Strategy

In blackjack there are many different strategies players use to beat the house. All of them take practice and patience with the help of a little luck. When playing card games you can estimate the odds in a situation but that doesn’t mean that the cards will always fall with the odds. I have been in many situations where there is a 5% chance a card hits and it happens…This can work both ways with this helping you or hurting you.

Card Counting

The most popular way to beat the house playing blackjack is using card counting techniques to find out what cards are left in the deck. With this information it will help you decide whether to raise your bets or lower them depending on the “count”.

Learning to Bet in Blackjack

Many novice blackjack players bet the same amount every hand. Which in many situations can be a great way to learn the game but professional players use varying betting amounts to get the most return while playing blackjack.

Another common problem for novice players is they don’t know the optimal times on whether to double down, buy insurance or split. Read our blackjack betting articles on each subject and this will improve your blackjack game immensely.

Follow Through with Basic Blackjack Strategy

There are many situations in blackjack when you may not want to double down or split your hand. Basic blackjack strategy says you should but when you are playing against a dealer showing a 10 and you are supposed to split an 8 and then you get another 8 it is easy to not follow through and split again. Knowing your odds on this particular hand doesn’t favor you…it is important to know that if you follow blackjack strategy the casino only has a 1 and 1/2 a percent edge on the player when playing perfect basic blackjack strategy. If you make exceptions on certain hands, this is where the casino gains even more of an edge.

This is why it is important to play at a low enough limit where you can keep splitting cards or doubling down. Unless you are counting cards or wanting to lose your money this is a must. There is no reason for a player to play at a limit where they don’t feel they can play basic blackjack strategy for a period of about an hour.