Blackjack - Increase
Your Odds With Basic Strategy Plus
by: Tom McBroom
Blackjack Basic Strategy, played
perfectly in a game with favorable rules, will reduce the edge against
you to about one half of one percent, the best odds of any game in the
casino.
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But still - it's a negative edge. While
you can win in the short term on any given day, in the long term that
one half percent edge against you will eventually grind you down if
you play long enough and frequently enough.
An advanced basic strategy - or what we
call Basic Strategy Plus - is necessary for you to step up from being
a casual player to being a serious recreational player who has a
better chance of winning over the long term.
To reduce the small edge against you
with Basic Strategy even further, and at times even turn it into a
positive edge in your favor, you simply must pay attention to the
cards on the table and develop some sense of the proportion of high
cards versus low cards remaining in the deck. This is exactly what a
card counter does.
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But you don't have to spend the
hundreds of hours it takes to become a proficient card counter. You
can get a general sense of the proportion of high versus low cards by
doing something called "counting the table". Counting the table simply
means that in any given hand, you look at the exposed cards for all
hands on the table (including the dealer's hand). Do a quick count of
all the high cards (tens, jacks, queens, kings) and all the low cards
(2 - 5). There are an equal number of these high and low cards.
If there are a much larger number of
low cards showing than high cards (at least 6 more low cards than high
cards in a six deck game), chances are that the deck now is slightly
richer in high cards, which is favorable for the player. Conversely,
if there are many more high cards showing than low cards (again, at
least six more), chances are the deck is now slightly richer in low
cards, which is bad for the player.
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Armed with the information gained from
this quick table count, you can now adjust your play accordingly and
thus be playing a little more like a professional.
For example, there are some basic
strategy moves that are so close that they could go either way. If you
are doing a table count, you have additional information that may
indicate a change in what basic strategy says to do in certain of
these close call situations.
To illustrate, let's take the example
of one of the most dreaded hands in Blackjack: your 16 count versus
the dealers 10 up card. Basic strategy says to hit your 16 against a
dealer's 10, but this is an extremely close call. You very badly need
a 4 or 5 in order to tie or win if the dealer also has a 10 card down.
So, using the table count, here's what
you do. If the table count shows at least 6 more lows than highs, then
stand on your 16 against a 10. A disproportionate amount of low cards
have been dealt and this lowers your odds of getting a low card to
point where you should now stand with your 16.
There are several more close calls with
Basic Strategy that can be refined further with Basic Strategy Plus,
as well as other decisions that can now be made more intelligently and
these are explained in detail on the author's web site.
Good luck!
About The Author
Tom is the webmaster at
www.blackjack-for-everyone.com, which is a web site dedicated
to the beginning through serious recreational Blackjack player.
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