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I remember clearly the first time that I ever made a non conventional blackjack move. I was scouting a casino in the north of England and was playing table minimums. I did not have too much money on me as counting and playing was not on my agenda. I did not want to ruin my chances with the team before we even started.

So what happened during the course of the evening was a little amazing if not stupid. The dealer was a nice girl and the inspector was also a nice guy and we had been making polite conversation for about thirty minutes or so.

There were a couple of other players on the table apart from me and she pulled an ace to her own hand when she already had seventeen. The rules state that the card must then be the next card out of the shoe and on this instance, the card happened to be an ace.

Without any conscious thought, I reached into my pocket and took most of the money that I had and placed a maximum bet on the first box of £200. The hush and silence became deafening as the inspector and dealer exchanged glances with each other as if to say “can he do that”.

Well of course I can and I wasn’t breaking any rules, just taking advantage of a dealer mistake. It was a bad thing to do but this is money when all said and done and the edge for the player when you know that your first card is an ace is over 50%. I won the hand although not with a natural and the mood on the table changed.

But I knew that this wouldn’t get reported because what dealer or inspector would want their superiors to know that they were not doing their jobs properly?

That really was a defining day and I made that same move numerous times although not always with an ace as it was often with a ten value card.

See you soon

Carl
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How do you get the money onto a blackjack table without looking like a card counter? This is the problem that you face as a pro blackjack player. Let us say that you have a $2 table minimum and a $200 table maximum. But due to bankroll limitations, your maximum bet is $100. This is still a bet spread of 50/1 if you deviate between betting $2 and betting $100.

This is called bet spread and will get you caught in any casino for the simple reason being that this is what they look for. So you need to reduce your spread, if you think that this is reducing your profit then you are wrong. Let us say that your could theoretically make £10,000 in a six month period but after that six month period, you were basically prevented from playing   wherever you went as your details were now on some database of undesirables.

Let us also say that had you reduced your spread during that same period, your theoretical earn rate would only have been a mere £4000. During that six month period, it is easy to think that you are maximising your earnings but that is merely an illusion.

It is like a tortoise and the hare type situation where the player who is earning less has the ability to carry on doing so at a rate of £8k a year. Let us say that his playing career lasts for 10 years at the same rate, he has then made £80k compared to the other players £10k and all because he chose a more realistic bet spread.

You need to sacrifice profit, if you try for the maximum possible then you will fail for the simple reason being that you will expose your operation. If you could start betting £5 instead of £2 then that would be a start, straight away you have reduced the spread to 20/1 from 50/1 when you max out with your £100 bet. You could then use a typical gambling doubling up system and make it known to everyone that this is what you are doing. You prepare for the jumps by increasing your bets in neutral counts.

This has the added effect of confusing any member of staff who can card count as you will be increasing your bet when the count isn’t positive but it also allows you to get to your maximum bet faster should the count continue to escalate.

You have to work smarter

see you soon

Carl

I may not be having any casino trips on a Friday/Saturday for a while after a very close family member was diagnosed with a serious illness on Tuesday. So I guess that this means that I will have to think about something else to write about the following day

I remembered though yesterday that I was only part way through talking about basic strategy. I had already discussed the decisions for standing and now we will look at the splitting decisions. Once again this is a generic basic strategy so should not be seen as remotely definitive.

To be able to split then you must have a pair and we will start with the highest pair which is aces. Here you are correct to always split them unless the dealer is showing an ace. With tens you never split them but in many casinos you simply do not have the option to do so anyway. With nines then you split them if the dealer has a nine or below except if they have a seven showing. Anything above a nine by the dealer and you stand.

You split 8-8 if the dealer has a nine showing or lower, sevens if the dealer has a seven or lower, sixes if they have a six or lower, do not split fives or fours. Finally, split 3-3 and 2-2 if the dealer has a seven or less. In future posts I will look at soft totals that include an ace.

But while we are on the subject of basic strategy then I will mention doubling as well. You double on 11 if the dealer has a nine or less, you double on ten in the same way, you double on nine if the dealer has a 3,4,5 or 6.

So this is basically it then with regards to basic strategy, all I have missed are the soft totals which I will cover in a later post. But once again it is important that you realise that these are generic and rules variations and geographical location will mean that there will be differences in what I have just said.

But if you want to be a good blackjack player, get down to basics first

see you soon

Carl