Blackjack Optimal Strategy

Best Blackjack Betting Strategies For centuries, the strategic potential of blackjack has defied the chances and reduced the house edge to the point of complete elimination. The advanced card counting strategies were fought off by the casino operators through. 21 - Blackjack 'Basic Strategy' Chart In his 1960s book Beat the Dealer, Edward O. Thorp introduced a calculated method for winning at blackjack.Reprinted countless times, Thorp's Blackjack Basic Strategy chart is a useful tool for knowing when to hit, stand, split, or double down. Diamond Reels Casino. Basic blackjack strategy is simply a set of rules designed to help you make correct decisions. These rules tell you the optimal way to play every hand you are dealt at the blackjack table. Your hand is compared to the dealer’s up card to tell you the best move to make. Every blackjack strategy is accompanied by a strategy.

Someone wanting to play perfect blackjack has many avenues to explore. Players can memorize a basic strategy chart and try to achieve what some experts have called optimal strategy. Gamblers can read about which blackjack rules variations favor the player and start a hard target search of Las Vegas (or the Internet) for the perfect game of blackjack, with an expectation around 99.80%. One you’ve mastered basic strategy and you know the proper game setting for your skills, though, you’ll find yourself tantalizingly short of a positive expectation blackjack experience. At this point, you might consider blackjack played at nearly 100% expectation as perfect play, or you might search for some new advantage, like getting comps at a land-based casino or bonus offers at an online casino. Or you might look at other advantage gambling techniques like card counting.

Blackjack, a game of skill and strategy, is immensely popular among casino table players for its low house edge and the various possibilities it offers for lowering the house edge further.

Best Blackjack Strategy Without Counting

The blackjack player aims to lower the house edge as much as possible by making the right decisions at the right time.

A lot of players fail to win at blackjack because they do not know how to implement the proper blackjack strategies at the appropriate time.

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Basic blackjack strategy

Basic blackjack strategy is something that players must learn as soon as they have learned the rules of the game. Basic strategy charts, which are available free of charge at most blackjack portals, tell players exactly what they should do in almost every situation they face while playing the game.

If players cannot memorise it, they can refer to it now and then while playing a game of blackjack.

Understanding blackjack terms

Another major mistake that new players make is omitting to learn blackjack terms. Players should not only learn the rules, but understand correctly what is meant by hitting, standing, insurance, doubling down, surrendering, and so on.

There is not much sense in playing blackjack if players do not understand the basics.

Before playing blackjack, players should also know what is meant by hard hands, which are hands that do not contain an ace, and soft hands, which are hands that contain an ace.

It also helps to know some basic blackjack strategies as follows:

Splitting
• Avoid splitting tens, fives, and fours, but always split eights and aces.
• Sevens, threes, and twos can be split only if the dealer’s exposed card is seven or lower.
• Sixes can be split if the dealer’s exposed card is six or lower.
• Nines can be split if the dealer’s exposed card is an ace, ten, or seven.
• Some blackjack variants permit re-splitting hands if they get another same-value hand.

Doubling
• Players can double their bets if they have got a hand of point value 11
• Double a five pair unless the dealer’s exposed card is an ace or a ten
• Double a hand of point value nine only if the dealer’s exposed card is six or lower

Surrender

Some casinos allow players to surrender if they have a weak hand and get back half of their bet amounts. Players are sometimes overeager to surrender to save some of their money, as a result of which they even surrender good hands.

Players should never surrender on:
• Hands of point value 15 if the dealer’s exposed card is ace, ten, or nine
• Hands of point value 16 if the dealer’s exposed card is a nine
• Hands of point value 17 if the dealer’s exposed card is an ace, ten, or nine.

Insurance

The insurance bet is a bet that a lot of inexperienced blackjack player seems to like. It is also a lousy strategy bet.

If the dealer’s face up card is an ace, the player is offered the option of taking an “insurance” bet of up to half the original wager before the dealer checks the hole card.

Insurance is a side bet (independent of the main wager) that the dealer has blackjack. The insurance bet, though it may seem attractive at first, feeds the fear of the player and has a very high house edge.

Never take insurance.

Educate yourself: become a better blackjack player

Printable Blackjack Basic Strategy Card

One’s blackjack education never ends. There is no shortage of blackjack strategy books for players to read, and players should make it a point to learn and practice as much as possible if they want blackjack success.

Blackjack Strategy Trainer

And never forget, the object of playing blackjack is not to come as close to 21 without busting. The purpose is to beat the dealer!