Advantage play in blackjack
When it comes to playing at a casino, there are two kinds of games. There are those that rely purely on luck and then there are those that need a mix of luck and skill. When it comes to games of luck, they are just that: there’s nothing that you can do to influence the outcome. When games require a degree of skill though, things get a little more interesting. Find out more about advantage play in blackjack.
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What do we mean by advantage play in blackjack?
You’ve no doubt already heard that the game of blackjack is all about mathematics. When it comes to blackjack, and any casino game, the house has an edge which is what gives it the better chance of winning. This means that to stay profitable, the math is built in to ensure that, on average, a cut is taken from every wager. Where the emotion of math may of, at first, sounded a little boring, it’s actually where blackjack gets exciting. That’s because you can use this math and get the advantage for yourself.
We’re going to delve into the ways that great blackjack players use math to get the advantage. With the basic realization that this game is all about math, it’s easier to understand why some of these techniques work so well. Let’s take a look now.
Advantage play in blackjack – card counting
If you’ve seen the film Rainman then you’ll have already heard about counting cards. Even if you haven’t seen the film, this is the most popular advantage method that there is so there’s still a very good chance that you know something about it. The depiction of card counting in Rainman is enough to put anyone off: it makes it appear that you need to be some kind of genius to even give this a go. The truth, however, is very different.
Card counting is just about tracking the ratio between high and low cards. Let’s say that there was a deck of cards and the house removed the aces, every 10 and every picture card. That would mean a natural blackjack was impossible and so the casino would have the edge. However, if the situation was reversed and all cards were removed apart from the aces, 10s, and picture cards, the odds are suddenly firmly in your favour.
Okay, so the chances of either of those scenarios are zero but they illustrate just how this method works.
Using hi vs low cards
As we’ve said, the above scenario will never play out. However, when you’re card counting, your role is to keep track so that you can estimate how many low and hi cards are left in the deck. you can increase your wager when you know that there’s a bigger chance of landing a natural blackjack and you can cut back when you know that the chances are slim.
Tracking the value of the cards is done by giving them a value. Aces and high cards are worth -1 while low cards are worth +1. When the ratio is positive it means that there are more high-value cards left than low ones.
There are other methods of card counting and, when done right, these give you the advantage. In fact, you can put the edge anywhere between 0.5% and 2% in your favour. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t any downsides.
The downsides of card counting
Firstly, casinos know that card counting works and for that reason they detest it. While this can be considered a blackjack strategy rather than cheating it’s costing the casino money and they obviously aren’t fans of this. Get caught and you may find yourself asked to leave and you may even to told to never come back.
The other problem with card counting is that casinos have gone out of their way to make it almost impossible. By using shuffling machines and multiple decks it gets that much harder to keep track. You may find a casino that deals and shuffles by hand and only uses one deck. If this place even existed, the house would soon notice the pattern of your play and you’d be leaving.
Advantage play in blackjack – cheating
A big watch out here before we go any further. Card counting can’t see you winding up in jail. Cheating can! It’s a crime and, if you get caught, you could be in some serious trouble. We’re not advocating cheating but found it interesting to look at the lengths some go to to get the advantage.
A major cheat is past posting. This is when a layer is dealt a natural blackjack and wants to maximise the return. They will sneakily deposit more chips on top of their initial wager in the hope that no one will notice.
Other players will try and mark the cards. It could be a small indentation made with a nail or any other mark but using one would mean you know exactly what a card is and that gives a huge advantage.
Rather than cheating per se, some players use edge sorting. This is where cards have naturally become damaged over time and have marks on the edge. After several hands, some players get to recognize which cards have which marks.
Advantage play in blackjack – shuffle tracking
This advantage may be hard to use, to be honest. However, there are some players who swear that this is the method that they use. Essentially, shuffle tracking is based on the idea that the cards are never shuffled very well. This means that certain groups of cards stay together. These cards are given groups that are referred to as zones and the idea is to try and start a game with a whole load of high-value cards.
Final thoughts
With shuffle tracking looking almost impossible and cheating putting you on the wrong side of the law, your best bet to gain the advantage is to master card counting. Yes, this is a skill that’s getting harder to utilise but it’s still the one that was used by the biggest blackjack winners in history so it’s certainly worthy of a look.
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| $25 FREE on Signup 100% up to $1.000 on First Deposit Hotspot Leaderboard | Visit Casino |
