Blackjack, a game of choice or chance? It’s not possible to remove chance, but it is possible to remove a significate portion of the houses advantage. Apply proper money management to your betting and you will have a recipe for fun and potentially huge winnings. I will explain how to lower the casino’s advantage to as little as 3%. Maximize winning potential, while minimizing losses. This strategy is simple and easy to implement.
I’m going to assume you know how to play blackjack. If not, don’t worry it’s an easy game to learn and a five-minute video will teach you everything you need to know about the rules and mechanics. This article will focus on a strategy I have used for years to win more often than I have lost. Understand, there is no strategy that works 100% of the time, but if you follow the rules, you will have the confidence to know what to do and when.
Step 1. Learn the rules of the game and the rules of the tables you intend to play on. Like I mentioned before the rules of the game are readily available online. Once you know how to play the game find the rules for the specific casino tables, you will be playing. The table rules are easy to find on the casino’s website. You will have to decide which table to play on. The most popular and my preference is 6 deck, hit on soft 17 with the option to surrender. That’s the most technical sentence in this article. If you look you will find many different strategies to play this game. Card counting, side betting, etc. We will keep it simple, straight play with easy betting tactics.
Step 2. Now that you have learned the game and decided what table to play it’s time to find a chart. A quick internet search will lead you right to one. Search for something like “blackjack chart hit on soft 17 and surrender” and you will have plenty of color styles to choose from. Here is a downloadable example of the chart I have used.
If you prefer to use and app to help you learn, make sure it has the capability to customize the table settings. You certainly don’t need an app to help you learn the chart. It you can learn with just a deck of cards and good old fashion memorization. In my experience a good blackjack app will make learning the chart more fun and easier to memorize. An example of customization within an app is the dealer hit or not hit on soft 17. That will change the chart, so it’s important you learn the right chart for the table you will be playing on. A word of caution. The table rules will change the chart you will use to help minimize the houses advantage. It’s worth the time to figure out your tables rules a head of time and learn the correct chart.
Step 3. Memorize the chart and the betting strategy I will explain next. You can’t have it with you at the table. Most people get intimidated or nervous when they sit down at a blackjack table. Don’t worry that’s normal, but it makes remembering the chart harder. Make sure you have the chart really memorized, especially if you start drinking. If you know the chart well, you could be drunk as a skunk and still execute this strategy.
Step 4. Strictly holding to this betting strategy is crucial. It’s not sexy and you will probably be tempted to get more aggressive (especially if you start losing) but resist the temptation and stay the course. The most common table and probably the easiest to start out on is the $5 minimum bet table. Let’s say you are starting with $200 and each bet is a minimum of $5. You will bet $5 per hand until you reach $225. Stay small no matter how tempting it is to lay down more cash. The exception to this rule is when you should double-down or split your cards. In those cases, just apply the standard $5 to each ad-on bet. Once you reach $225 (at this point you’re up $25) your bet now changes from $5 to $25. If you lose that hand (putting you back down to $200) you start again with just $5 bets until you reach $225 again. Once at $225 bet $25 again. Lets say this time you won that hand so now you bet another $25. Keep betting in $25 increments until you either lose back down to $200 or win reaching $300 . Once at $300 take $100 off the table and start betting $5 again repeating the cycle over and over. Every $100 gain you reduce your bet to $5 and take $100 off the table. You will either reach the next higher hundred and start betting $5 again or you will lose, dropping you down to the hundred you came from. Also resulting in betting $5 again. It looks like this: Between $225 – $275 bet $25 each hand / Between $200 – $225 bet $5 each hand. Remember you want to walk away a winner so every time you reach the next hundred take $100 off the table.
Regardless of the bet size this betting strategy works on factors of 5 and needs a minimum of 40 hands to help the statistics to work in your favor. Put another way if the table your sitting at has a minimum of $20 per hand you would want to start with $800 guaranteeing you will play 40 hands. As for the factor of 5 it’s simple, once you reach 5 times the minimum bet (in the $20 example you would be up $100 meaning you would have $900 in front of you) you would then increase your bet by a factor of 5 equaling $100 per bet. Just like before you would continue this until you either lose back down to your original $800 or reach $1,200 at which point you go back to betting $20. No matter what amount you use as your minimum bet it’s always the same, once you win 5 times the minimum bet you increase your bet by 5 times the minimum bet. Keep this up until you win the equivalent of 4 times the factor of 5, then start over. In this example 4 x $100 = $400 in winnings for a grand total of $1,200 at the table. Put $400 in your pocket and start the pattern over.
Don’t complicate this. Get the chart memorized and the betting tactics down. In practicing this strategy most people will have a hard time controlling their emotions and increase their bet size. You might get lucky from time to time, but remember the casino still has the advantage. Granted, it’s not always a large one, but mathematically on a long enough timeline the statistics are not on your side. Bet with your mind not with your emotions. They design casinos to take advantage of your emotions. Take that edge away from them.
Let’s say you have used this strategy a few times and you have it down. Your emotions are in check and you could play the cards in your sleep. You have been playing with just your winning for a while and it’s getting boring. This is when you find a higher priced table. Only do this if you have your self discipline in check and your are playing with winnings. Practicing this strategy until it’s like second nature and teach others so they will join at the table. At the end of the day this is just another way to have fun.
HAVE FUN & GOOD LUCK!!