AN EASY WAY TO BECOME A GOOD BLACKJACK PLAYERLearning to play
game of casino Blackjack reasonably well is not rocket science, regardless of what dozens of books on subject would have you believe. Playing professionally at expert level, as is true of any game, is indeed complex and takes years to perfect. But anyone can become a good recreational player and have a fighting chance against casino simply by learning some very easy rules.
So, if you’re tired of throwing all your money away on brain-numbing slot machines, read on!
Blackjack can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Using card counting and advanced techniques, you can actually have a slight advantage over house in certain conditions. That is, if you are willing to spend hundreds of hours learning and practicing, plus hundreds of hours each year playing! Only a few of us have this kind of dedication.
The ”beginner strategy” described below is designed for those of you who have never played Blackjack before or have played only a few times (and are tired of losing!). It requires that you learn only four simple rules. You can memorize these rules in 30 minutes or less. Well, actually, much less! You may have heard of term ”Blackjack basic strategy”. The Blackjack basic strategy is a set of betting and hit/stand rules to statistically maximize your chances of winning. While not complex, it will still take some time and quite a bit of practice to learn and apply consistently. For beginners, or very occasional players who don't want to spend hours practicing Blackjack basic strategy, here is a Beginner Strategy that won’t give you a headache trying to learn.
While this will not give you same low odds against you as true Blackjack Basic Strategy (about .5%), it produces a low 1.5% or so edge for casino, still one of best odds you'll find in any casino game. You won't lose your shirt and you'll have a fighting chance of winning if you encounter a favorable run of cards. It should only take a few minutes to learn these four simple Blackjack rules, though you should practice for a couple of hours to get comfortable with them before actually playing in a casino game.
FIRST, A SHORT AND EASY LESSON ON THE GAME RULES If you already know how to play Blackjack, you can skip this section. Otherwise, it will only take a few minutes to learn simple playing rules.
CARD VALUES Tens and face cards count as 10, Aces count as either 1 or 11 (your choice), and all other cards have a count equal to their face value.
THE PLAY All players play against dealer, not against one another. Each player makes their bet and dealer starts out by dealing two cards to each player and two cards to himself. The dealer’s second card is dealt face-up for all players to see. If dealer has a “Blackjack” (and Ace and a ten or face card), he will turn it over and automatically wins all bets, unless a player also has a Blackjack, in which case it’s a tie.
Then, starting with player to dealer’s left, each player has choice of standing (not drawing any more cards) or being dealt additional cards. Play continues with that player until player stands or “busts” (gets a card count that totals more than 21). After all players have made their decisions (or busted), dealer draws additional cards to either reach a total of 17 or higher (when they must automatically stop), or bust. If dealer doesn’t bust, all remaining player’s hands with a higher card total win, and those with a lower card total lose.
