When gaming pros give advice about how to win at blackjack, they usually focus on what you should to achieve success. However, it’s just as important to be aware of the things that you should avoid doing to build a winning blackjack strategy. Sloto Cash Casino top blackjack experts share their hints about the things that you shouldn’t do when playing blackjack for real money.
Avoid Six-to-Five Blackjack Games
Traditionally speaking, if you are dealt a picture card and an ace – a blackjack – you’d be paid three-to-two, meaning that if you bet $10 you’d receive $15 in your winning payout. At a six-to-five table, you receive a much lower percentage in wins – six units for every five units that you bet. So, for instance, if you bet $10, a blackjack win would only net you $12 as your win.
This system started at single-deck games in Las Vegas because people generally flock to single-deck games where they have more opportunities to win than with multi-deck games. But the casinos decided that, to lower the payout percentages a bit, they’d make the payouts six-to-five so instead of a traditional one-half to one percentage casino advantage, 1.4 percent is added to the casino edge. The game is no longer approximately one-half percent casino edge but the casino edge becomes closer to two percent – 4 times higher, thanks to that one change.
Avoid Continuous Shuffling Machines
If you are playing video blackjack and the game promo tells you excitedly that the machine shuffles the deck after every play, find another game. A continuous shuffling machine shuffles the cards continuously throughout the game,. As old cards are returned, they are placed into the machine to be reshuffled into the deck and new cards are spit out the other end.
You might think that such a machine is detrimental to, specifically, card counters but in fact, it’s not a good idea for any player. That’s because, as a negative expectation game, the faster you play, the more money you are expected to lose. Continuous shuffling machines deal about 20 percent more hands per hour. That means that it’s not the shuffling per se that is dangerous, but rather the speed at which cards are dealt.
Don’t Guess
Don’t make guess about how to play your hand. There’s something called “blackjack strategy” that gives you the mathematically-determined best way to proceed in any situation, with any hand. There are blackjack basic strategy charts which are derived from simulations of tens of millions of hands of blackjack. These charts give you the statistically-proven, soundest playing strategy for any situation.
If you play blackjack by guessing at the best strategy for each situation, you give the house a three percentage edge. However, if you play according to the basic strategy chart, the house edge is lowered to as little as one-half of one percent.
You need to remember that the charts differ according to the blackjack variation, number of decks in play, etc. So while it may be difficult to learn a chart, it’s a good idea to stick to the variation for the chart with which you are most familiar.
Avoid Multi-Deck Hands
This tip was alluded to previously but here we’re saying it straight out – try to avoid multi-deck hands wherever possible. The more decks that are included in a game of blackjack, the higher the house edge creeps upward. So you need to find single-deck games where the house edge is the lowest possible. That’s because, the more cards that are at play, the more your probability goes down of being dealt a blackjack. That increases the house’s mathematical edge and results in fewer winning payouts for you.
Don’t Ignore Card Counting Strategies
Card-counting has a bad reputation because casinos hate it and try to exclude anyone that they suspect of counting cards. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give it a try. If you’re playing a game where the cards are shuffled frequently, your ability to count cards effectively is diminished but you can still use the available data (the cards that have been played before a re-shuffle) to score wins.
Read reviews of the various brick-and-mortar casinos to find the casinos that shuffle once-a-game as opposed to once-a-play.
Stay Away from Betting Strategies
From the dawn of time, when cavemen bet on the outcome of tossed stones and sticks, there have been betting strategies. Betting strategies claim that they help the player place his/her bets in a way that maximizes earnings and minimizes losses. But statistics have shown time and time again that there is no betting strategy that can guarantee long-term success.
Each dice roll or wheel roll is unique. Each draw of the cards is, ultimately, random. There isn’t any trend that you can then anticipate or exploit to achieve more wins. All betting strategies, from the well-known Martingale strategy that tells you to double down on your losses to baccarat’s banker’s hand which is said to take advantage of the house edge, the Labouchere strategy, Oscar’s Grind and other betting “techniques” are mathematically useless.
Mathematicians actually term such systems “scams” because basically, they do nothing other than encourage gamblers to chase losses with more bets. Such systems aren’t only useless -- they’re dangerous. They give the player a false sense of confidence that may lead him or her to believe that s/he has a statistical edge and should keep betting, even when the gambling budget ends.
Blackjack is one of the few casino games that combines skill with luck but at the end of the day, the element of chance is the biggest determinant of success. Always treat blackjack as a form of entertainment. Never go beyond your pre-set gambling budget as you set out on your blackjack adventure of fun and excitement.
