Archive for January, 2012

Should I ever use insurance in a blackjack game

Should I ever use insurance while participating in a blackjack game? Isn’t insurance just a ‘sucker bet’ at very bad odds?

Not necessarily. As an example in a six-deck shoe there are 312 cards after the shuffle. If no 10s come up in the first 25 cards that come out, its better to use insurance. This because if 25 cards come out with no 10s, then there are 287 cards left with 96 of them being 10s. So a players odds are under 2:1.

This is the only time when it’s the correct blackjack strategy to use insurance. The chance of the first 25 cards not having even a single 10 is very low. So if you are not counting 10s, or sat down when the game has already started, it’s meaningless to actually use insurance.

Blackjack players need strategy for a bust card Attack

Internet Blackjack players feel very good about their hands when the dealer has a 5 or 6 face up. A few even refer to the them as “bust cards,” though even with 5 or 6 up, the dealer still makes hands of 17 or better more often than not.

What if the dealer got his or her up card first, before dealing to players? Would you be willing to go on the attack and double your bet without seeing your cards?

That’s the premise of Double Attack Blackjack, a game I spotted recently at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. You begin play by making a bet and have the option of making an additional Bust wager, a side bet that the dealer will bust in three cards.

The first card dealt is the dealer’s face-up card. Once you have seen that card, you have the opportunity to raise your bet to the amount of the original wager. If you have started with a $10 Internet Blackjack bet, you can wager up to an additional $10. Then you get your first two cards.

There are some pluses and minuses. On the plus side, the dealer stands on all 17s, players may double down on any number of cards, including after splits, and late surrender is offered. Offsetting all that are a couple of negatives: Player Internet Blackjacks pay only even money and the game uses a 48-card “Spanish” deck, with the 10-spot cards removed.

A leading internet Blackjack site states that the house edge is 0.62% with a specially adapted basic strategy. For starters, it’s best to raise your bet whenever that opening dealer up card is anything from 2 through 8. You’ll wind up pressing the attack 58.3% of the time.

Getting the most out of the game also requires basic blackjack strategy improvements after you have seen your cards. One difference from regular Internet Blackjack: You will hit hard 14 vs. a dealer’s 2 or 3, as well as 7 on up, and hit 12 or 13 against any up card. That’s because of the decreased chance of busting with fewer 10-value cards in the deck. Our site site has a complete blackjack strategy table.

As for the Bust bet, it pays 3-1 when a face card as the third card causes the dealer to bust, 6-1 on a 9, 8-1 on an 8, 10-1 on a 7, 15-1 on a 6, 50-1 when the dealer has 8-8-8 of the same color, and a 200-1 bonanza on 8-8-8 of the same suit. The house edge is 8.01%.

I would avoid the Bust bet and play the main Double Attack game only after spending a little time on the basic blackjack strategy card. It’s a fun variation with a relatively low house edge, but a blind attack is likely to backfire.

Online blackjack Insurance

The online blackjack game offers many different choices available for a player during a hand. Playing optimum strategy is a system for players to follow so they’re getting the most out of their buy-in dollar. Depending on the online blackjack variant, players will sometimes have different choices at their disposal. One such choice is using insurance to cover possible losses that could be suffered in a hand. This is a choice offered to the player whenever the dealer is showing an ace. The insurance bet is a bet that says that the dealer has a hidden online blackjack, and if you think that he does you will place a bet half the size of the regular wager in the insurance bet spot.

If the dealer has a online blackjack hand you will receive 2-1 on your insurance bet. It will basically recover the bet that you lose to the dealer’s blackjack, or you will lose it if they have anything else. It’s also possible to lose both bets, making you worse off than if you just played out the hand against the ace. In a live casino setting the dealer will ask for insurance bets, while online two buttons will come up giving you the choice to take the insurance or refuse it. The most common time you’ll see someone buying insurance is when they have a total of 20, and they place money on insurance to “protect” their hand from the Online blackjack.

The complication with the insurance bet is that it’s for suckers. The bet is never the most favorable choice for the player, and one should never opt for it. Statistically there are nine cards that do not make Online blackjack for the dealer, and only 4 cards that will make Online blackjack. The casino is only paying out 8:4 (or 2:1) in a 9:4 condition. You will most certainly lose money over time if you take insurance.

The bet can be a comforting choice when you have a major bet out there that would make a major difference in your session. It could also work in a condition where you’re closing in on a goal, and the even money will get you to that goal. Otherwise there are no other conditions where the insurance bet is your best choice. Stay away from it and play your basic strategy without fear; the payouts will come in the long run if you abide to the basics.

Betting multiple hands at blackjack

There is no mathematical calculation for this misleading beleif that by switching from one hand to two at a time, you will “change the flow of cards,” and that by so doing you will change your luck at the blackjack table. What will happen, specifically on a Blackjack game that uses an automatic shuffler, is that you will be dealt far more hands per hour, with the casino edge munching contentedly on your bankroll at a much faster clip. Let’s run some numbers.

Say, for example, you are a basic Blackjack strategy player and your average bet is $10 per hand. To play two hands at a time, many casinos will make you double that amount per betting circle, so you are in fact betting $40 per round. Now let’s put Joe to the right of you, Josephine to your left, with four bets in play.

When you’re playing with two other Blackjack players on an auto-shuffled game, the game can be expected to average at least 600 decisions per hour, you seeing half, or 300 of them. Betting $40 per round means you will be betting a total of $12,000 over the course of an hour.

With the casino having a 0.5% edge against the basic Blackjack strategy player, and you decreasing your decisions per hour to 200 with just one hand at $5, your predicted hourly loss is just five buckaroos. But, by playing two hands at a time ($40) instead of one ($10) and at 300 decisions, your expected hourly loss drastically jumps to $60. You could always check and see whether your friend would give you a ride home before you decide to ride two horses at once.

The only advantage I see to playing two hands at a time is that if you are a card counter, because when your count gives you a clear edge, it would be to your advantage to play more than one hand. Counters playing heads-up against the dealer know that by playing two hands at a time, they have twice the chance of getting the high value cards as the dealer has. But, these newer automatic shufflers that randomize the cards after each hand make card counting futile, so you won’t see card counters playing on them, and neither should you. Not because you don’t count cards, but these shufflers that randomly shuffle the discards after every round played makes for a game that flows much faster, which in turn increases your theoretical loss by the same measure.

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