Blackjack - The game most craps players love to hate

[heavy]

Yeah, a provocative subject title. So let me first cull out the craps randies and the blackjack ploppies (please note that unlike the famous gaming author, I utilize the proper term for the non-advantage player at each game - you cannot "plop" at the craps table because there is no stool or chair to plop your ass on). What we have left at this point are the DI's who can influence the dice and manage their money in such a fashion that they play with a positive EV - and the blackjack card counters who understand game selection (the right rules and penetration) and how to play correct strategy for those games in order to play with a positive EV. What you end up with is a bunch of dice guys who have wised up, whooping it up and having a fine old time - scoffing at a bunch of math wanks who park on a stool for twelve hours at a stretch attempting to exploit a miniscule edge at 21 that they're afraid they'll give up if they toke the beverage server a buck for a bottle of water. Well, that pretty much sums it up - except to say that those math wanks all insist that we dice guys are a bunch of self-deluded losers. Pot, kettle, black and all that crap.

Meanwhile, let's talk about blackjack or 21, the most popular - and for the casinos the most profitable in terms of sheer dollars dropped - in the casino. A casino may have two craps tables, one roulette table, and fifty blackjack tables, for example. It's just the way of the numbers game.

The rules are simple to learn, and, if you can master basic strategy you can greatly reduce the casino's edge. Learn a simple count system and you might even swing the odds in your favor. Blackjack is played with one or more decks of 52 cards. Jokers are discarded and not used. Cards are valued at face value, except for the aces, which can be valued at either one or eleven points. Face cards – jacks, queens and kings – are valued at 10 points. The object of the game is to beat the dealer. You co that by having a higher valued hand than the dealer without "busting" by exceeding 21 points.

If either the player or dealer busts, the other wins automatically. That would be great if both the player and the dealer took turns going first. That is not the case. The player has to play his hand first. If he busts - he loses.

Ties in blackjack are considered a "push." Neither side wins and the game continues. If either the player or dealer is dealt an ace and 10-valued card, he has a blackjack. A blackjack is an immediate winner and pays the player at 3-2 odds in THE ONLY GAMES YOU WILL PLAY. Most casinos proudly offer 6-5 blackjack payouts. Do not play those games - period. Not even for "cover."

Okay, let's deal a hand. Play begins with the dealer distributing two cards to each player and two to himself, dealt one at a time with the first card going to the player. In some games the first card is dealt face down and the second face up. In other casinos all player cards are dealt face up. Either way ultimately makes no difference in the outcome. If you have trouble with the math (and seriously, many folks cannot add 10 plus 4 plus 3 plus 1 and get 18) then look for a game that's dealt up.

The dealer's cards are always dealt one up and one down. If his up card is a 10 point card or an Ace, before asking players what they would like to do he will offer Insurance (never take it) to the players. Then he he will check his hole card to see if he has 21. If he does have 21 the players all lose. Otherwise, play continues.

You, the player, should look at the dealer's up card and use it to determine whether you are going to hit or stand. If, for example, your card add up to 17 and the dealer's up card is a 9, you should probably assume that his hole card is a 10 and that he has 19. That means you "hit" the 17 by taking another card. However, if you have 19 showing and the dealer's up card is a 6, you would probably choose to "stand" pat and play the cards you have. In addition to "standing," you might also consider doubling down on your hand or splitting pairs - again, depending on what your cards values are and what the dealer's up card is.

You double down by placing an additional wager equal to your initial wager on the layout and announcing to the dealer that you want to "double down." He will deal one additional card to complete your hand. If, for example, you have 10 showing and the dealer's up card is a 5, you would want to double and take one more card. One more card will not "break" your hand, whereas the 5 is statistically a "bust card" for the dealer.

By splitting pairs, you also double your bet, but separate your two identical cards into two separate hands, to which you draw additional cards. Each hand is played separately, taking hits as needed. The only exception is if you split aces you're only allowed to take one additional card for each ace. If that additional card is another ace, however, the player can split again. The old rule of thumb in blackjack is to always split aces and eights.

Here are some fairly standard Rules for Blackjack.

1. The player can double down on his first two cards. If the casino modifies this rule by saying you can only double down on totals of 10 or 11 you should find another casino with a better game.

2. The player can split any pair.

3. After splitting pairs, the player may not double down. Okay, that's not always the case but unless you're playing in a select few high limit games don't expect to see a game that will allow it.

4. The dealer must stand on hands totaling 17 or higher. Some casinos require their dealers to hit a "soft" 17. A soft hand is one that contains an ace. Once again, here's a sign of a bad game. It's to your disadvantage if the dealer can hit a soft 17. Avoid that game.

5. Insurance pays 2-1. I mentioned this earlier. When the dealer's up card is an ace, he will offer the player the opportunity to "insure" against the possibility that the dealer might have a blackjack. The player can risk half his original bet and win 2-1 should the dealer hold a blackjack. Bottom line - if the dealer holds a blackjack then the player breaks even. Unless you're an expert card counter and know what you're doing - don't take insurance. Over the long run it's a waste of money.

Whew. Enough typing for one post. I'll come back later with tips on basic strategy and some suggestions for those of you interested in card counting.

[heavy]

Okay, in that last post I covered the basics of blackjack play. Now let's talk about basic strategy and card counting. And I guess the first thing we should do is come up with some sort of a Basic Strategy Card to tell us what to do when until we get it more or less committed to memory.

edit: Tinipic deleted my original strategy card link. Rather than re-post it I've opted to provide you to a link to strategy cards on the wizard of odds site:

http://wizardofodds.com/blackjack/strategy/4deck.html

Okay, if I have to go through this and explain it to you then you'd probably better stick with craps. If the dealer's up card is X and your two card total is Y then do Z. Pretty simple. Until I tell you that there are different strategy cards for different game rules. This particular card is a "general purpose multi-deck game" card. You'd want a different one for single deck (if you could find the game) and a different one still for double deck. Then you have the six and eight deck shoes, which this card is more appropriate for.

Of course, nothing like actually playing on a blackjack trainer to get this stuff down. There's a good one on-line at http://www.hitorstand.com. There are others out there as well. Find one you're comfortable with and use it. Most will prompt you for the correct answer and it's through repetition that you get those skills.

While we're on the "skills" topic, one of the things you can do to hone your skills is to sit at the table with a deck of cards and just deal hands and add the numbers. Deal two cards (five - jack - fifteen) then hit it (eight - twenty-three - busted) then continue, straight through the deck. Then shuffle up and do it again. You want to be to the point that you can simply look at the cards and know what their total is without bothering to add them up. Ace and six are always seven or seventeen. Jack and four are always fourteen. Eight and nine are always seventeen. You get the drift.

I have a blackjack trainer app on my cell phone and play it for twenty to thirty minutes a day over lunch. There are plenty of ways to improve on your skills. Use them.

Okay, enough said on correct basic strategy. Unless you can play it perfectly do not proceed to card counting.

Okay? Ready?

Well I'm not. I'll cover my take on card counting and how to pull it off as a "serious recreational 21 player" in my next post in this series.

[heavy]

Okay, it's taken me awhile to get back to this post simply because I didn't have TIME to get back to it. Looks like I have about fifteen minutes to devote to it so we'll see how it goes.

Like a lot of folks, I used to think card counting was something ridiculously hard to learn. Indeed, some of the count strategies out there are so complex - with different index values, running counts, side counts, true counts, etc. - that a lot of folks give up before they even get started. Frankly, one of my biggest stumbling blocks when I first tried card counting was the whole Plus One - Minus One thing, which might result in a count of plus four or minus three or . . . well, that was really what was causing the problem. I just didn't like dealing with negative numbers when it came to my running count. You see, back in those days all count systems started at zero. Since I never really got my head wrapped around the negative number line that well, from time to time I'd blow the count and call a minus four a plus four and bet accordingly. Well, suffice to say that just didn't work for me. So I decided to do something different. I'd use the same count tags (2 thru 7 value cards +1, 8 and 9 at 0, and ten value cards and the ace -1). But I opted to begin my count on a number other than zero. My starting point - weird as it may seem to some of you - was 52 (the number of cards in a single deck).

So, there I was, sitting on a stool getting that first hand dealt out and I'm thinking "52." The hand is played out and I'm scanning the cards as they're dealt and played, going 1 plus 1 minus 1 equals plus 1 or 53. Hey, I was just more comfortable with that number line. It is what it is.

Years later Dr. Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs came up with the Knock-Out Blackjack card counting system which was promoted as the easiest card counting system ever devised. http://www.koblackjack.com/ I picked up a copy of the book, and Surprise! These guys had come up with what they referred to as an "unbalanced count." And by that they mean they do not start their count at zero unless they're playing a single deck game! Now, these guys based their initial running count on the number of decks played. I won't go through all of the calculations but I'll tell you that in a six deck shoe your initial running count (where you start out) is -20 and your "key" count is -4. You bet small until your key count reaches -4, then you begin increasing your bets.

This is essentially the same thing I was doing back in my "52" days. Okay, I didn't run all of this through a simulator or anything, but on a typical shoe game I'd begin increasing my bets when the count got up around 66. Otherwise I was pretty much at single units. The kicker to this was that when I started increasing my bets and winning I also employed a Paroli progression. I'd increase my bets on every win as long as I was winning - attempting to capitalize on the streak. If I lost a hand I would "same bet" until the next win or until I lost three in a row. Upon losing three in a row superstition would kick in and I'd sit out one hand (assuming there were other players at the table) then get back in at the one unit level and continue to play the Paroli. If I lost three more without a win (six consecutive losses) I'd pull the plug on the session. It was that old "money management" philosophy that's served me fairly well through the years.

Okay, enough about those early days. Years later I picked up a copy of a small book on casino gambling by John Gollehon. For those of you who haven't seen his books, Gollehon was a Detroit gambler who began self-publishing small gambling books for casino gift shops back in the late 70's. Gollehon still has a website with his books and strategy cards at this link: http://www.gollehonbooks.com/index.htm These small paperbacks were typically short and easy to read. His strategies, though often basic and simplistic, were a first introduction to table games by thousands of players through the eighties. Gollehon had a strategy he referred to as the Empirical Count. I don't recall the particulars of it - other than the fact that Gollehon pretty much relied only on the last hand dealt when making his betting decisions. If a lot of ten value cards came out - he reduced his bets. Conversely, if he saw a lot of low value cards he'd increase his bets. Simple as that. Which, of course, gets us to the the Easy Opp Blackjack Counting System.

Now, the Easy OPP is also an imbalanced count of sorts in that the author, Carlos Zilzer, suggests starting the count at plus six. The reason for this is that 80% of all hands at blackjack are dealt with the classic count ranging between minus six and plus six. By starting at plus six you'll avoid dealing with a negative count 80% of the time. Yeah, it's nice to know I was in good company with this concept way back when. Now, Zilzer offers two methods of counting the deck - the number of hands method, and the value of hands method. I am NOT going to run through the entire strategy since my fifteen minutes has already stretched to twenty and "early" comes very early for me. Suffice to say you can study the strategy in detail on Arnold Snyder's site at this link: http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/con ... System.htm

How quickly can you learn the Easy OPP strategy? It took my older daughter less than 45 minutes - and that included picking up on basic strategy.

Which pretty much gets me to my present state. The strategy I play today is sort of an mix-mash of all of the above. It may not be the "optimum" way to play, but I think I'm getting a decent boost over basic strategy alone. And considering the fact that I hate the game of blackjack (or maybe it's just the other players at the table I have issues with) that's about all of the effort I'm willing to invest in the game.

It is what it is.

Interested in Card Counting? Our old friend Stanford Wong's bj21.com site is a great place to start. Hey, last time I checked you could even print off flash cards to help you memorize . . . yeah. That's what I thought.

[Bushido]

Another good Blackjack site...

http://www.blackjacktheforum.com/forum.php

[Bushido]

Blackjack - The game most craps players love to hate

Why is this? With a little work you can play Blackjack with an edge on the house...Take a look at Norm Wattenberger's REKO count...A very easy level one count...

[heavy]

I think craps players in general dislike most card games. With craps you have more of a sense of controlling your own fate since you get to roll the dice. But the house is not going to let you shuffle and deal the cards at blackjack - even if you had the ability and wanted to.

I don't think I've ever been barked at by another craps player for making a play that impacted his play. I know that statistically, nothing that anyone else does at the blackjack table impacts your play. Still, when you see some guy take a hit that goes against basic strategy and he just happens to take the dealer's bust card - yeah, odds are someone is going to bitch at him.

Craps is much more of a community game with a bigger sense of "us against the house."

Just as some players distrust the dice and believe the casinos used gaffed dice to beat the players - many blackjack players believe there are crooked shoes in many of the games in Vegas.

Good games (games with good rules) are harder and harder to find. The best games are usually in the high limit salons. I think your average crapster - who may spread $160 on the dice table - has a mental block against betting black chips at blackjack.

I could go on and on with this, but at the end of the day I think it comes down to personality types.

[wudged]

I don't think I've ever been barked at by another craps player for making a play that impacted his play.

Oh come on! Nobody's ever said something to you about tossing the dice "softly like a girl" ? Mentioning the word "seven" aloud? Hands in the way? "That's what happens when you believe in that dice-setting mumbo jumbo" ? Turning your bets off? Talking to the shooter? Talking to the dealer? Taking a sip of your drink while the dice were in the air? Blinking? Not blinking?

Kidding aside, I know exactly what you're talking about. I prefer to play black jack the same way as craps - alone.

[heavy]

I'm with you, Wudged. I'll bypass a $5 or $10 game that's packed in favor of an empty $25 table.

[CrapsForever]

I HATE Blackjack!!! I've stated this before but I am absolutely CURSED in that game. I lost 25+ Consecutive Craps Sessions in a row over a 6 month period but that did not feel as bad as losing 20+ Consecutive Hands in Blackjack FOUR separate times in less than a week.

I LOVE Craps but unlike most Craps players.....I HATE playing Craps alone by myself. My ideal Craps situation is no more than 6 players all on the same half of the table. ZERO Pass Line Bets/Odds/Come Bets to worry about in my Landing Zone....

[Blackcloud]

UNHH!!C F did you ever hear the saying "3-in-a-row, time to go" ? It cuts losing short

[Jeff40]

I love playing blackJack. Can anyone tell me the difference between real card blackjack, video black jack and new one they have at jumers Where 4 video screens are connected to a larger flat screen tv with big breasted dealer. What I mean is what is the odds of each. I Played video bj and done terrible. I recently tried the new bj machine and one twenty dollars. You can bet two dallors up to 10 I believe. I know with video poker/bj stand alone machines they suffle the deck each hand.

[heavy]

Honestly, I hate card games. With that said, I've done well combining a Paroli strategy with my half-assed counting strategy. I can't complain. But I rarely play BJ anymore - and I never play video BJ. If you want to play the video games - Black Cloud is your guy. He's as good as I've seen at them. Ugh.

[Blackcloud]

UNHH!!The KISS guide to Gambling has 0n page 324 a list of 50 some odd count systems.
All but one create their own errors(plus one, minus 2). The value of counting was reduced by, first the cut card, then the multiple decks. With counting, card reading, and card following, you still need favorable card flow to win. The plus one, minus 2 method was taught to a protege in 1940 when Braun, Wong,JP, and myself were all in grade school. Da math boyz also were big on card clumping; but they misused the idea. Mensa guide to casino gambling by Andrew Brisman is all da math approach. Strange thing none of these games read any of the books; and could care less about them as the games are married to chance. Chance can be a friend or a nasty little snot.

[House of Orange]

Funny how computers can send a man to the moon, but cannot properly program a blackjack simulator to find the flaw. But with proper card flow you can beat blackjack!

Hopefully unblocking the previous post will be the only mistake I make today!

[wolfbyte#2]

Yo Kinred Earthbound Trolls.

Today I was at my local Indian Casino to ' capture ' my weekly $10.00 ...play it once through

the slot before you can ' Cash it out for Cash.... coupon.

Several years ago, on the 25th year of operations, The Palace Indian Casino

& Bingo Hall offered a pull tab for every +$100.00 you bought-in to table games.

I made the last December game held on the 25th of each Month.

I bought in to BJ for +$2,000.00 and was given 20 pull-tabs. They were good

for a min of +$25.00 each for cash or Hotel stuff....each.

I would play BJ for awhile & then cash-in my chips and do this " scam " all over

again. By the end of the drawing- time ...at around 11:PM, I had 84 tickets.

I drew the Monthly $2,500.00 ticket !!!

They loaded it onto my Player CARD AS ....CREDIT & the only way I could get it off

my Players Card& in to my pocket was to play it through the Slot machines once.

I went home and practiced a simple neg. progression of ....1-1-1...2-2...3,3...5,5...
7,7...and the final step of 10,10 = ..... $10.00.

I came up with this progression to use on the $10.00 max..... bet Game King

BJ VIDEO GAME.

It worked !!!! I took +$2,200 of player -credit, off my players card, and converted it to ...cash !!!!

I am still taking the credit they give me to play-on and converting it to cash by using the Game King

BJ game .....as soon as I have run 50% more than the play-ticket is worth, through the machine,

....I cash out the Game King player credits !

Tis scam works..... good !

Wolfbyte #2

[Americraps]

I'm firmly in the hate blackjack camp, but that being said, I am making my living by playing full time. Sometimes I like it, too. Nothing is worse than getting drubbed all night, losing your double downs, splits, etc. I think one reason why we hate it is that we lose more hands than we win. Hopefully you win most of your big bet hands, that's usually what defines winning or losing in a session.
Losing grates on my nerves. Some sessions, I feel like I am losing and I am actually winning. Now that's kind of messed up, right there.

[CrapsForever]

I lost 20+ CONSECUTIVE Blackjack hands ***FOUR SEPARATE TIMES*** over a 2 day period a couple of years back here in these Indian Casinos in South Florida... I kept on saying "This can't be possible, this can't be possible".

How do I feel about Blackjack???

I HATE Blackjack!!!

On a deeper level, no matter how "skilled" you are in any game, there's a huge component of an individual's luck involved that most people fail to recognize. No matter how much you practice for certain games in certain places, you may just be an unlucky bastard in that game at that location...the sooner you realize that...the better off you will be.

Focus your play where you win and don't return where you lose!

I have a very close friend who is a Shark playing Blackjack, in certain high-end Casinos... he wins 5 Digits profit in a single session like no tomorrow. When he visited the Indian Casinos down here in South Florida a couple years ago, even before playing a single hand....he commented that he did not like the "feel" of the area. After being down a few grand within minutes, he left the Casino, booked a flight out of dodge immediately and went back to the Casinos where he felt like a winner and won back his money plus some additional profits.

[wolfbyte#2]

Yo Kindred, Carbon-Based, Earthbounds.......

I was at our local Indian Casino @ 10AM today.

No place to play until the new BJ dealers came to work @ 11AM.

I am awed at how stupid BJ players are, in our area of the US !!!

I saw a player stop with two cards = a four and a two of hearts !

He said he DID NOT want any more cards.....????..... total brain-lock... U-think ?

I play two BJ hands @ $10.00 each, most of the time. I want to win twenty base

units ( $10.00 a unit ) before going home.

I use Silverthorne's ' Neural ' Betting Strategy ( a 32 step neg. progression ) on BJ, Craps &

all flip of a coin .....Casino games because I can LOSE 70% of ALL my bets and still take the

houses $$$$$.

Do to bad player playing, it took me forever to make + $ 228.00 today !!!

Exploiting the 4's and 10's by lay-betting them, in Craps, is were the real $$$$$ is at !

I saw three older players, playing +$100.00 & $500.00 chips, take the

Casino for + $160,000.00, in short order, at Lake Tahoe the last time I was there !

It left aN impression on me,......to say the least !

Thoughts ?

Wolfbyte#2

[wolfbyte#2]

Yo, Fellow Human Animals....

Why is it that Humans are the only Earthbound Animals that beat its young ?

Well, I am going to boil down the Neural Progression, as I see it, on this

board......stay tuned .......

I was up and out the door this morning as daybreak was glowing from the Eatern sky over Vegas.

I stopped in Lemoore,Ca. to get gas and buy strike-anywhere matches.

I was a Ca. State Police Fire Capt. when I attended Fresno State College, as a kid.

They sent me to the Fort Ord....US Army & FBI Bomb School while I was in service for

four years to the Fresno State University ( They changed the College to a University in my first year, as a fireman. )

Anyway....Man O' Man did I ever learn bomb making skills at that gig !!!!!

I thought about it this morning as I bought the large box of matches and loaded them

into my car.......hummmmmmm ?

I hit the local Indian Casino at 6:45 AM. It was almost empty at the Table game pits.

I bought-in for + $400.00 and I could NOT get anything going with the

bonehead BJ players doing strange things with their cards !

One kid doubled-down on a hard 17 !

I found myself re-buying-in for + $300.00 after 90 minutes of play-time.

I was playing at a $5.00 to + $300.00 ( max. bet ) BJ Table and all the I-do-not-reallyknow-how

to-play BlackJack kids were at the $5.00 tables....

So.... I switched to the empty $10.00 BJ table and playing a single hand,

I was able to recover my first buy-in and hit my 20 ten- dollar-units-of-profit after

3 + hours of playing.

I left the Casino @ 11:30 AM and went to the YMCA to

soak in their hot tub. after having jumbo prawns & a large string-beef heated- affair

covered in a huge flour tortilla .

A nice comp !

Jim

[wolfbyte#2]

YO, Kindred Electro-Magnetic, 25 Watt Producing, Earthbound Units ....


Yesterday,out the door @ 4:30 AM to take my dog to the Emergency Vet in Fresno,Ca.

I have had two dogs die in the last two weeks ? It was resp. failure. The pills the

vet gave me are working....no more deep gut hacking.....all stopped !!!!!!!!

I went to Table Mt. Indian Casino when I was done with the vet.

I dropped my $500 by-in at BJ in short order.....so....I went to

the high-limit BJ room and re-bought in for another $500.00.

Using the Neural Neg. Betting progression, at the $25.00 min-bet BJ table, I

recovered my lost 1st buy-in + $200.00 ( 20 $10.00 BASE-BETTING UNITS ) oF daily

profit.

It was an odd BJ session. In the first 10 hands delt to me six hands were 8-3's

and all six hands resulted in DD 21's !!! .....sweet !

I was on my way home, out of the S. Nevada Mt. foothills, by 2:30 PM.

I stopped at the Winco Super Market, in Fresno, and bought a 12 piece box of chicken to share with my dogs.

I also bought a new Blue Rubber Two-Lung Respirator @ Harbor Freight Tools. I use it in the

Casino's whenever a smoker lights up.

Yep ! .... light-up and I slip-on my face-covering blue respirator and from behind the mask, in

a muffled voice, I say ....

" GO AHEAD AND SMOKE, IT WILL NOT BOTHER ME AT ALL ! "

One hundred percent of the time.....100 % of the smokers.... put-out their Cancer-Sticks ...when I use the mask !!!!

Thoughts ?

WolfByte#2