Blackjack Probabilities

A good blackjack player understands the probabilities of blackjack and adjusting your play so you have winning strategies. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The basic blackjack chart created in 1956 and adjusted later for different table rules is available almost everywhere. It reduces the house advantage from 5% to 1%. That’s huge over the long haul.

There are mathematical reasons for each move in the chart. For instance, if you have a hard 16 and the dealer shows anything 7 or higher, you always presume that they have a 10 buried and take a hit. The probability of the game is that you’ll bust in 62% of the cases, but you go down with a fight. If the dealer has 2 through 6 showing and you have the same 16, you also presume that he has a 16 and you pass, hoping that he gets the probable 62% bust. When you have a 12 and the dealer shows a 2 or a 3 you need to hit. There’s only a 31% chance of either of you busting.

Card counting also takes advantage of the odds of the next card. You increase your betting when you


card count and the count is a positive. Add one for every 2,3,4,5 or 6 and subtract one for 10, Jack, Queen, King or Ace. If you have a 6-deck shoe and the table used up about four decks, divide that number by 2, since there’s five decks left. If the count is positive, that means that more little cards are out and big ones are coming. This changes the statistics. Since the odds of bigger cards is greater and more favorable to the player.

The probabilities of a better hand if the 5 cards are removed increases for the player by .67%. If you remove aces, it increases for the house by .59%. This fact led The Wizard, to create a system that counts 5’s and Aces. Assign a plus to 5’s and minus to aces. When you’re positive, you increase the bet, negative go back to a single unit.
Mathematicians create most of the blackjack probability charts and strategies because math rules the outcome of the cards over the long haul. In single deck blackjack, you only have so many combinations. In multi-deck games the odds or probabilities change. They use theoretical equations to arrive at their answers and then find ways to make them useful on the gaming floor. These probabilities are over the long haul, and in short-play, may not always work out the way you expect.
When you sit down to a blackjack table, the probability of winning is 42.43%. The probability of losing is 49.09% and that of a draw is 8.48% with no basic strategy. It would seem that if you lose 6 hands in a row, your next hand should be a winner. It would seem that way, but isn’t. Blackjack probabilities are long-term numbers. That means that over thousands of hands these hold true. While the odds of losing 19 hands in a row are 1 in 1,459,921, it does happen. There are no “sure things” when it comes to a single session of cards. That’s why they call it gambling.
This article was brought to you by ProsOfGambling.com.
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Posted under Black Jack Tips by admin on Wednesday 20 August 2008 at 10:41 am

Winning At Blackjack

When you play black jack there’s a few simple rules to remember before you get into the finer strategy of the game. You always try to get closer to 21 or hit 21, than the dealer. Always pretend that the dealer has a 10 card hidden. When you look at your cards, if the amount is higher than 11 or lower than17, don’t take a hit. You pass and bet that the dealer will bust, get higher than 21. Stay put on a good hand and don’t try fancy splits if you have face cards no matter how tempting it is. You’re liable to pull a the dealer’s bust  card, then you’d need protection from the other players’ wrath. If you have an ace and a card that is 7 or lower, always take a hit.

Those are simple rules for the game, now some more intricate one’s that help you win more frequently.

1. Find the right game. Not all games are equal, some players love multi-deck blackjack even though the single deck is better for card tracking. If you have the opportunity to play single deck blackjack, there’s a full table and you have a good memory for the cards already played, you should select that table. Make sure the players are fun to play with and don’t carry a negative vibe.

Try to get a table or casino that doesn’t use a card shuffler, but still shuffles the decks by hand. Good players can track the trends in the deck and they seem appear more in hand shuffled decks than the machine shuffled

2. Track the trends and bet high when you’re winning and lower your bet when you 
lose. This may sound logical but there are players that believe that if you double your bet each time you’ll eventually win the money back. Losing streaks can last long enough that you out of money when you use that reasoning. Don’t bet high out of the frustration of losing and hope you’re right that time. You probably won’t be.

3.  Learn the best strategy for the game. Get a strategy card, or two because it varies by number of decks and table rules, and learn it inside out. This is your foundation for winning.

4.  Play consistently. Maybe you can’t bring yourself to hit a 16, then don’t do it, but don’t do it each and every time. Unless you are psychic, you’ll never know which time it’s right. While we’re on consistency, be consistent in one other thing, never take insurance. There is one small exception and the feeling varies from player to player. If you have a blackjack, even money at least gives you a win, and it really is taking insurance even though it’s called even money.

Blackjack is a game of odds over the long run, but you can have great lucky streaks. When you find that you’re in one of those, don’t double your bet each time but add half of the win to your pile and increase your bet that way. You’ll always have the money to double down when the opportunity arises. Play smart and whittle down the odds of the casino winning.

This article was brought to you by http://cashforblackjack.com If you want to learn how to make money with your passion for blackjack visit  http://cashforblackjack.com

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Posted under Winning At Blackjack by admin on Friday 15 August 2008 at 2:12 pm

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