How To Win At Blackjack In Vegas
It’s mathematically impossible for either the house or the player to always win at the game of blackjack if both are playing a perfect game. It also comes down to how you interpret the phrase “always win.”
Is it possible to win every hand in blackjack without cheating? No, not even if the other player makes the worst choice on every hand (hitting on anything other than a 21). If both players draw 21, the push negates any win or loss.
- Set a Hard Limit on Earnings. Although card counting doesn’t perform the magic people expect, as.
- If the dealer actually has a blackjack (Ace + 10), you win the bet and it pays 2-to-1. If the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose your side bet. Up to 50% of your original wager can be made on insurance.
- Learn the Rules of the Game. Most people already know that if you get a total of 22 or higher, you go.
All pairs may be split and drawn to like an initial hand, except for Aces. It's always best for beginners to start with low limit tables to learn the basic strategies of blackjack before hitting the high-stakes rounds. If the total of your cards equals 9 or lower, you should hit. If you have a total of 10 or 11, you should double your bet if your total is more than the dealer's revealed card.
By that reasoning alone, a cheater would have to control the deal to prevent the other player from ever drawing a blackjack.
For the sake of reasonable discussion, I’ll interpret “always win” to mean “leave the table with more money than you took in.” I still can’t offer any guarantees, but the following strategies improve your chances of always leaving the table a winner.
1 – Set a Hard Limit on Earnings
Although card counting doesn’t perform the magic people expect, as you become more experienced at counting cards you should see some improvement in your win/loss ratios. This is why, despite all the precautions they take, casinos still pay attention to card counters.
The basic idea in good gambling practice is to only risk losing money you don’t mind losing. If you really want to get ahead, then your thinking should become more conservative as you accumulate more money.
Rather than change your playing strategy, which is why you’re ahead, just call it quits before you’ve won too much.
How much is too much? If the pit boss is paying unusual attention to your table, that could be a sign you should take a break.
2 – Practice Every Chance You Get
Some of the best blackjack experts in the world say they ran through memory exercises for months before taking on the Vegas casinos.
You need to memorize two things to be successful in blackjack—the rules of the game (including table rules) and the best blackjack strategies for each card you’re dealt.
The basic rules of the game are easy to learn. Casinos add their own rules to limit players’ chances of success or to limit their winnings. The change from 3:2 payouts to 6:5 payouts is an example of how casinos are limiting winnings.
You need to react instinctively to the cards on the table. You need to know what you can do and what you should do in every situation.
You won’t get there by losing your money for months or years on end.
3 – Pick Your Tables Carefully
Because casinos have changed many of the old school blackjack rules, standard advice that people followed 10, 15, or 20 years ago doesn’t always apply any more. The old classic blackjack strategy books were great resources in their days, but the world has changed.
Choosing the best blackjack table may be easy. You could walk into a casino that still offers the basic game. You may have to visit a few casinos in your area to find the best game.
Because finding a good table is so hard, some players now prefer playing online blackjack games. They can choose from a variety of casinos, and because of the competition, online casinos offer a lot of different blackjack variations.
When you know the table rules you want to play by, they become part of your strategy as much as part of the house’s strategy.
4 – Bet in Consistent Patterns
Standard card counting technique says you should increase your bets when the deck is favorable. Because everyone shares this advice in books, video tutorials, and articles, it’s not a secret to the casinos.
Varying your bets when the cards are favorable may lead to the unfavorable reaction by the casino—they shuffle the cards.
Although many card counters still swear by the practice, they concede it’s much harder to win this way than in years past. The solo player is less likely to win much money over all than a team.
Instead of trying to win as much as a team wins, be more consistent in your betting. A little bit of subtlety in your patterns may give you the psychological boost you need to keep playing.
How can you be consistent and subtle?
5 – Only Play When the Crowd Is Small
This is more a matter of personal preference. But having spent some time at the blackjack tables, I find it disruptive when people constantly come and go.
That is the exact reason why I stopped trying to count cards.
If you want to socialize, then chat away if the other players are willing to do that. But if your goal is to win, then treat the game like it’s your job. Do the work when you have the fewest distractions.
If you’re a regular high roller, you might be able to request a private table. And this is another reason why some people prefer to play online blackjack over a game in a casino. Whether it’s a live dealer table or a computer game, if you have the table to yourself, you can play without distractions.
6 – Ignore the Extras in the Game
You might be tempted to play a progressive blackjack game or to take insurance. I’ve done both, but in the long run, these game options just suck your money away from you.
The casino throws in extra options to make the game more interesting, but they’re also after your money.
Surrendering is a borderline practice. If you have the option of surrendering, some experts recommend you only do this when the cards are clearly against you.
Some casinos require late surrender, meaning you must wait for the dealer to check for a blackjack in her hand. Some games allow early surrender where you can forfeit based on the cards you see in your hand and the dealer’s face card.
Some surrender articles speak in terms of probabilities.
Your decision to surrender preserves capital. You should take into consideration what the face up cards show, what the table’s rule for dealer stands is (soft 17 or not), and the number of decks in the shoe (4 to 8).
Players usually surrender on a hard 16 if the dealer shows a 9, 10, or ace. They usually surrender on a hard 15 if the dealer shows a 10 or ace.
Some players criticize a player who surrenders. It’s your decision, not theirs.
Conclusion
As a player you want to enjoy what you’re doing even if you’re there to win. It’s hard to concentrate when you feel like every hand is against you. The psychological side of the game is important.
It’s just like going to work every morning, do you love your job or not?
Unless you’re there as part of a team, you don’t have to keep playing if the game isn’t fun anymore. Choosing to play only when you have a good time builds your confidence.
Confidence doesn’t contribute directly to winning, but you’re more likely to trust your choices when you’re confident. Winning makes you confident but winning can be the result of random chance.
Your job begins before you make the first bet. Study the rules, practice good strategy, and set a goal of achieving perfect play through instinct and experience.
Whether you count cards or not, the better you play the game, the more likely you’ll leave the table a winner.
Most blackjack players who’ve played for any length of time understand that rules for the game vary from casino to casino. In fact, they vary from one table to another.
The obvious example is the size of the payout for a blackjack (a 2-card total of 21).
The standard for decades is for a blackjack to pay off at 3 to 2 odds.
But recently, many casinos started offering blackjack games that pay off at 6 to 5 odds.
What does this do to the house edge?
It increases the house’s advantage by 1.5%.
That might not sound like much, but a basic strategy player at a standard blackjack player faces a house edge of only 0.5%.
This means that the house’s mathematical edge quadruples because of what seems like one small rules change.
In this post, I look at some of the rules changes and what stakes they happen at.
6/5 Blackjack Versus 3/2 Blackjack
Some casinos offer 6/5 blackjack at their lower stakes tables while offering the standard 3/2 payouts at their higher stakes tables.
Let’s take a hypothetical Las Vegas casino and look at what happens to their profits when they implement this rules change at lower stakes.
They might offer the standard 3/2 payout on their $25 minimum tables. An average blackjack player might play 80 hands per hour at such a table, putting $2000 per hour into action.
Assuming perfect strategy on the part of that player, you’re looking at a house edge of only 0.5%, which means that a player at this table will lose an average of $10 per hour at this table. A table full of these players might generate $60 per hour for the casino.
The players at the $5 table are only putting $400 per hour into action.
But with the 6/5 payout in effect, the house edge increases from 0.5% to 2%.
This means that the players at this table are losing $8 per hour – almost as much as the players gambling 5 times as much per hand at the other table.
Casinos want to encourage action at the higher stakes tables because they make more money from gamblers who are betting more per hand.
But the payout for a blackjack isn’t the only rule a casino might change.
Hitting and Standing on a Soft 17
Everyone knows that the dealer has to hit any total of 16 or less.
It’s better for the player if the dealer has to stand on all totals of 17 – even soft totals of 17.
But in lower stakes games, the dealer hits a soft 17.
What does this do to the house edge?
It increases it by 0.2% — which sounds like a minor increase, but it’s a bigger increase than you might think.
Suppose a casino has a game where the minimum bet is $50, and the dealer has to stand on all 17s. The house edge for such a game might be 0.5%.
At 80 hands per hour, the gambler is putting $4000 per hour into action. The expected loss per hour for that player is $20.
That same casino might have a game with a minimum bet of $25, but the dealer hits a soft 17. This increases the house edge from 0.5% to 0.7%.
The gamblers at this table are putting $2000 per hour into action, but now they’re losing $14 per hour instead of the $10 per hour you’d expect.
The casino STILL makes more money from the higher limit table, but by just changing one small rule, they come closer to getting the same kind of hourly win rate.
The Worst Blackjack Rules in Las Vegas Are at the Strip Casinos
80% of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip are owned by the same 4 companies. They all have similar blackjack rules – and those rules aren’t as favorable to the players as you’d hope.
Your best bet as a blackjack player is to just avoid the blackjack games on the Strip altogether. You can find better games elsewhere in the city.
For one thing, it’s almost impossible to find blackjack for less than $10 per hand on the Strip.
You’d think that such casinos would offer terrible rules for players, but you’d be surprised.
For example, I’ve read reports about the $3 games at Arizona Charlies. You can double down on any total there, and you can even double down after splitting. Good luck finding those generous rules at one of the Strip casinos.
You can also play $5 blackjack at Arizona Charlies from a 2-deck shoe, which is practically unheard of elsewhere in Vegas. And, if you didn’t already know it, the more decks you have in use, the higher the house edge becomes.
Single deck blackjack has the lowest house edge, everything else being equal.
You can find $5 blackjack at a host of locals casinos, especially in Downtown. Some of the casinos offering $5 blackjack include Boulder Station, El Cortez, and the Orleans.
In fact, any of the Stations casinos offer good rules for low stakes blackjack players.
If You ARE Going to Play Blackjack on the Strip
Treasure Island is your best bet for $10 blackjack on the Strip, but those tables are usually crowded, and there aren’t many of them. The game does have good rules, though – you can even find a game there sometimes that’s dealt from just 2 decks.
But, if you’re going to play blackjack on the Strip, you’re probably going to need to wager $25 prer hand or more. Any of the MGM properties are good for this level of play.
These include Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mirage, Monte Carlo, and New York New York,
Comparing Rules Variations in Blackjack
For the most part, the rules variations in blackjack involve giving the player more options or fewer options. In any given blackjack situation, having more options is better than having fewer options.
For example, in some casinos, you can only double down on a 9, 10, or 11.
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In other casinos, you’re allowed to double down on any total.
In some casinos, you’re allowed to double down after splitting.
In others, you can’t double down after splitting.
These are all examples of how having more flexibility in your choices increases or decreases the house edge.
You always want to decrease the house edge when you can.
And don’t make the mistake of thinking the 0.1% or 0.2% doesn’t matter.
When you’re dealing with something like the house edge, every tenth of a percent matters.
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What if You Want to Count Cards?
If you want to count cards, one of the first things you want to do is find a casino that isn’t using a continuous shuffling machine. You can’t get an edge counting cards if the discards get shuffled back into the deck immediately.
Card counting works because some higher value cards are no longer in the deck, or some lower value cards are no longer in the deck. When the composition of the deck becomes favorable to the player instead of to the house, the card counter raises the size of his bets.
You can’t do that if you’re getting cards from a freshly shuffled deck every hand.
Also, the fewer decks being used, the better it is for the card counter. Every card dealt from a single deck affects the house edge.
But the value of each card is diluted in a pack of cards made up of multiple decks.
Here’s an example:
If 4 aces have been dealt out of a single deck blackjack game, it’s now impossible to get dealt a blackjack before the cards are shuffled again. This is advantageous for the casino, and the card counter knows it and lowers his bet accordingly.
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But if you’re playing in an 8-deck game, you have 32 aces in the deck total. The elimination of 4 of those aces doesn’t make nearly as much of a difference.
Conclusion
Best Blackjack Tables In Vegas
Tiny differences in the rules have a major effect on the math involved when playing real money blackjack. Generally, you’ll find more flexibility in the games with lower stakes.
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You’ll have a hard time finding a combination of low stakes and good rules variations on the Strip in Las Vegas, especially. Try to stick with the casinos Downtown or on Boulder Highway if you’re a low roller looking for a game with good odds.