Blackjack is a game that many people take very seriously. Because it is a gambling game where the odds of any particular outcome can be determined somewhat accurately, the odds have been studied extensively. The best players in Blackjack do not make winning any particular hand a priority, but strictly make the best moves based on the probable outcomes. In fact, our section on Blackjack strategies is all about keeping the odds as much as possible in favor of the player.
A good player will also understand the mechanics behind the strategies. This is important because it allows the player to more easily remember what to do in infrequent circumstances as well as to apply probability to other appropriate aspects of life. One must first understand the make-up of a deck of cards. Of course, there are 52 cards in a deck, and each numbered card will comprise four of those. This means that if a player were to draw any particular card from the deck that the chances of it being, for example, a seven would be 4 in 52. This can be expressed as a fraction as 4/52. Recalling middle-school math, you will realize that this fraction can be reduced to 1/13.
But in Blackjack of all the possibilities the most likely possibility is that there will be a 10-card played. This is because there are 4 cards out of the thirteen in a suit that have that value. To see how the odds of a particular situation are calculated we will answer the following question: “What are the odds of a dealer going broke if the turned up card is a 6?” If the hole card is a 10, the dealer would go broke on any card greater than a 5, which turns out to be 8 cards out of 13, which we can view as 8/13. Using our trusty calculator we can make this fraction into a percentage: 61.5%. The dealer’s hole card will be a 10-pointer just over 30% of the time. If the hole card were between six and nine the dealer might still go over 21.
Now you can begin to see why a player with a score higher than 11 should never take a hit when the dealer turns up a 6. For every time the player with a 12 or more gets a hit, he increases his own likelihood of exceeding 21.
Even a 12 has a 4 in 13 or 4/13 chance of busting 21 (about 30.8%). Though taking a card might improve the hand in the cases when the dealer does not bust, the odds are good that the player will bust before the dealer does or not improve his or her hand sufficiently to beat or tie whatever the dealer’s next inevitable card will be. The odds in taking a card only get worse as the score gets higher.
Let us say that our player decides that it would be wise to take a card in the above circumstance, that he had an absolute hunch that the dealer’s hole card was a three and that the next card from the top of the deck was sure to be a ten. Thus the player must tie or beat 19. The chances of doing this are fairlylimited. Only 3 cards will allow the player to do so in one hit, a 7,8, or 9. This gives the player only 3/13 odds which comes out to about 23%.
Illustrating why it is better not to play hunches and to s Picking the right online blackjack casino
Since the internet first sprung open the doors to playing blackjack online, casinos have sprung up on the web without respite. And blackjack players both new and old simply love the freedom and enjoyment that being able to play their favorite casino game in their own home brings. Players who have just discovered the fun of playing online often begin to act like a kid at Christmas, They don’t know which present to open first, and rush to join just about every online casino that they can find. They probably say to themselves “why not”. After all it costs nothing to join; they can play for free for as long as they want; and when they begin to make their first deposit, these nice people at the online casino seem to want to give them their money back. Seems too good to be true? Well, the bad news is that in a lot of cases it isn’t true and some of the people who form the wrong impressions of joining an online casino and go about it the wrong way can come away with the feeling of not having enjoyed the experience as much as they might have.
Instead of rushing in with both feet to the online blackjack world, it is better to narrow the search for your ideal real money casino australia to a few sites, even if it involves joining them as a guest, just to get the feel of the site and how to play it. Getting a feel for the site doesn’t just mean how the graphics look, how powerful the software is and so on. The most important test of any online casino is how they treat their players. Welcome bonuses are fine but can often flatter to deceive. In too many cases the wagering conditions that a player has to meet before he can make a withdrawal means that he will have to be really lucky to see anything of the bonus, and it is far away from getting the deposit back.
Check out thoroughly the terms and conditions of the welcome bonuses that online casinos offer. Sometimes they are very generous and often they are almost punitive. Yet that doesn’t mean that an online casino whose welcome bonus is less generous than others or carries some fairly strict wagering conditions is a bad casino. In fact, the opposite often applies. Most of the leading and established online casinos are not as generous with their bonuses as the smaller and less established ones. Instead they prefer to take a more long term view, and you will usually find that their match deposit bonuses come much higher and more often. Take these factors into account when you set off to pick the right online casino, where you will hopefully have loads of enjoyment and lots of good luck.
