Blackjack
Blackjack is the most popular casino game in the world and the only casino game where you can actually have an
advantage over the house if played correctly by Basic strategy and using some technics called Card counting.
The object of the game is simple: to achieve a
total that is greater than that of the dealer, and which does not exceed
21. The dealer is your only opponent in the game and he must play
according to a strict set of rules, leaving no decisions up to the
dealer.
Blackjack is played in many variations at casinos with different
table rules.
Much of blackjack's popularity is due to the mix of chance,
skill and the publicity that surrounds card counting.
Play progress
To begin a game of blackjack you need to place your chips in the betting
box.
Two cards are dealt to each player (face up). The
dealer is dealt one or two cards depending on the rules. If he is dealt
two cards one is face down (called "the hole card"). Each player in turn
indicates to the dealer how he wishes to play his hand. After each
player has finished his hand, the dealer will complete his hand, and
then pay or collect the player bets.
If the player's hand value is greater than 21, he lost (this is called
BUST).
The player wins if:
- he gets a blackjack and the dealer doesn't (if the dealer also gets a blackjack then it is called a push or a tie)
- his hand value is greater than the dealer's hand (not exceeding 21)
- dealer busts (his hand value is greater than 21)
Values of the cards
- An Ace can count as either 1 or 11.
- The cards from 2 through 9 are valued at their face value.
- The 10 and the face cards (Jack, Queen and King) are all valued at 10.
What is a blackjack ?
A total of 21 in your first two cards is called blackjack. If you split your hand you can't get a blackjack anymore (even if you get 21).
Player decisions
After the initial two cards, the player has next choices:
- HIT - draw another card
- STAND - stop at the current total
- DOUBLEDOWN - the bet is doubled and the player receives one more card and
STANDS. There are a few variations when is doubledown allowed.
- SPLIT - when you are dealt a matching pair of cards, you can split
the hand into two separate hands and play them independently.
- SURRENDER - not every game offers surrender. If you surrender you
loose half of your bet. There are two main surrender variations: early surrender and late surrender.
Early surrender offers you to surrender before the dealer "checks for
blackjack" (he peeks at the hole card). The much more common variation is late surrender, where the
dealer checks for blackjack first, and then only if he does not have a
blackjack will he allow players to surrender their hands.
- INSURANCE - if the dealer turns an up-card of an Ace, he will offer
Insurance to the players. Insurance bets can be made by betting up
half your original bet amount in the insurance betting stripe in front
of your bet. The dealer will check to see if he has a 10-value card
underneath his Ace, and if he does have blackjack, your winning
Insurance bet will be paid at odds of 2:1. You'll lose your original bet
of course (unless you also have a blackjack), so the net effect is that
you break even.
How the dealer plays his hand
The dealer must play his hand in a specific way, with no choices
allowed. There are two popular rule variations that determine what total
the dealer must draw to. In any given casino, you can tell which rule is
in effect by looking at the blackjack tabletop. It should be clearly
labeled with one of these rules:
- Dealer stands on all 17s
In this case, the dealer must continue to take
cards ("hit") until his total is 17 or greater. An Ace in the dealer's
hand is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealer going over
21.
- Dealer hits soft 17
Some casinos use this rule variation instead. This
rule is identical except for what happens when the dealer has a soft
total of 17. (Soft hand - hand that contains an Ace counted as 11).
Hands such as (Ace,6), (Ace,5,Ace), and (Ace, 2, 4) are all
examples of soft 17. The dealer hits these hands, and stands on soft 18
or higher, or hard 17 or higher.
Basic strategy
An optimal way to play, based on the players cards and the dealers first card (the upcard) is called Basic strategy.
These rules were determined by computer simulation and using mathematical probabilities.
Basic strategy varies depending on the set of rules used in any given game.
Card counting
Strategy used to determine when a player has a probable advantage over the dealer by tracking the cards is called Card counting.
The player tracks what cards have been played and assigns a value (also called tag) to each card.
He adds this value to a running total called "the running count" (RC). If you divide the RC by the number of decks that haven't yet been dealt you get the "true count" (TC).
This numbers are used to make betting and playing decisions. Advanced players may even deviate from basic strategy according to the count.
The system can be balanced or unbalanced.
If you sum all the tags and get a sum of zero, the system is balanced otherwise it is unbalanced. Balanced systems are more accurate but are harder to implement because you have to track the true count. The main advantage of an unbalanced system is that you don't need to convert the running count into a true count.
Any positive value in the true count indicates an advantage for the player. The higher the positive count, the better the advantage.
Most unbalanced system begin at a "Initial Running Count" (IRC). Using an IRC also means that zero is the pivot point at which the odds change to favor the player. Using an IRC guarantees that a positive count still signals a player advantage.
Counting system |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
J |
Q |
K |
A |
Level |
BC |
PE |
IC |
Wizard Ace/Five |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | B1 | 54 | 5 | 0 |
Knock-Out |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | U1 | 98 | 55 | 78 |
Uston Plus-Minus |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | B1 | 95 | 55 | 76 |
Hi-Lo |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | B1 | 97 | 51 | 76 |
Hi-Opt I |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | −1 | −1 | −1 | 0 | B1 | 88 | 61 | 85 |
Hi-Opt II |
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | 0 | B2 | 91 | 67 | 91 |
Mentor |
1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | -1 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −1 | B2 | 97 | 62 | 80 |
Zen Count |
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −1 | B2 | 96 | 63 | 85 |
Unbalanced Zen 2 |
1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −1 | U2 | 97 | 62 | 84 |
Omega II |
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | −1 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | 0 | B2 | 92 | 67 | 85 |
Revere Point Count |
1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | -2 | B2 | 99 | 55 | 78 |
Uston APC |
1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | −1 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | 0 | B3 | 91 | 69 | 90 |
Uston SS |
2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | −1 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | -2 | U3 | 99 | 54 | 73 |
Wong Halves |
1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | −1 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −2 | -2 | B3 | 99 | 56 | 72 |
Revere RAPC |
2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | -1 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | -4 | B4 | 100 | 53 | 71 |
- PE - playing efficiency (important in 1-2 deck games)
- BC - betting correlation (important in 6-8 deck games, how well the system predicts good betting situations)
- IC - insurance correlation (how good the system predicts if insurance should be placed)
- Level
- B - balanced system
- U - unbalanced system
- 1, 2, 3, 4 - highest value a card can get
In UBJR IRC is calculated as:
Knock-Out | -(decks-1)*4 |
Unbalanced Zen 2 | -(decks-1)*4 |
Uston SS | -decks*2 |
Burn cards
After a shuffle and cut the dealer might "burn" several cards (usually 1-2, in some casinos even 6).
The burned cards are placed in the discard tray. The impact on card counting is insignificant at best.
Main purpose of burning a card is to protect from steering of the top card.
House advantage
The casino (or "the house") holds an advantage on most casino games. This is known as the House Edge.
The house edge is defined as the casino profit expressed as a percentage of the player's original bet.
It depends on the rules used in the game. Without using basic strategy it varies between 0.5% and 1%. With basic strategy it is 0.5% or less.
Card counting can reverse the advantage up to 1% to the player.
Blackjack variations
There are many blackjack variations.
One of them is Double Attack blackjack which is implemented in UBJR.
Main differences to "regular" blackjack are:
- additional bet (Bust It) - player can bet that the dealer will bust with exactly 3 cards (bet ammount can be 1 - 50 but not greater than the main bet)
- first card is dealt to the dealer and "Double Attack" is offered to the player (doubling the main bet - if player splits or doubledowns later in the game the whole wager must be paid).
- 6 or 8 Spanish 48-cards decks are used (all 4 tens are removed form each deck)
- player can doubledown or surrender any time during a game
Other fixed rules are:
- blackjack pays 1:1
- insurance pays 3:1
- dealer stands on soft 17
- dealer peeks on Ace or 10 value card
- doubledown after split allowed
- no hit on split Aces
If the bust bet is won, the payout depends on the dealer's third card:
ten | 3:1 |
nine | 6:1 |
eight | 8:1 |
seven | 10:1 |
six | 15:1 |
Two additional special payouts are:
- dealer busts with three 8 of the same color - 50:1
- dealer busts with three 8 of the same suit - 200:1
The house edge is about 0.63 % in this game variation.
Learning to play blackjack is very easy, mastering
it needs a lot of practice. For more information search the web, it is
full of articles about this interesting game.