Playing Better Blackjack and Beating the Casino!!

Basic Strategy is the platform on which players build their game, and depending on the number of decks your casino uses will determine the decisions you make in given dealer/player card combinations. See the list of sites below to find Basic Strategy Guides that will improve your playing wins if adhered to. Although card counters believe that due to the knowledge gained in doing so can outplay the card sequence, the dealer has no such decision to make and plays to the preset rules of the game no matter how you choose to play.
If you have a hand with a hard17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or a Natural the Dealer still has an open door to match or beat you on the basis of gameplay. Choosing to stand inadvisably with more than 12 and less than 17 against a 7,8,9,10 or an A will bring the result you least desire, more often than not, based on expectation and known probabilities.

(Screenshot from QFit's Casino Verite)

Staking Plan

When you start playing Blackjack you are confronted with the question - How Much Do I Bet? If you are a complete novice - please leave the table, but if you have done some practice play on websites to get a feel for the game and know your strategy tables to a degree that enables you to play from memory then the answer to the question is pretty much down to what you feel comfortable with but from my own experience I recommend anything from the minimum table stake up to 10% of your starting bank.

In the UK the table minimum on the lowest level is currently £2 (GBP) and the maximum bet is £200 so if you are adopting the Martingale System as your preferred staking plan then you may find this quite difficult to overcome as a run of more than 7 losing bets, (this can happen), will result in you reaching a point beyond which you cannot recoup your stake as intended.

Counting Cards

Of the systems available I would tend towards the "Hi-Lo" as found in the "Professional Blackjack" book by Stanford Wong. There are very few shortcuts to learning and applying this technique just patience and determination but the effort in terms of your win expectation should compensate. The major problem identified and associated with this skill is however an apparent over-confidence in playing the game while the reality of how the cards "actually" present is exactly as if you had not any of the additional information that the count gives you. Regardless of the count the cards that are dealt remain exactly the same so it's one of the anomalies of that you have to accept in the final analysis.

The Hi-Lo System is based on assigning the value -1, to the Hi Cards from 10 through J, Q, K and A while you assign the value 1 to 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 with 7,8 and 9 having a value of 0 and therefore are self cancelling. So a deal from start to finish has a count based on the cards dealt and this value determines the betting and card mechanics compared to use of Strategy on it's own. When the deck has a higher composition of high cards then the player can generally increase the betting levels with a higher expectation of winnings hands, while the actual outcome may vary but that is Blackjack and as much as you hope for some kind of guarantee there is no such panacea for this wish. A more in depth explanation and additional set of charts are also contained in the Wong edition above and listed below. The book is undoubtedly one that should be in any serious players library.

Enjoy your games and may your next casino visit bring a winning outcome.

Blackjack Progression Systems
A few words about progressions strategies. They don't work. That should be enough words:) Actually it is good that progression systems don't work. If a trivial method of beating Blackjack existed, then the casinos would no longer offer Blackjack. Beating the casinos has to remain just hard enough that most people won't bother to learn. Instead, they will learn Blackjack betting systems that don't work reaping huge profits for the casino industry. Let's take a simple case study.

Blackjack Betting System Test

Blackjack systems are tested with Blackjack simulators. An enormous number of hands are dealt following the rules of a system to see the results. For this test, I simulated four players as follows:

Player 1: Flat bettor. All bets are the same.
Player 2: Flat bettor that stops after four consecutive losses. This tests the belief that stop losses can affect the game.
Player 3: This player uses a popular strategy found in the book 21st Century Blackjack by Walter Thomason. Without going into details, this is basically a 2-3-4-5 positive progression, reset on shuffle, stop after four consecutive losses. But any progression will do as they are all the same.
Player 4: Hi-Lo card counter spreading 1-8. I call this a lazy counter because only very simple card counting betting is utilized. No indexes are used.
All players play exactly the same basic strategy except that the card counter bets Insurance according to the count.
All players receive exactly the same cards.
Total amount bet is measured including splits, insurance and double downs.
To view the results of the test visit the link below. They provide overwhelming proof that the progression systems are not a profitable way to make money from blackjack.

(An extract from "Blackjack Scam")

Blackjack Scams What to avoid in today's crooked world

Having used the Martingale System, one of the most well known and widely used Progression Systems on the Casino Table, as well as online locations, it can be an infuriating as well as exhiliarating experience that tests your mettle to the hilt as the bets increase to quite large proportions at times depending on the max for the table you are playing. When it worked and I walked out on 2 consecutive nights with $4000 I "thought" I had cracked the magical notion of invulnerability but continued use and experience has shown that this is not the sought after Nirvana after all and so I went back to be more conservative on my staking and now use a more "sensible" level of staking to "beat the casino". That along with patience and a through knowledge of the Basic Strategy for 4-8 decks is the basis for my latest successful series of games which have helped me bank a useful level of winning for a few hours play on the Blackjack table.

Well having absorbed some of the information I have provided above, concerning Strategy, Staking Levels, Card Counting you may think that YOU cannot be beaten by the game, the casino or the player sitting next to you. Well I have some sobering news for you on that score, the nature of the game defies your perception of good, bad or indifferent and magnifies these characteristics 100-fold in direct propotion to the way each shoe of cards pans out and in accordance with your application of the Strategy you are adopting. Failure to comprehend this aspect will result in un-doubted failure at the Blackjack table and in defiance you will lose a large part of your bankroll by trying to fight such demons.

I will be quite honest when it comes to my understanding of the game and when I am doing well the feeling is one of massive adrenalin rush while the converse is equally true in terms of your self esteem and confidence - if you let it get that bad??
Your play will affect the way you feel and the timing and co-ordination required to build your bankroll as opposed to increasing the casino's revenues is down to your own self discipline.

If you wish to gamble then by all means do so but remain in full control of the funds you wish to spend on that basis. To achieve professional status and make a living from the game, study and play it until you fully understand the games character or else you will have a very painful and financially destructive effect with the consequence that brings.