The Counting Edge blackjack system has given you the basic tools you need to be a successful blackjack player and make money at the casino. As you advance in your skills you will learn new methods, but the information we have given you is something you will call upon again and again in your blackjack career.
By Henry Tamburin
One of the most often asked questions from players about blackjack strategy, is 'how should I bet?' You've got several options and I'll discuss them in this article and offer my recommendation.
Oct 13, 2016 Here I have given the answer for your question and if you want more details about it look over here. Earning a Living in an Online Casino There are people who would raise their eyebrows about earning a living by playing blackjack. They would say t. To find success at the blackjack tables, there are a number of simple rules that you'll want to follow. From how to handle yourself in the casino to understanding the best way to play every hand, a few tips will help you reduce the casino's edge.
This means betting the same amount all the time. Most players don't like to bet this way because they figure if the dealer wins more hands then them they'll never win any money. Also players feel it's boring betting this way. They prefer the thrill of sometimes betting more in the hopes that when they do so, they will win the hand and make a nice profit.
Here are the facts on the flat betting blackjack strategy. If you bet say $5 on every hand in a standard multiple deck game the house will have an edge of 0.5% against the skilled basic strategy player. That means you will lose on average 0.5% of every wager you make. So if you bet $10 on every hand and average 80 hands per hour you will have made a total of $800 worth of bets. The casino expects to earn 0.5% of the $800 or $4.00. Of course the more likely result is that you'll win or lose much more than $4 after an hour of play. But on average you can expect over time to lose at the rate of $4 per hour.
Let's take an example of a player flat betting $10 on every hand. It's is a conservative betting strategy that leads to a relatively low theoretical loss rate. The fluctuation in this player's bankroll will also be low which means the likelihood he'll have a big winning or losing session is not great.
This is where things get interesting. The Progressive betting blackjack strategy is when players vary their bets in some way from one hand to the next rather than always betting the same amount on every hand. There are all different types of betting progressions but they all have one common denominator. You either decrease or increase your next bet depending upon whether the hand you just played won or lose.
Win progressions encourage you to increase your bet size after a winning hand. For example you make a minimum bet of $10 and if you win, you raise your next stakes on next hand to $20.
There are all different kinds of win progressions. The most common is a 1-2-3-5 progression. This means you increase your bet by the above multiples after each winning hand but as soon as you experience a loss, you start the progression over with a 1 unit bet.
Proponents of win progressions will tell you that you'll win more money if you win 5 consecutive hands compared to the amount you lose if you lose 5 consecutive hands. Of course what they don't tell you is that you never know when that 5 consecutive winning hand streak will occur.
There are also betting progressions in which you increase your bet following a loss. These Martingale type betting progression are dangerous and you should never consider using them.
There is also hybrid betting progressions, which have you increase your bets following a win, but after two or three success wins you lock up some profit and gradually regress your bets. The creativity of progressive bettors is never ending.
First of all, blackjack strategy for betting progressions do not change the 0.5% house edge one iota. There has never been a correlation between the hand just won (or lost) and you chance of winning the next hand. In other words using the criteria of the result of one hand (W/L) to base how you bet on the next hand has no scientific validity. So betting progressions in the long run don't work in the sense that they won't improve your long-term chances of winning.
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But here's what betting progressions will do. First off they increase the fluctuation in your session bankroll compared to flat betting. This means you can win more using a betting progression compared to flat betting but you can also lose more. Secondly, betting progressions will increase the amount of money you wager per hour compared to flat betting. If a $10 bettor uses a 1-2-3-5 betting progression, his average bet will $20. Over an hour he will average $20 times 80 hands or $1600 worth of bets. The casinos expected win is 0.5% of $1600 or $8. In other words a $10 progressive bettor stands to lose twice as much per hour as a $10 flat bettor.
Here's a tip to save you some money in the long run if you insist on using a betting progression. Instead of starting your progression at $10, start at a lower amount (ie. $5). This will reduce your average bet to $10 per hour and cut you hourly theoretical loss rate in half.
But in the long run flat betting and betting progressions don't work in the sense they won't change the house edge against you and you will lose in the long run. So what betting system works? That my friends is card counting.
With card counting you know when you have the edge based on the change in the composition of the decks and therefore you'll know when it's the right time to bet more. So unlike betting progressions that are based on whether you win or lose the previous hands, card counting is based on the mix of cards that were played on previous hands. If more small value cards were played in previous rounds, there are more big value cards left in the unplayed cards and the edge shifts from dealer to player. This would be the best time to bet more.
But I'm realist. Not a whole lot of average blackjack players have the time or mental concentration during play that is required to master one of the popular point count card counting systems. These are readily available in blackjack books. But even though millions of blackjack books have been sold since Ed Thorp's classic book, Beat The Dealer (circa 1962) first revealed card counting to the masses, the number of players who can successful win money in the long run at blackjack number in the hundreds and thousands.
So what's the answer to betting at blackjack for the average player? I asked Don Pronovost that same question about four years ago. Don is a software developer that markets blackjack training software. He spent the better part of two years and a trillion computer simulated hands looking for the solution to this dilemma. What he developed is Speed Count.
Speed Count is unlike any conventional card counting system. It's much simpler to master and requires much less concentration when you play. And unlike progressive betting systems, Speed Count will give you a verifiable advantage over the casino You can read about Speed Count in Frank Scoblete’s book, Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution.
Now that you know the scoop on betting at blackjack, I wish you many aces and faces the next time you play.
Henry Tamburin has been a respected casino gambling writer for the past 50 years. He is the author of the Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Guide and was editor of the Blackjack Insider newsletter. You can read his latest articles on blackjack, video poker, and his personal playing experiences at https://www.888casino.com/blog/writers/henry-tamburin
My wife had never played blackjack before, and we were getting ready to go to the casino. She asked me to give her some tips, and my first thought was that I wished she’d told me a month ago. That way, I had time to teach her more. But I told her everything I possibly could in a half hour.
This article is a summary of the advice I gave her. If you want a quick summary of how to play blackjack without losing your shirt, you could benefit from this page. You can also use it as a beginners guide to playing blackjack if you need to help a newbie on their first trip to the tables.
If you’re an experienced blackjack player, this advice is going to sound simple. One of the problems that experienced players have is they forget what beginners don’t know. I struggle with this, so it’s not an insult. You just need to try to put yourself in the beginner’s shoes and start from the beginning.
When you keep things as simple as possible, you don’t run the risk of confusing a new player with too much information. Here are the five simple steps I taught my wife for her first real money blackjack experience.
It’s easy to get bogged down trying to figure out all of the different blackjack rules variations and how they change the house edge. But when you’re trying to figure out the best way to get started, you need to keep things simple.
Here are the two rules that I told my wife to focus on.
I also told her that if she can’t find a table where the dealer stands on a soft 17, she could ignore that rule.
I understand that if you want to play with a house edge as low as possible, you need to find games with other good rules involving surrender, doubling after splitting, doubling on as many totals as possible, and splitting multiple times. But all of this can quickly get confusing for a new player.
If you’re extremely limited for time, you can drop the second rule and simply make sure you’re getting 3 to 2 on natural blackjacks. The house edge goes up so much when the payout drops to 6 to 5 that you shouldn’t even play.
The difference in house edge between the dealer hitting and standing on a soft 17 isn’t as much, so it’s not as important. Many casinos with several blackjack tables have at least a few tables that pay 3 to 2 and have dealer that stand on a soft 17 rule.
Once you gain some experience at the blackjack tables, I recommend learning about other rules. This will help your long-term results. The best way to get started is to find a 3 to 2 table and start playing.
The second step is to never take insurance. Some dealers call the insurance bet even money because the casino wants you to believe you can break even when you take the bet. The problem is that the only time you break even is when the dealer has a natural blackjack. When the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack, you still play your original bet out and lose the insurance bet.
The truth is that insurance isn’t really part of the regular blackjack game. It’s just a fancy way for the casinos to add a profitable side bet to the base game.
When the casino offers you blackjack insurance, the bet is really whether or not the dealer’s down card is a 10-point value card. Insurance pays 2 to 1, but the deck has nine cards that aren’t worth 10 and four cards that are. This is a ratio of 9 to 4, which is worse than the 2 to 1 payout, making insurance a bad bet.
Insurance is the most common blackjack side bet, but many casinos have other ones available. As a general rule, all side bets offered in a casino should be avoided. This is true for all of the most common blackjack side bets too.
Stick with the base blackjack game that pays 3 to 2 for natural blackjacks and never make any side bets, including insurance.
Blackjack is one of the games available in the casino where you can use strategy to alter the house edge. Some plays are easy to figure out, but many of them are difficult to figure out when it comes to the best strategy.
The great news is you can simply use a strategy card at the table. Sometimes, other players frown on players who use a strategy card at the table. But casinos don’t mind as long as you don’t slow the game down too much. And once you learn how to use a strategy card, you can quickly see the best play.
After you use a blackjack strategy card for awhile, you start memorizing the most common plays. This helps you make playing decisions faster.
Sometimes, a blackjack dealer will give you advice. If this advice is about the rules and how to play, you should listen to them. But if a dealer tries to tell you how to play a hand that doesn’t agree with your strategy card, you should politely decline their advice and follow the best strategy.
Here’s a link to some blackjack strategies you can print out and take with you to the casino. If you’re playing real money online blackjack, you can keep this chart beside your computer. You can also buy blackjack strategy cards in most casino gift shops.
The base blackjack game has a house edge for the casino unless you learn some advantage plays like counting cards. The longer you play and the more you risk, the more you’re going to lose. In games with decent rules, the house edge is less than 1%. Some games have an edge of less than .5%. But you’re still fighting against an edge.
This is why you need to make the table minimum bet and stick with it. Many blackjack players ramp up their bets when they get down, basically chasing their losses. While this works sometimes in the short term, in the long run, it just means they lose more money.
If you’re playing $10 a hand at the blackjack table and play 60 hands in an hour, you’re risking $600. You can expect to lose $6 per hour on average at this rate.
The way to play as long as possible is to bet the minimum amount with the lowest possible house edge. I told my wife to take a break every hour and get a snack or walk around for a few minutes. This is one way to reduce the number of hands you play every hour and reduce the total amount you wager.
The five steps on this page can be covered pretty quickly. You can even write them down on an index card so you can take them along with your strategy card to the casino. By following these steps, you can keep the house edge low and make your bankroll last longer.
These steps also give you a chance to win your first blackjack playing session. The odds are still against you, and you’re going to lose in the long run unless you learn some advantage plays. But this simple system does give you a chance to win some sessions.