Blackjack
Blackjack, which is also refered to as twenty-one or Pontoon, is one of the most popular casino card games in the world. Much of blackjack’s Popularity is due to the mix of chance and skill and the publicity that surrounds card counting which will be discussed in this guide as well.
Blackjack, which is also refered to as twenty-one or Pontoon, is one of the most popular casico card games in the world. Much of blackjack’s Popularity is due to the mix of chance and skill and the publicity that surrounds card counting which will be discussed in this Snap guide as well.
Blackjack was not very popular when it was first introduced in the US, so gambling houses tried offering various bonus payouts to get the players to the tables. One such bonus was 10-to-1 payout if the players hand consisted of the ace of spades and black jack. (Either the Jack of clubs or spades) This hand was called the Blackjack, and the name stuck to the game even though the bonus payout was soon abolished. As the game is currently played, a Blackjack may not necessarily contain a jack at all.
While playing the game, each player is dealt 2 cards. The hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn’t exceed 21. If they are higher then 21; a hand with a higher total then 21 is said to Bust. Cards 2 through 10 are worth their face value, and face cards are also worth 10. An ace’s value is 11 unless this number causes the player to Bust, in which case, it is then worth a 1. If the Ace in a hand is valued at 11, that hand is called a Soft Hand, because it cannot be busted if the player draws another card.
The goal is simple; each player is to beat the dealer by having the higher, unbusted hand. For the record, if the player busts, then he loses the hand; even if the dealer busts. So you can say that blackjack favors the dealer. The minimum bet on a table varies from casino to casino, and from table to table.
A two card hand of 21 (Ace plus ten-value card), is called “blackjack.” Or a “natural”, and is an automatic winner.
If dealer has blackjack and player does not, the player automatically loses.
If both player and dealer have blackjack, it’s a Push.
If player has blackjack and dealer does not, player automatically wins.
If neither side has blackjack, then each player plays out his hand, one at a time
Hit: Take another card
Stand: Don’t take anymore cards
Double Down: Double the wager, take exactly one more card, then stay with it
Split: Double the wager and have each card be the first card in a new hand. You can only utilize this option if both hands are of the same value.
Surrender: Forfeit half the bet and give up the hand. Surrender was common during the early- and mid 20th century, but is no longer offered at most casinos.
If the dealer’s upcard is an Ace, the player is offered the option of taking Insurance before the dealer checks his “hole card”.
The player who wishes to take Insurance can be an amount up to half his original bet. Its placed separately on a special place on the table. The player who is taking Insurance is betting that the dealers “hole card” is a 10 value card, ie. A 10, Jack, or Queen or King. Because the dealers upcard is an Ace, this means that the player who takes Insurance is essentially betting that the dealer was dealt a Natural, ie. A 2 card 21, and this bet by the player pays of 2:1 if it wins. Of course, a player may lose both his original bet and his Insurance bet.
As with all Casino games, the house generally has a statistical advantage over the players that will play itself out in the long run. Under the most favorable conditions, the house advantage over a basic strategy player can be as low as 0.16%. Casinos offering special rules like surrender and double-after-split may actually be offering a positive expectation to skilled players; they are counting on players making mistakes to make money. Usually, conditions are 0.5% house edge over a skilled player.
The house edge is a statistically determined value that only begins to apply practically over a large number of Blackjack hands. Taking any single hand individually, a player typically has less then 42% chance of wining money. The house edge is greatly affected by the rules on offer by the casino.
Because blackjack, unlike many other games, has an element of player choice, players can actually reduce the casino advantage to a small percentage by playing what is knows as Basic Strategy. This strategy determines when to hit and when to stand, and also determines when doubling down or splitting is the correct action. Basic strategy is based on the players point total and the dealers visible card. There are slight variations in basic strategy depending on the exact house rules and the number of decks used.
Basic strategy provides the player with the optimal play for any blackjack situation, based on millions of hands played in the long run. However in the short run, as the cards are dealt from the deck, the remaining deck is no longer complete. By keeping track of the cards that have already been played, it is possible to know when the cards remaining in the deck are advantageous for the player.
Card counting creates two opportunities:
The player can make larger bets when they have the advantage.
The player can use information about the remaining cards to improve upon the basic strategy rules for specific hands played.
There are several card counting systems which do not require that the player remembers which cards have been played. Rather, a point system is established for the cards, and then the player keeps track of a simple point count as the cards are played out from the deck.
In the winter of 2002 a diverse selection of 21 blackjack experts, authors, and professional players were nominated by the top professional gamblers in the world to the blackjack hall of fame. Currently there are 12 members of the blackjack Hall of Fame. The members include:
Al Francesco -- 2002
Peter Griffin -- 2002
Tommy Hyland -- 2002
Arnold Snyder -- 2002
Edward O. Thorp --2002
Ken Uston -- 2002
Stanford Wong – 2002
Max Rubin – 2004
Ken Taft -- 2004
Lawrence Revere -- 2005
Julian Braun -- 2005
James Grosjean -- 2006