer will deal with the cards. Every player starts the game with two face-up cards, which are worth 10.
Aces are scored as 1 or 11 to make a better hand. One of the dealer’s cards is face down until every player completes their hand.
As a player, you can ask the dealer for another card (also known as a hit) or be content with your hand (stand). You also have the option to keep hitting until you think you have a good hand or go over 21 (bust).
If you go bust, the dealer automatically wins no matter what their hand is and must hit until the cards get a total of 17 or higher.
Some Blackjack Terms
It is important that you are familiar with blackjack terms to avoid getting lost and making wrong decisions during the game. Here are some important blackjack terms that you need to learn.
Blackjack: Blackjack is used when you have the best possible hand in the game. Your hand must have an ace and a card with a value of 10 to make a total of 21.
Bust: If your hand goes over 21, then it is a bust. It is an automatic disqualification for you on that round.
Doubling/Double Down: Doubling or double down is the term used in blackjack when a player opts for an additional bet to their initial bet and will only receive one card as an addition to their hand. A player is only allowed to double down on their first two cards.
Hard Hand/Hard: A blackjack term where a player holds any hand with no aces and can have a total of 11. A hard 17 is a total of 10 and 7 cards.
Hit: Hit means to ask for another card.
Insurance: You are allowed to place a side bet that can go up to half of your initial bet once the dealer shows an ace. The insurance bet loses if the dealer does not have blackjack. Otherwise, the insurance bet will pay 2 to 1.
Push: A push is when your hand and the dealer’s hand are tied, and you retain your initial bet.
Soft Hand/Soft: Soft hand is a term in blackjack where a hand contains an ace counted as 11 instead of 1. You can use a soft hand to gain an advantage of the current round and avoid busting.
Split: You can split your two equal cards and place an additional bet equivalent to your initial bet.
Stay/Stand: Staying or standing is a blackjack term where you can stick with your hand and not ask for additional cards.
Surrender: Surrender is a blackjack term where you give up your hand even before seeing what the dealer will have. Surrendering lets you recover half of your initial bet, and it is the ideal move you can do if you feel that your hand doesn’t have the chance to win.
Winning Blackjack Strategies
Blackjack strategy charts can be overwhelming, and the amount of information that you need to learn may be too much to memorize to improve your game. You can start learning the basic blackjack strategy to help you avoid making wrong decisions during the session.
There are casinos that permit players to use blackjack charts while they are playing, where you can print the charts out and glance at them while you are playing. But some players may not like this gesture of you taking a look at your charts every now and then.
It would be best to study one chart at a time and determine which charts apply to a specific type of blackjack that you want to play. Moreover, learning the basic blackjack charts involves many game experiences to know their effectiveness.
Choose the Right Game for You
Everybody keen on playing and winning blackjack will try to create the best hand to beat the dealer. You need to find blackjack games that provide the best odds for you, and there are many different types of blackjack games offered by casinos that can affect your strategy and odds of winning.
Find a blackjack version that allows surrendering, doubling, doubling after splitting, and splitting. Most casinos have this type of blackjack but often prohibit surrendering.
Once you learn a few strategies and know how to play blackjack, you need to decide which game version is best for you. Some versions are played with fewer decks, and the most popular are the 4- and 8-deck blackjack.
It is easy to have an approximate guess in blackjack because there are fewer odds to think about. You need to work on your hand to minimize the house advantage by paying attention to the game’s statistics and anticipation of possible results. Here are some tips that you can use during the game.
Surrender
- Surrender a hard 15 versus the dealer’s 10
- Surrender a hard 16 and avoid a pair of 8’s against the dealer’s 9,10, or Ace
Split
- Split your 8’s and Aces
- Avoid splitting 5’s and 10’s
- Split 2's and 3’s versus the dealer’s 4, 5, 6, or 7
- Split 6’s versus the dealer’s 3, 4, 5, or 6
- Split 7’s versus the dealer’s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7
- Split 9’s versus the dealer’s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 9 but not with 7
There are minor modifications to this type of blackjack betting strategy. If the game allows a double after split, you may consider these moves:
- Split 2’s and 3’s versus the dealer’s 2 and 3
- Split 6’s versus the dealer’s 2
- Split 4’s versus the dealer’s 2
Double
- Double hard 9’s versus the dealer’s 3, 4, 5, or 6
- Double hard 10’s except against the dealer’s 10 or Ace
- Double hard 11’s except against the dealer’s Ace
- Double soft 13 or 14 versus the dealer’s 5 or 6
- Double soft 15 or 16 versus the dealer’s 4 or 6
- Double soft 17 or 18 versus the dealer’s 3 or 6
Hit and Stand
- Hit on hard 11 or less
- Stand on hard 12 against the dealer’s 4, 5, 6, or hit otherwise
- Stand on 13, 14, 15, and 16 against the dealer’s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or hit otherwise
- Stand on hard 17 or greater
- Stand on soft 18 but hit against the dealer’s 9, 10, and Ace
- Stand on soft 19 or greater
Additional Rules for Winning Blackjack:
You need to know some small adjustments in learning blackjack strategies. If you are in a blackjack game and the dealer hits on soft 17, consider these factors:
- Double 11 against the dealer’s Ace
- Double soft 18 against the dealer’s 2
- Double soft 19 against the dealer’s 6
- Surrender 15, 16, and 17 against the dealer’s Ace
Counting Cards
One of the best ways of winning blackjack games is card counting. It is a basic strategy that needs learning on how to crunch odds, tag cards, and follow through the entire flow of each round. You also have to be careful with your movements during the game because casinos will notice if you are starting to bet and win more.
They will send you complimentary drinks, and you will notice that the dealer will chat with you more than usual. This situation will put you in a spot where the security system of a casino is in search of card counters.
Card counting in blackjack is not hard to understand, where you simply assign values to all the cards in the deck using the Hi-Low System. You can use “blanket values” to set groups such as 2-6: -1; 10, J, Q, K, and Ace: +1; 7, 8, and 9: 0.
You can begin compressing the numbers from 0 as your baseline. As the dealer deals the cards, you may start again with 0 every time the round needs to shuffle the deck. You can now follow the (+) and (-) to recognize the remaining cards in the deck.
Knowledge and Experience = Winning Blackjack
Blackjack is another game of techniques and strategies needed to reduce the house advantage. There is a lot of information that you can use to increase your winning rate in blackjack and you will be able to enjoy every moment of playing the game. Your knowledge and experience are the keys to winning blackjack.
Do you have additional tips and tricks for winning blackjack? Why not share them with us?
