Published at 21. 6. 2009 in category
MainOver the years there are a number of variants that have emerged of this game. ‘Siebzehn und vier’ is a German game which means Seventeen and four. Blackjack is popular worldwide. It does not allow splitting. The French game from which is said to have evolved is still played and is called “Vingt-et-un” which is, as told before, 21 in French. Pontoon is an English version of the game where all cards on the table are face down. In both these German and French versions, the ace is eleven and double Ace is Blackjack. These are played privately in groups and not in casinos. The Spanish 21 is another variant of the game which has very liberal rules. The Chinese version of Blackjack also doe not allows splitting of cards. That’s why it has the highest house edge of all the blackjack games. Double attack Blackjack is also very liberal; it gives a choice to player where he can increase his bet after seeing the dealer’s up-card. The Double Exposure blackjack is played with 8 decks and dealer’s cards are dealt face up. The house advantage is 0.69%. Another variation of blackjack which is very similar to it but here the total should add up to 31 and this is Caribbean 21Blackjack Switch is where two hands are dealt to a player. The player has to make two bets of equal amounts. Blackjack Surrender a variant where a player can give up half his bet and surrender the hand. He then has the option to switch cards between the hands to create a good hand. The Vegas Downtown blackjack is played with two decks and house edge is 0.38%. Vegas strip blackjack uses 4 decks and the house advantage is 0.34%. The European blackjack is played with two decks and doubling is not allowed after splitting. Like the poker, tournament formats of blackjack are also held which is the elimination blackjack.
Published at 8. 5. 2009 in category
MainShuffle tracking is another way of card counting which was developed very recently, almost 15 years back. It not only involves techniques of card counting but tracking a clump of cards, good cards and bad cards, hands that have been won and lost in the game. Cutting is also a very crucial step. A player may know where the favorable cards are and then deciding when to bet higher or lower. If high valued cards have been played then the low valued cards remain in deck. When the dealer shuffles the card, a player will know that low valued cards are now in the top of the pack and they are mostly roughly together. When the player is asked to cut by the dealer, the player if he is tracking the cards can cut the cards from almost the centre or where he is sure that he has taken most of the low valued cards as these ‘cut’ cards will be placed at the bottom of the stack. He can also have an idea which is the good spot and bad spot of the deck, at least a rough idea. This is one way where a player can take the unfavorable cards out from the play. Mastering both these techniques is a very long process and takes time and patience. For casino owners and dealers also it is a difficult task to track player who do shuffle tracking. This will not guarantee you a win at a game of Blackjack in casinos but increase you odds considerably. With practice, on can master these techniques and become proficient.
Published at 12. 4. 2009 in category
MainThe numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are given a value of + 1 and 7, 8, 9 are denoted by 0. Card counting is one of the techniques which a player can use. There are three types of values to be considered while counting. The 10 valued cards and the Aces are -1. if you are perfect at card counting then after the counting a deck is finished the total left should be zero as al the card values should negate each other. Card counting is very important as you may know when the ten valued card can appear. An experienced gambler can determine the count quickly and devise his techniques very fast. For some people card counting is a thing of past. With the use of multiple decks by the casinos, dealer shuffling the card mid way, using shuffle machines to shuffle the cards, it is indeed difficult to keep track of the cards. When the dealer uses a shuffle machine, it gets almost impossible to count the cards. But card counting is helpful when a single deck is used which is still used in some casinos although they are very few in number.
Published at 26. 3. 2009 in category
MainBlackjack has the least house edge of all the casino games, somewhere between 0.3 to 0.7%. A house edge is the profit that casinos make from a players bet. The house edge can be further reduced if the player plays according to a basic strategy. These are based on mathematical formulas and lot of research has gone into devising strategies. There are tables which show the possibility of every hand. Following a basic strategy a player may win more and loose less. The decision making rules comprise a Basic Strategy of Blackjack. It is all based on mathematical calculations and statistics. If a player plays by the strategy he can reduce the house advantage and increase his winning odds. Depending on the rules of each casino, some modifications may be made to the basic strategy. All casinos have rules that a dealer has to follow. A basic strategy can give you an edge but using the advanced blackjack strategy, a player can know how many decks have been used, which cards have been played, which cards are remaining in the deck. A player can use this to his advantage. By looking at the dealer’s face-up card, a player can devise his technique.
Published at 14. 2. 2009 in category
MainDuring the course of the play, a player can make different choices which are Hit, Stand, Double down, Split, Surrender and insurance. A player decides whether he wants a Hit meaning dealt with another card which will add up to his total or he wants Stand when he does not wants to add his total. These decisions or choices which are made by the player are indicated by hand motions to the dealer and not verbally. Doubling down is doubling your wager and putting your amount next to the previous bet and you will be given an additional card. Tapping the table with hands signals Hit and waving hands with palms down over your betting circle or cards means Stand. Both doubling down and splitting a pair are signaled by placing new bets next to previous bet. . If the first two cards which the player received are a ‘pair’ then he places a second bet next to his first one and proceeds with two separate hands; this is Splitting a pair. Surrender is an option which very few casinos offer as it is of value to the player. Through this a player can surrender half his bet rather than continue with the hand. There is another option of Insurance to the player which a player may decide to go for in case the dealer Up card is an Ace. It has to be communicated verbally and before any other action like hitting, standing or splitting. It is a side bet which protects the player in case the dealer has a Blackjack. For a blackjack, a player gets a 3:2 payoff. These bets are placed at half the value of the original bet. Incase the dealer wins a blackjack, the players loose their original bet amounts.
Published at 20. 1. 2009 in category
MainThe top card before the dealing is placed at the top of the pack face up in hand held games. The regular shueffling and cutting procedures are carried out before the cards are dealt to the players. There is a cut card which is placed in between the deck of cards randomly which decides who will cut the cards after shuffling in the next round. In case cards are dealt with a Shoe, the top card is placed in a tray which is used for Burn (discarded cards). Each player is dealt two cards one at a time. The dealing is done clockwise starting from the player to the left of the dealer and ends at the player sitting on the right side of the dealer. Out of the two dealer’s cards, one card is face up which is called the ‘Up card’ and the other is face down which is called the ‘Hole card’.
Published at 9. 12. 2008 in category
MainAn Ace has a value of either 1 or 11 depending on the player. The values of cards from 2 to 10 are the face values which mean a 3 will have the value of 3 and ten will be 10. The court cards, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10. All suits are equal in this game. Hand value is derived by a simple addition of card values. If a dealer has this hand, he will beat anyone at the table. At the starting of the play each player has two cards. The ideal hand is Blackjack which means if you have your first two cards as an Ace and any 10 value card. It is also called Natural. There are stiff hands which mean the hands which can bust with a single card. Pat hands are hands which total 17 or above. Most players with a Pat hand will not go for additional cards. Bust is when hand total exceeds 21 and the player looses. A hard hand is when either the player does not have an Ace or when even with an ace as 1 he is close to the total of 21. A soft hand is a hand which has an Ace because an Ace is a dual purpose card. It can be used as a 1 or 11 valued card, as required. Push means a tie and a hand which is equal to the dealer’s hand is a tie.
Published at 21. 11. 2008 in category
MainThe table has a padded edge for the players to lean on while playing. A blackjack table in a casino is semi-circular in shape. The dealer stands opposite the players in the centre of the half circle. There are betting circles on the table for all the players to keep their chips. Depending on the casinos, 6 to 7 players can play the game. Every table in a casino has different betting amounts The table layout of blackjack is very simple. Two categories of blackjack games are played. One is the “hand held game” which is played using one or two decks of standard 52 cards. In hand held games, the dealer deals the card manually. The cards are dealt face-down in front of the players in this type of game. The other game is “shoe games”. It is usually kept on the left hand side of the dealer. It uses multiple decks and the cards are dealt from a rectangular box called a Shoe. The cards dealt are face up in this game.. Betting amounts may range from 2$, 100 $ to 5000$. Before sitting down to play, one must look at the betting amount limits of the table. You have to buy ‘Chips’ before the start of the play. A player can beat the dealer in two ways. ‘Busting’ is when your total exceeds 21. One is when you keep your total below 21 and let the dealer go past that or by getting a higher total than the dealer but at the same time not exceeding the total of 21.
Published at 12. 10. 2008 in category
MainIt could be called the first ever guide book for Blackjack strategy where they had used statistical methods and theories to study how to reduce the house edge. To reduce the ‘house edge’ of casinos, Roger Baldwin and his associates had published a paper in American Statistical association in 1953. Then, in 1962, Professor Edward Thorp came out with his book ‘Beat the Dealer’ which talked about the card counting system. But facing strong opposition form public, they reverted back to the classic style of blackjack. It was one of the best selling books at that time and was a useful guide to blackjack players. The casinos had to modify the rules of the blackjack game in order to reduce the damage that book caused them. Blackjack is a very popular game in casinos today in US, Europe, Canada and Australia. There have been numerous other people who contributed to the success of this game.
Published at 18. 9. 2008 in category
MainIn a Spanish story of 17th century, a game similar to Blackjack founds a mention. It is one of the simplest games in casinos and also the most popular card game. It is believed that Blackjack has its roots in a French game called Vingt-et-un which means ‘21’ in French. In the 17th century this game was popular in casinos in France. The similarity lies in the fact that in the French game the goal of the player was to reach a total of 21 which is the same in blackjack and its other variants. Though the rules of this game and blackjack are not exactly the same, but it definitely originated from this game. The name Blackjack came when a special payout was made to the player who had a Black Jack, which was either jack of spades or jack of Club, and an Ace of Spade. If any player exceeds the total of 21, he goes ‘bust’. Though there is no special payout now, this name has stuck. This term ‘bust’ is said to have come from an Italian game ‘Seven and a half’ where one had to reach a hand of seven and a half. A player was ‘busted’ when he exceeded the figure. As there was no law prohibiting gambling in US then, gamblers understood the game and devised the ‘Basic strategy of blackjack’ to get odds in their favor. After the French revolution, this game moved to North America where it grew in popularity. In the 19th century, gambling was banned in USA. It then became an underground game. This was the state till gambling was legalized in 1931 in Nevada and Las Vegas became a centre for gambling.