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Blackjack is a game that has been with us for an awful long time now and its sister game…..Pontoon means that many people come to blackjack who have had experience of playing Pontoon. Over the years there have been many variations to change the game and I remember when the “Over/Under” feature came into existence in the UK in the mid 1990′s.

But as online gaming has took off over the past few years then there has been an even greater need for the game to be revitalised periodically. So we are now facing a situation where new variations of blackjack are coming out with greater frequency. Early and late surrender were other popular features that caught on in some casinos.

But 21-3 blackjack is an interesting concept that attempts to merge the game of blackjack with poker. The player simply makes a separate wager that his first two cards and the dealers up card make a three card poker hand.

In this instance, if their first two cards are of the same suit and the dealers card is also the same suit that constitutes a flush. If their cards are say 8,7 and the dealer is showing a 6 or a 9 that that constitutes a straight. There are even more special odds paid for big hands like trips and straight flushes. Trips are obviously where the player has a pair like 4,4 and the dealer also shows a 4.

A straight flush is if say the player has 7h-6h and the dealer is showing the 8h. The pay offs with respect to the poker hands differ from casino to casino but if you like poker and the idea of merging the two games appeals to you then 21 +3 Blackjack may just be your game.

I recall one of the very first card counters who I ever spotted was back when I was a dealer in my local casino back in the very early 1990′s. The only blackjack knowledge that I had at that time was when I had read Beat The Dealer by Edward Thorp.

But that book was more than enough for me to be able to spot any conventional card counter and certainly one who wasn’t making any effort to disguise his play. We actually went on to become very good friends and still are to this day.

One of the things that gets counters spotted is the intense concentration that they exhibit when they go about their job. This is a dead give away as is looking at the discards. When a counter looks at the discards then what they are trying to do is to calculate the true count. In another post on the same subject, I mentioned how not converting the running count into a true count was one of the biggest mistakes with regards novice card counters.

To better estimate the true ratio of high cards and aces to low cards then you need to divide the running count by the number of decks remaining to be dealt. This is why a counter often looks at the discards. However it is a mistake to look like a counter as if anyone in the casino has this knowledge then your playing life is going to be cut severely short.

When many players learn the rudiments of card counting then they tend to learn the basic high/low system first. There is nothing wrong with this system and to call it “basic” is misleading. The high-low count captures most of the advantage opportunities that more sophisticated counts capture but it also has the advantage of simplicity.

This allows the player to keep count more accurately and for longer periods without fatigue. It also allows the player more “down” time to be able to interact and do other normal casino activities. The high-low count attributes a score of -1 for all tens and aces and +1 for all low cards of a deuce through to a six.

The sevens, eights and nines are considered neutral and are not counted or counted as zero which is the same thing. Keeping a total of the cards that have been dealt is called the running count. But yet many players use the running count to base their betting decisions and this is a big mistake in multiple deck games.

This is to do with the ratio of high cards to low cards and you could get two identical running counts and yet the advantage for the player is vastly different. Let us look at a count of +10 in two separate situations in a four deck game, one where only one deck had been dealt and the other where three decks had been dealt.

In the first example with only one deck dealt, there are exactly 156 cards remaining and a count of +10 equals on plus point for every 15.6 cards. In the second example with only 52 cards remaining and the same +10 count then we have a ratio of one point for every 5.2 cards. This means that the ratio of high cards to non high cards is greater in the second example……far greater.

Strategy for Splitting Cards in Blackjack

This article will explain when you should split your cards and when you should keep them together in the game of Blackjack.

Many beginners are unaware that you are allowed to split your two cards when playing Blackjack; however, you are only able to split your hand when you receive a pair.  When splitting your cards, you are creating two hands instead of just one.  For example, if you were to receive two seven’s and you decided to split them, you would then create two new hands allowing a new card to be dealt to each hand.

In addition, just for extra information, when playing at live casinos, some will allow you to split one of your two hands should that hand receive a card that creates a pair.  This would then cause you to have three hands.

Below, you will find some general guidelines that will help you decide whether your cards should stay together or if they should part.

If you are dealt two 10’s or two face cards – also known as Court cards, (such as Jack, Queen, or King) – don’t split them.  If you have this type of hand to begin with, your hand totals 20, which is a very likely win and has a lot of potential, which is not something that you want to split up and more than likely give up your win.

If you are dealt two four’s or two five’s, don’t split.  Having a hand that totals 8 or 10 as a start has high potential due to the fact that it is likely if you hit that you will receive a card somewhere between 10 and an Ace.  It is practically a win situation and by splitting, you could cause more trouble than the hand is worth.

If you receive a pair of 8’s, they should be split unless there is an Ace, Court card, 9 or 10 in the banker’s hand.  The dealer, or banker, is more likely to win when they have a high card, which means your hand is weaker.  It is very likely that this hand will be lost and in order to minimize losses, there is no need in splitting the eight’s and having to bet for two hands.

If you get a pair of 2’s or 3’s and the banker’s card that is showing equals 7 or lower then split.  With a low showing card on the banker’s behalf, the banker has a weak hand.  Therefore, it just simply makes sense to split the cards and create two play hands to double your money that you’ll very likely win.

Always split 7’s if there is a five, six, or seven as the showing card of the banker.  The banker’s hand really isn’t all that great right now so by splitting your 7’s, you are creating the chance of receiving two hands that are much more improved than one that totals 14.

Last but not least, if the banker has a showing card of 8 and you have a pair of 9’s then split.  This is the only time that you should split your 9’s, though.  The banker will assume that they have a total of 18 and if you have a total of 18 (because of the two 9’s), then it will turn into a standoff.  However, by splitting your two 9’s, you increase your chances because more than likely, you will get a 19 on at least one of your hands.

I hope that the above guidelines will help you the next time you play Blackjack and receive a pair.  By taking the above outlined splitting strategies, you can minimize your losses and maximize your gains at the same time.

After watching the Fulham vs Tottenham game last night we headed to a casino for the first time in ages. In fact regular readers of the blog since it started will have read some of my earlier posts regarding these trips. The journey took about an hour so we arrived at about 9pm.

Casinos tend to be quiet at around this time so it is a good time to go. You don’t have to wait at the bar or wait for coffee for ages either. As usual we took a friend for my partner as I hate playing and leaving her. She merely likes to watch and has no interest in gaming.

The blackjack game was a six deck shoe game (not my favourite) but I decided to play anyway. Sometimes when you manage to get an inexperienced dealer then they can often make mistakes. Although in England the mistakes are often picked up by the Inspector anyway.

However I don’t have any good news to report as every dealer that I encountered seemed competent to me. I merely played table minimums for about an hour and then became bored after losing about £10.

I hate the new electronic games inside casinos these days as they leave no room for creativity with regards to gaining an edge….at least not for people like me anyway who is old school. It felt good to be back inside a casino again, maybe I just need to find some now that have decent blackjack action.

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Blackjack is a game of cards where cards one to ten are given value equivalent to face value and all the colored cards are given a value of ten. Aces can have the value of one or eleven. Players are dealt cards and they have to play against the dealer’s cards. A player must have the highest total value of cards without exceeding twenty-one to win.

Most tables have the dealer stand on an all seventeen. Unless, you have the card total of less than twelve, do not hit indiscriminately. If you have a card total of seventeen or higher, stand. The higher the card value, the more the chances of busting if you hit, but do not let this scare you into standing up too soon; if the dealer stands on a soft seventeen, hit until a hard sixteen and then quit. You will have better chances of winning.

Now that you know a little about basic strategy, know that card values of 1 to 16 should always be taken as decision hands where you must decide for yourself if you want to hit or stand. As previously mentioned, if your card count exceeds seventeen, stand.

The best blackjack strategy ever developed according to the analyst and writer Ed Thorp is the Baldwin group strategy developed in 1956 by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel, and McDermott. He claims that a player following the Baldwin group strategy has an edge of about +0.1%, which is the best odds a player can have against the house.

There are other non-mathematical strategies developed by other expert players that give good odds, but these are hard to outline, or indeed, to master.

If you are playing at a real (brick and mortar) casino, know that the card decks are not shuffled after each game nor are the cards from the previous game added to the card decks. Thus, you can keep track of the cards missing from the card decks (from all the previous plays that happened after the last reshuffling) and speculate which cards may never show face up on the table, and thus improve your strategy. Needless to say, this does not affect your play at an online casino as the electronic card decks can repeat the cards dealt.

Generally, to calculate odds for or against the players, the dealt cards are each assigned a point value. If the card favors the player, it is assigned a positive card value and if it favors the casino, it is assigned a negative card value. The odds are then calculated as the percentage (positive or negative) against the total outcomes as either favorable or non-favorable odds.

All these calculations work if the game is fair and the dealer is honest. If the dealer cheats and hands out seconds every so often, you might still lose. Know that the sound of the dealing of second from top card sounds quite different from the sound of the dealing of the first card on top. If you are lucky enough to notice it, point it out; you might just help everyone at the table; they may not like playing against a dishonest dealer either.

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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There is a special type of buzz when you enter a casino with the intention of taking money from them. Casinos at the end of the day are businesses and any business is concentrating on making money and not on losing it.

But at the end of the day they are providing entertainment. They don’t mind people winning money as long as winning money is all that they are doing. There is of course a world of difference between winning money and earning money. When you are earning money then you have a positive long term expectation.

You are no longer winning money by getting lucky like a normal punter but slowly extracting money from the casino. It is possible that some card counters could be allowed to ply their trade if the casino was gaining in some other way.

For instance I once knew of a gaming manager who allowed a winning small-stakes counter to ply his trade simply because he didn’t want to risk upsetting the big hitting roulette players that he came in with who were his friends.

It is when you know that the casino don’t know what you are doing that creates the biggest buzz. This is something that a lifetime of online poker cannot replicate. This constant cat and mouse game is in itself quite a thrill.

Alas of course, it is very difficult to make blackjack a career. This is why I was playing online poker just a few years later. Just like with online poker where you are struggling to find profitable games, it is often better to play semi-professionally or as a serious amateur than to try and go full-time.

I certainly do recommend though that you try and play blackjack in a live setting because it will be well worth it.

See you soon

Carl
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There have been big debates down the years about the merits of card counting systems and comparing one to the other. This kind of reminds me of online poker and what is the best way to operate. With online poker then there is simply no one shoe fits all policy and there never can be in a million years.

Much depends on how good you are, how fast you can play, if you have rakeback, how your game stands up to multi-tabling, does watching your opponents figure greatly in your play and the list goes on and on. Usually you need to find your own level in online poker or any other form of poker to be able to make money.

Players that cannot find their own level or are constantly trying to move up and be big shots usually bust out. There is little difference with blackjack, the best card counting system is basically specific to each individual. You cannot quote some level 4 type system as being optimal if the individual cannot use it properly without losing count.

So if a certain system is “best” for you then it is “best” and it is that simple. It is the same when financial consultants recommend financial products to clients. There is no stand out best product, only what products are best for certain people.

So a blackjack player who struggles with adding up and true count conversions may find the KO Count optimal. Then again, someone who was playing long hours who was also shuffle tracking and wanted to incorporate everything as efficiently as possible may find the high/low optimal (like we did).

Then again, a player who has the mental fortitude and is doing nothing but counting and wants optimal power and results may use a level four system. So there is no such thing as the “best system” in the world…..only what is best for the individual.

See you soon

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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When I wrote my first book, “Princes of Darkness : The World of High-stakes Blackjack” back in 2006, many people jumped on me for only using the basic high/low count. This is a basic level 1 counting system where you only add and subtract in units of one.

Some of the criticism amazed me and especially from so called blackjack experts who clearly had not read my reasons further into the book. These were clearly people who were stuck in what was conventional card counting blackjack train of thought.

I on the other hand was thinking beyond conventional card counting. I simply did not want (could not handle) complicated multi-level counting systems whilst trying to shuffle track at the same time. Card counting is difficult at the best of times whilst having to interact in normal ways and worry about signalling in BP’s.

On top of this you are trying to keep a score on what has been won and lost and if you have people in your team who you cannot trust, you have more than enough to think about and if any “expert” thinks that while doing all this that they can use a multi-level counting system on top then I have two words to say to that……try it!

Even IF you succeeded which would be very doubtful then you still have the rather serious problem of fatigue waiting ominously just around the corner. To do all these things whilst trying to supervise several team members at the same as well as keep an eye out for casino personnel and any potential heat is very difficult.

In fact I would have to say that had I not had all of my years in gaming where I practiced counting speed and multi-level counting systems coupled with already knowing about casino techniques and surveillance then I just don’t think that I would have been able to pull everything off. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have probably been forced to drop the shuffle tracking element.

But seeing as I didn’t see how card counting could be profitable as a stand alone way of making money from blackjack in 1998 then it is doubtful if the entire thing would have got off the ground to begin with.

see you soon and take care

Carl “The Dean” Sampson