Blackjack: Myths, strategies and tips

Blackjack: Myths, strategies and tips

Blackjack is truly one of the world’s most nerve-wracking card games. If you’re a savvy player, a connoisseur of the game, you may have tons of tricks and strategies up your sleeve to try to gain that tiny, crucial edge on the house. You might even be good at card counting – a real blackjack genius who can track the odds in the blink of an eye.

Blackjack is a game steeped in myth and lore, featuring in books, movies, even songs. It’s the most popular gambling card game next to poker and it’s the one game where skills count in your favour. There is, unfortunately, also a lot of very bad information out there that could put a newcomer off the game entirely or mess with a veteran’s system.

In this guide, we’re taking a look at some of the myths and superstitions around blackjack, as well as a few strategies that actually work.

If you’re a newcomer to the game of blackjack, please read our How to Play Blackjack guide first, to ensure you have a good understanding of the game. You can also see our guide on card counting for more on this house-beating technique.

Now, let’s get into some blackjack myth-busting.

Blackjack’s aim is to hit 21. That makes you a clear winner. Besides that, the goal is to beat the dealer’s hand without going over 21, or going bust. Here, it helps to understand how dealers play. Unless a casino’s rules explicitly state otherwise, blackjack dealers will hit on 16 and stand on 17. That means if you have 18, for example, and the dealer has 17, you have won the hand. There is no need at all to try to get closer to 21, as you could easily end up going bust. Landing on 21 is fantastic, of course, but focus on making the game about beating the dealer without busting.

Online casinos are the tech age equivalents of these scenes. They offer all the same games and the same excitement but without the crowds of people. And without the unnecessary distraction that you often find in land-based casinos like fast food joints, cinemas, kiddies game arcades, parking lots and extra costs.

You get to play all your favourite games in the comfort of your own home. With the rise of mobile casinos, you can even play while you’re waiting at the airport or sitting in a boring conference or in your hotel room on a business trip.

Nope. Card counting is not only perfectly legal, it’s actually not a bad strategy, as long as you take the time and make the effort to get very good at it. Casinos used to try to prevent people from doing it, or remove suspected card counters. Today, however, they will only bother with the most obvious attempts, simply because most people don’t put in the effort to get good. While it is potentially lucrative for a player, it’s just not that big a threat to casinos anymore.

If you’re going to do it, be good at it, and keep it under wraps. Bragging to your table neighbour about how good you are is going to get you booted off the table.

This is a yes and no answer. The systems for card counting are actually simple – they’re not difficult to learn at all. You just need to be able to add and subtract the number 1, and remember which cards carry what value. We go deep into the how-to in this guide.

It is, however, a lot of hard work and effort to become good at card counting. And you really don’t want to try it in a real money game before you’re pretty good, otherwise it will just confuse you.

Blackjack is a game of counting, yes, but it isn’t higher grade calculus. Once you understand the basic rules of blackjack and play a few practice hands, you will quickly get used to adding up the card values in your head. You certainly don’t need to be a maths genius to be good at the game – or even at card counting!

Many players will run scurrying from a dealer on a winning streak. Others will flock there, absolutely sure that the streak is about to break. The simple fact is, streaks are as random as in any other game of chance. There is only a very limited scope for skill to influence the outcome of a game. The dealer also has strict rules by which they must play their own hand. Whatever your reason for selecting a dealer and table, rest assured that, streak or no streak, your chances of beating a dealer are as good as at any other table.

If you’ve never heard of this before, you really must be new to gambling! It’s a theory some die-hard players will bet their last cent on but wise gamblers avoid. It’s the belief that: you are due a win!

Come to think of it, this is a pervasive belief among gamblers and non-gamblers alike. In life, if things have been difficult for a long time, we might persuade ourselves that a break is just around the corner. As gamblers, some players refuse to acknowledge that they’re on a losing streak and should just stop playing. They are fully convinced that they are going to hit the win that is due to them any moment now.

The flames of this belief are fanned by those miracle jackpot wins where someone plays their last few dollars on a slot machine and hits the mega jackpot. What those stories fail to remind us is that just behind that one player, there are several hundred other players also plugging their last few savings into the bank of slots and losing everything.

If any of this rings true, it may be worth considering seeking help or counseling for problem gambling.

There are hundreds of books and articles on gambling strategies for all kinds of games. Naturally, this includes blackjack. Card counting aside, there are other strategies that claim to offer a casino-beating method. Here are a few that don’t work for blackjack, and why.

Progressive betting

Betting systems like the Martingale system, which encourage you to double your bets on a loss, are impractical for blackjack. Vingt-et-un (21) tables usually have a minimum and maximum betting limit, and if you follow this system, you will hit that threshold quickly if you lose a few consecutive hands.

No bust

As we’ve mentioned, the aim of blackjack is to beat the dealer’s score without going bust. Going bust can happen quite easily, so this strategy focuses on avoiding that. This strategy works by choosing to stay if any of your cards are a picture card. For example, if you get a jack and a 3, you would stay, instead of hitting. Practically speaking, though, this means not taking a card if your total is 11 or higher. A dealer will frequently beat 11 through 15 without going bust, which means this strategy could see you losing to the dealer even more often.

1000 a day, walk away

With this strategy, you set a predetermined amount that you wish to make each day, such as $200. As soon as you are up $200, you walk away and come back tomorrow. The belief behind this is that your streak ‘resets’ every day. However, you could just as easily lose $200 every day for several days before seeing another winning day. It’s far better to set yourself a play budget – a maximum amount you’re willing to lose – and to enjoy the playing experience instead.

Any worthwhile gambling strategy is going to involve some time and effort from the player. If you have, for example, learned the basics of card counting, and expect to use this rudimentary knowledge to beat the casino, then no, it isn’t going to work. So as you read the strategies in this section, please always bear in mind the proviso: these strategies can and do work, but they need your time and effort. Also, they are not 100% foolproof, and sometimes they won’t work because that’s just the luck of the draw.

Card counting

In brief, card counting is a technique whereby players assign count values to cards based on their face value. These count values are -1, 0, and +1. As cards are drawn, the player adds and subtracts from the running total, using these count values. The running count is then used to determine betting and play strategies. We go into this in much more detail in this guide.

Learn the game

Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. It’s a genuine, legitimate strategy! Blackjack is a game of numbers and, while you don’t have to be a genius at maths, being able to quickly add and subtract makes you respond quicker to the dealer. It also helps keep you more relaxed and able to think through plays.

Slow and steady

The great thing about blackjack is that the game itself doesn’t care what the stakes are. It is a consistent game that, if played with consistent skill, can provide incremental returns to the player over time. Don’t go rushing straight into high-stakes games, in other words; once again, take your time to really get to know the game. Play for low stakes and keep your bets low until you are much more familiar with the game. Smaller stakes help keep your mind focused on becoming intimately familiar with blackjack, and developing your play style.

Progressive (positive) betting

Where systems like Martingale ask you to double your bets on losses, for blackjack, the reverse seems to be truer. By increasing your bets when you win, rather than when you lose, you can see growth in your winnings. Of course, this is not guaranteed.

There’s more to gambling and blackjack than just winning or losing. There is also playing responsibly. The tips in this section will help you navigate around the game of blackjack without stumbling over too many pitfalls.

Insurance

Buying insurance on a bet is not only a waste of time, but a waste of money. It only applies if the dealer hits 21, and you can waste loads of money before it ever becomes worthwhile.

Budget

Whatever game you are playing, set a budget and stick to it. This counts whether you are playing in a casino or online. If you are playing online, take advantage of things like daily deposit limits, play limits, and other methods to help you stick to the budget. If, at any stage, you feel your spending might be out of control, seek help for problem gambling.

Winning limit

While a budget is important, it’s also important to set yourself an upper limit. If you win a predetermined amount, you stop playing and enjoy your winnings.

Know the rules

Blackjack comes in many varieties. Although they are all very similar in game play, variations may have unique rules. Before playing any game of blackjack, consult the game rules. This is particularly easy to do online, as most games provide game guides that include these rules.

Everyone who has played blackjack in a group knows about the ‘jerk player’ who causes everyone to lose with a stupid move. Usually, this involves ‘forcing’ the dealer to keep drawing, even if everyone else has a potentially winning hand. When you think about it sensibly, however, you realize that the dealer has very strict rules by which they play, and they will play until they either win, go bust, or have to stay due to their total and lose. One individual player’s bad choices don’t actually influence any other players’ wins or losses.