Blackjack for Beginners

	Don’t sit at a table that’s pissing you off – you are there to enjoy yourself, as well as win

Blackjack is a unique casino game. Unlike craps, roulette or baccarat, you can actually beat the house in blackjack. Not just with a good night at the tables – after all, that’s what we play for – but by consistently taking home a profit. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that we can’t guarantee you can win like that. Only dedicated players, accomplished in arithmetic agility hardened by years of practice, can hope to accomplish that. Even then it’s often a team effort, which casinos don’t favour. However, we can give you the info to make you a smarter blackjack player. The odds won’t be in your favour, but you’ll be able to make a return of around 99 per cent in the long run – the kind of return that will put you in the top one per cent of blackjack players in the country.

The blackjack player has a number of certainties to rely on. Firstly, the dealer must hit all hands of 16 and below, no matter what cards the rest of the table are showing. Secondly, you’re in control of your bet. Thirdly, you decide whether to stand or hit at any point in your hand. You can’t control the cards you receive, the cards the dealer receives or what the other players at the table receive. Don’t worry about what you can’t control. Concentrate on how you play your hand.

The player also has certain facts at their disposal. You can see, face up, one of the dealer’s two cards – the upcard. This is absolutely critical. The more advanced player may also choose to count the cards they’ve seen, to give them a better idea of when the cards left in the deck will give them a greater chance of winning.

Basic instincts

Let’s start with the upcard. There are 52 cards in a deck, and 16 of these (10, J, Q, K) have a value of ten. If you turn over cards randomly, you have a 30 per cent chance that the card you’ll turn has a value of ten. So the dealer’s card you can’t see has an almost one in three chance of being a ten. Because of this, always consider the dealer’s hand to be the upcard plus ten; it’s the most likely option.

If the dealer is showing a 3, assume it’s a 13. If the dealer is showing an 8, assume a final score of 18. The worst card for a dealer to have to show is a 6. Dealers have to hit a 16, and hitting a 16 means they have more than a 60 per cent chance of busting. The best card they can show is an Ace, giving the dealer almost a one in three chance of hitting a blackjack – a hand you have little hope of winning against.

With this in mind, you should always stand any hand of 12 or above (a breaking hand) if the dealer shows an upcard of 3, 4, 5 or 6. If the dealer shows a 2 then stand on any hand which totals 13 or more.

If the dealer shows a 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K or Ace, you must hit every hand that totals 16 or below. Now this one is going to hurt. You will bust two out of three times here (especially at 16, but less so at 12). But if you don’t make this move, you’ll lose three out of four times to the dealer’s superior finishing hand. You’ll find all the hit and stand options on our print-out and keep strategy chart (see right).

Follow these simple rules and you’ll instantly be a better player than the majority of blackjack punters.

Double downs and splits

So how do you improve your chances further and make it into that top one per cent of players mentioned earlier?

First up, the double down. A double down is a specific bet in which you double your stake after seeing your first two cards and in return, receive only one more card. This is laid horizontally across your hand to indicate that it’s your final card.

The rules vary between countries and casinos, but almost every UK casino allows you to double down only on hands that total 9, 10 or 11. You should double down, however, in the following circumstances: against an upcard of 10 or less, double down on 11; against an upcard of 9 or less, double down on a total 10. Only double down on a 9 if the dealer shows a 3, 4, 5 or 6. Never double down if the dealer’s upcard is an Ace.

By doubling down in this way, you effectively increase your returns, as the odds are in your favour. It won’t always work, and you’ll curse the time you hit an Ace on a doubled-down 11. But you will win more in the long run.

Splits are another way of increasing your bet when the cards are with you. All you need are two cards of the same value.

The rules on splitting are, as every other decision you make in blackjack, determined by the dealer’s upcard. First up, always split Aces and 8s. Never split two 10s, Js, Qs or Ks – why break up an excellent hand for a chance to make two mediocre ones? Never split 4s, either, because you now know that you have a one-in-three chance of adding ten to the dealer’s score of eight. You’ll find more on when you should and shouldn’t split in the table.

Remember that splits and double downs can all occur in the same hand. For instance, you could split two 8s only to hit another 8 on the first split and a 3 on the second. What do you do? Split the next 8 again and double down on the second. Always stick to the basic game rules. Sometimes you’ll need four or five times your original stake to complete the hand. Whatever happens, don’t bottle it. If you do, you’re handing back the advantage to the house.

Soft touch

There’s another area in which you can grab a little more margin back off the casino – soft hands. A soft hand is any hand that contains an Ace to make up the total. For example, an Ace + 6 total either 7 or 17. As you can’t bust by drawing to a soft hand, your play will differ when faced with certain dealer upcards.

In principle, you need to hit any soft total of 17 and below (except Ace + Ace, which you need to split). Against a dealer upcard of 9, 10 or Ace, you should even hit Ace + 7.

Never do anything but stand with an Ace + 8 or Ace + 9. As before, you’ll find details on when to hit and when to double down (if the option is available – it’s worth asking) below.

You may be offered insurance. It’s a side bet that pays two to one on your stake if the dealer turns over a blackjack. This is offered when the dealer shows an Ace upcard. Casinos like the option, because it gives them a 5.9 per cent advantage. In other words, don’t touch it!

Managing your stack is a basic skill that all gamblers need to master. When you’re playing the system as set out in this masterclass, you need to ensure that firstly, you have enough chips to stand a chance of winning, and secondly, you’re at the tables long enough to enjoy yourself. You don’t, for example, want to have a total stake of £150, bet £50 on the first hand, lose it, bet £50 on the second hand, double it down and then lose again. At that point, your night’s over.

Stack and chips

Unless you’re counting the cards, there’s no need to vary the stake you play. The only time your stake should increase is when you double down or split. In the short term, that’s how you approach your stack. To ensure you make an evening of it and have the funds to double down and split where necessary, we suggest you have at least 20 bets ‘in you’ at the start of the evening. We prefer to have 30, or else a cold run of cards could wipe you out quickly. So if you like £5 tables, start with £100, or preferably £150. During the evening, it’s perfectly valid to change your bets, especially if you’re winning. Through luck and skilled play, you could double your stack. Some players might pocket the original and continue with the same stake; others may start doubling their bets to maximise their winnings. The choice is yours.

Before you rush to the table, take the time to practice these strategies for free online, and make sure you know what the right plays are before you start gambling serious sums.

At a real (rather than virtual) casino, don’t worry about what other players are doing. They could be standing 16s against a 10 or, worse still, hitting 15s against a 6 upcard. Let them get on with it. Technically, they’re affecting the cards you receive but, unless you know the exact order of the deck, it doesn’t matter. If you lose focus, mistakes occur.

School of card knocks

Other irritations include players who insist that you’ve taken their card. Or, especially if you’re playing in the end box (you’re the last person to play), those who claim you broke the table.

Generally, it’s because they foolishly stood on 15 against an upcard of 10. You could politely inform them that by doing so, they’ll lose three out of four hands. Alternatively, you might as well ignore them or simply change tables.

The other enemy at the blackjack table is you. Boredom and frustration at a run of poor cards can lead to you going ‘on tilt’ – making rash bets that are often combined with the wrong plays. It’s this that the casino relies on to make its money. How often do you see a punter sticking on 16 one hand against a 10, and then hitting it the next?

That is not smart play – the odds are either with you or against you. That is a fact. Unless they’re card counters (highly, highly unlikely), then they’re simply playing badly.

Don’t just double your bets because you’ve lost the last two hands. We’ve sat at a ‘cold’ table where we’ve lost six hands on the bounce. And we’d have lost a lot more if we’d subscribed to that theory. If you don’t like the cards you’re getting, either sit out a few hands or simply get up and leave.

We guarantee the casino will still have that table open if you decide to come back to it later.

In fact, if at any stage you feel the distractions of the casino or table you’re on are detracting from your play, just collect your chips and move table. Or perhaps take a well earned break. Don’t sit at a table that’s pissing you off – you are there to enjoy yourself, as well as win.

One final point – sometimes dealers make mistakes: they’re only human, after all. If the mistake is in your favour then it’s a gift. Smile, make no fuss and accept it graciously. If it’s against you, then it’s an error – make a fuss and insist on it being corrected immediately! That’s a golden rule when you’re playing in any casino.

Heaven cent

There you have it. Play using the real odds of blackjack and you won’t give more than one per cent away to the greediest of casinos. Not ideal, but hardly like roulette where you could easily be conceding up to six per cent to the house.

To beat the house, you’ll need to do three things. First, learn and master this system – it should form the basis of every decision you make at the blackjack table. Second, you should practise, practise, practise. You should know the right move in every situation at any table, no matter what the rules.

Third, keep picking up Total Gambler. We’ll continue to bring you winning techniques and, in a future blackjack masterclass we’ll explain how to add card-counting techniques to your strategy and actually turn the odds in your favour. Until then, good playing. And good luck