Blackjack tips

Blackjack is one of the few casino games that you can win in a consistent manner. You need a little bit of luck, of course, but there are also rules  you need to obey in order to be successful. When talking about tricks for winning at blackjack everybody thinks about counting cards. I never do this, I need to count not only my own cards but everybody's else cards and I found this stressful. When I go to a casino I want to have a good time not to be stressed. Plus, the dealer may notice that you are too concentrated on your game, a sign that you may count cards and if he/she sees a pattern in your betting, she may ask you to leave.

This article is not about counting, is about a few strategies every "pro" knows but fortunately for the casino owners the majority of the players are not aware of. Just a quick summary for those of you not familiar with the game. The dealer deals two cards for you, face up, and two for her, one face up and one face down. Your total needs to be 21 or less. The closer to 21 the better. f the total of the two cards you have is 12 for example you can ask for one more card. If it's a 10 your total is going to be 22 and you are BUSTED, you lose since you can't go above 21. If it's a 3 your total is going to be 15, still not good enough to stand (you need 17) so you'll need to ask for another card. The chance to get busted this time is even higher since not only 10 but also 9, 8, and 7 will make your total jumping over 21.

Cards value

In blackjack all cards have their nominal value except J, Q , K  that are all valued as 10 points. This is very important because at any given moment drawing a 10 has the highest probability among all cards since there are four cards with this value, 10, J, Q and K. An A could count as either 11 or as 1. If you have an Ace and a 6 this will have a total of 17. You can ask for one more card. If it's a 2, 3 or a 4 your total will be 21 or less but if you draw a 5 or anything above 5 you're not going to get busted since your Ace automatically will be considered a 1.

The strategy you need to apply depends on both your cards and the dealer's face up card. You may play with many other people as your table but you don't care about their cards unless you're counting them.

The house has two advantages in this game first, the majority of the players don't apply the rules and second, you need to make a decision first and if you get busted you lose. Only after everybody at the table got busted or decided to STAND the dealer will show you the second card. If the total is 17 or above the dealer is forced to stand. This is one rule in your advantage. Let's say you have an 18 and the dealer has an 17. The dealer already lost. without this rule he would draw another card since has nothing to lose. A 2, 3 or a 4 would put her in the winning position.

When to stand?

Before knowing these rules I always stand if I had 17 or above. Anything bellow 17 I always hit. This is a major mistake. It all depends on the dealer's face up card. The worst hand for  the dealer is 16. She can't stand on 16, needs at least 17, but the chance to get busted at 16 is very high. A 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 will all work in your favor since the dealer is going to bust and you will win no matter on what total you did stand. So, if the dealer face up card is a 6 there is a big chance that the other card is a 10, since 10 is the highest probability card. With a total of 16 she needs to deal another card  with a big chance to bust. In this situation I stand on any total from 12 to 21! If dealer has a 4 or a 5 this is good enough for me to stand on any hand with a total between 12 and 21 since the dealer has a pretty good chance to get busted. If dealer has a 2 or a 3 sometimes I stand, some other times I hit.

When to split?

If you have a pair of aces you need to split. Two reasons for this, one is that a total of 12 is not great, second since the highest probability card is a card valued 10 you have a great chance to get a blackjack on one or both hands. When you split you need to double your bet since you have two hands now. This is probably one of the few rules everybody knows about! Another "must split" is a pair of 8s since the sum, 16, is the worst possible hand you could have. However, if the dealer has an ace a 9 or a 10 you are taking a bigger risk since you can lose twice the money you bet. Never split two 10's! Your total is 20, second best possible. I do split 10's only in one particular situation, if the dealer has a 6! It's still a bad move since I am giving away a great hand (I do this ONLY when I am winning big time and I don't care about losing a hand). The reason I am doing it is because the dealer has the worst card possible and most likely she will get busted. In this way I am winning twice the amount by splitting the hand. I don't split 2's, 3's, 4's and especially 5's and 6's. If you have two 5's, this total 10, a very good hand. Splitting two 6's could you end up having two hands with a total of 16, the worst possible total. The only exception is when the dealer has a bad card, a 4, 5 or a 6. Then I may split anything since the dealer has a great chance to bust. Other people advice on splitting 2's, 3's and 6's no matter what. 

When to double?

This is another way to increase the odds of walking as a winner at blackjack, you need to know when to double. Your best card total is 11. I always double on an 11 (except when the dealer has an A) since with a 10 I can make 21. I also double on a 10 if the dealer has a 9 or a smaller card. Everybody knows to double on an 11 but here comes the big play. If the dealer has a 4,5 or especially a 6 I double on any hand that has a sum of 11 or less. I rarely see people doing this move. Another 'pro" move is to double on "soft" hand, Ace with anything else between 2 and 6 IF the dealer has 4,5 or especially a 6. You can't get busted since your ace will become a 1 if you draw a 10, 9, 8... AND the dealer has a great chance to get busted. If you have an ace with a 8 or a 9 for a 19 or 20 total you better stand. Of course I never double on a hand higher that 12!

When to hit?

Most of the time you need to HIT, ask for another card. If the dealer has 7 or above you need to hit since he may get a 10 and stand. The worst situation for you is the dealer having a 10 or an ace and you have a total of 12 to 16. In this situation you have to hit and many times you are going to get busted! If you have at least 17 you should stand no matter what the dealer's face up card is. Let the dealer getting burst if she has a 4,5 or a 6 or even for a 2 or a 3. As I mentioned earlier, is a good strategy to stand on any hand with a sum 12 or higher. Some people adopt the "no bust strategy" and they don't hit if the total is above 12. this is a mistake. If dealer has a 7 or a higher card you have a better chance to win the hand if you hit than if you stand. 

With these consideration in mind try to play the blackjack game if you find on this page, on the right side, and see if the overall winning probability has increased or not. I could bet you are winning more now!

As a summary  use this chart I found on internet. Some casinos let you take this chart with you when playing but I think you should learn the logic behind these strategies that I tried to explain here than memorizing the chart.

Let me know if you have questions or more tips I am not aware of.

Have fun!

Happy New Year!

babaro23

12 numbers, 6N (-2)

A 12 numbers system for 6 out of 49 game. It's a system reduced 97.61%, you are playing only 22 plays out of 924 possible, yet you have a guaranteed third prize.

Here is the system:

1)  1-2-3-4-5-6
2)  1-2-3-7-8-9
3)  1-2-4-7-10-11
4)  1-2-5-8-10-12
5)  1-2-6-9-11-12
6)  1-3-4-8-11-12
7)  1-3-5-9-10-11
8)  1-3-6-7-10-12
9)  1-4-5-7-9-12
10) 1-4-6-8-9-10
11) 1-5-6-7-8-11
12) 2-3-4-9-10-12
13) 2-3-5-7-11-12
14) 2-3-6-8-10-11
15) 2-4-5-8-9-11
16) 2-4-6-7-8-12
17) 2-5-6-79-10
18) 3-4-5-7-8-10
19) 3-4-6-7-9-11
20) 3-5-6-8-9-12
21) 4-5-6-10-11-12
22) 7-8-9-10-11-12

With no miss you have 2% chance to get the jackpot, 86% to get one second prize +5x third prize and 12% chance to get 9x third prize. With one miss you have 17% chance to get one second prize and 83% to get 3x third prize. 

P.S. Visit the sponsors pages for more tips

15 numbers, 5N (-2) system

A pretty decent 15 numbers system that guarantees 3x third prize if the drawn numbers happen to be among the 15 numbers you chose. 

1)  4-5-9-11-14
2)  1-2-4-6-14
3)  2-5-11-12-15
4)  2-5-8-10-13
5)  1-3-5-8-13
6)  2-6-10-11-15
7)  3-7-10-12-14
8)  6-7-9-12-13
9)  4-7-8-9-15
10) 1-3-9-10-15
11) 3-4-6-8-11
12) 1-7-11-13-14
13) 6-8-12-14-15
14) 1-4-10-12-13
15) 2-3-9-13-14
16) 1-3-5-6-7
17) 1-8-9-11-12
18) 2-4-7-8-10
19) 3-4-5-13-15
20) 5-6-9-10-11
21) 2-3-7-9-12
22) 1-7-10-14-15
23) 2-3-11-13-15
24) 4-5-7-12-14
25) 6-8-10-13-14
26) 2-5-8-9-11
27) 1-2-4-6-15

With no miss you have 31% chance to hit the jackpot, 46% chance to hit the second prize and 23% chance to hit the third prize. With one miss you have 50% chance to hit the second prize and 50% chance to hit the third prize. As you notice, while you have a decent chance to hit the jackpot or the second prize only the third prize is guaranteed if the numbers drawn are among the 15 you picked.

Good luck!

babaro

P.S. Let me know if you win something using these systems.  I am "only" charging 50% of your gain :)

10 numbers system, 5N (-1)

I am going to post two types of lottery systems, one that guarantee second prize which I am going to label them minus 1  (-1) and others that guarantee the third prize, labeled minus 2 (-2). Of course the -2 systems are going to be cheapper. I am also going to show you systems for "5 out of 39" labeled "5N" and "6 out of 49" labeled "6N". It doesn't necessarily need to be 5 out of 39, it could be 5 out of 45 or anything else

Today I am going to show you a 10 numbers system that guarantee you a second prize so it's a -1 system.

Replace these numbers with your favorite numbers. The system consists of 18 plays. 

1) 2-3-8-9-10
2) 2-5-7-8-9
3) 1-2-3-6-7
4) 1-4-5-7-9
5) 1-6-7-8-10
6) 4-5-8-9-10
7) 1-2-4-6-9
8) 1-3-6-8-9
9) 3-5-6-7-10
10) 2-3-4-5-9
11) 2-5-6-8-10
12) 1-4-5-6-10
13) 3-4-6-7-8
14) 1-3-4-9-10
15) 2-4-6-7-10
16) 1-2-5-9-10
17) 1-3-4-5-8
18) 1-2-4-8-10

If you have no miss you have 19% chance to hit the jackpot and 81% to hit the second prize. If you have one miss you have 57% chance to hit the second prize and 43% chance to hit third prize.

Good luck!

babaro

Higher probability game

Gambling ads spice to our lives. My favorite type of gambling is stock market. I like it because is not actually 100% gambling, it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to be successful. Once you learn the rules you can turn the odds in your favor and make a pretty decent amount of money. Second best form of gambling, from my perspective, is casino gambling. Here odds are mostly in favor of the casino owners especially if you are playing the most popular casino game, "the one arm bandit". However there are at least two games where you can win, one is poker if you are a pretty good player, have a little bit of luck and play against weaker opponents and the other one is blackjack where there are also rules you can follow and be pretty successful.

The third form of gambling is lottery. You may think that lottery is 100% luck. Think again! There are ways to increase your odds. The first mistake people do is playing the highest jackpot games, Powerball, Mega Millions or Euro millions. The chance to win these games is very low. The chance to hit second or third prize is also low. Instead of playing these games better focus on games like "5 out of 39" or "6 out of 49". Second most important rule is to try to win the second or third prize, not the jackpot. There are no shortcuts or magic formulas to win the jackpot but there are lottery systems that gives you a better chance to win second or third prizes.

I know it sounds crazy but let me give you a quick example to prove my point. Let's say you have 12 dollars to spend on a "6 out of 49" game. You can play 12 "quickpicks". Statistically you may get  one number here, one number there, maybe 2 on the same line. You are happy you've got a few numbers but you still didn't get any prize. Now let's say you want to pick 9 numbers out of 49 and make all 6-numbers combinations possible. How many of them are there?

9*8*7/1*2*3= 84 combinations

That means you need to spend 84 dollars to play all of them. This is a lot of money, plus you need to be very lucky that the 6 numbers drawn to be among the 9 numbers you have chosen.

Now let's see how a lottery system work. I don't know exactly how these systems are created but I am giving you the "final product".

Instead of picking all 84 combinations the computer picks only 12 of them and they are:

1-2-3-4-5-6
1-2-3-4-7-8
1-2-3-6-7-9
1-2-4-5-8-9
1-2-5-6-7-8
1-3-4-6-8-9
1-3-5-7-8-9
1-4-5-6-7-9
2-3-4-5-7-9
2-3-5-6-8-9
2-4-6-7-8-9
3-4-5-6-7-8

If the lottery numbers drawn that night are any numbers between 1 and 9 or if you have one or two misses here are your odds:

Your numbers	Prize	Percentage
no miss	1x6 correct + 9x4 correct	14%
no miss	3x5 correct + 6x4 correct	86%
one miss	1x5 corect + 3x4 correct	57%
one miss	6x4 correct	43%%
two misses	2x4 correct	43%%
two misses	1x4 correct	57%

You played only 12 combinations out of 84 possible but you are guaranteed 3x second prizes and you even have 14% chance to hit the jackpot. If you try to randomly pick 12 combinations out of the 84 possible you may have the surprise to hit only 4 numbers despite the fact you didn't have any miss.

I played many of these systems over the years, my favorite being those with 5 numbers. I never got the jackpot but I've got twice the second prize and many more times the third prize. Again, I am not too serious about lottery, I prefer "gambling" on stock market but if you have any interest in lottery please check this blog from time to time since i am going to give you many more systems.

Good luck!

babaro