Welcome to Blackjack Secrets Uncovered

Blackjack is a great and simple game to play. This ebook aims to

show you how to play, and also how to progress through the
game using 'simple' through to 'advanced' strategies.
Once you are fully confident, you can start using the Winner
Secrets and increase your chances of winning. The Blackjack
Strategy shown is very easy to follow.
To get started, just click on the 'How To Play' button to the left.
I hope you find the information contained in these pages a good
addition to your playing pleasure.
Regards
Ryan
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Please note, you may find the Visual Instructions as a great tutorial if you
have sound enabled.
The hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn't exceed 21; a hand
with a higher total than 21 is said to bust or too many.
Cards 2 through 10 are worth their shown value, and face cards (jack,
queen, king) are all worth 10. An ace's value is 11 unless this would cause
the player to bust, in which case it is worth 1. A hand in which an ace's value
is counted as 11 is called a soft hand, because it cannot go bust if the player
draws another card.
Each player's goal is to beat the dealer by having the higher, unbusted hand.
Note that if the player busts they lose, even if the dealer also busts. If both
the player and the dealer have the same point value, it is called a "push",
and neither player nor dealer wins the hand. Each player has an independent
game with the dealer, so it is possible for the dealer to lose to some players
but still beat the other players in the same round.
Example of a Blackjack game.
The top half of the picture
shows the beginning of the
round, with bets placed
and an initial two cards for
each player.
The bottom half shows the
end of the round, with the
associated losses or
payoffs.
How to Play - Part 1
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The minimum/maximum bet is printed on a sign on the table and varies from
casino to casino and table to table. After initial bets are placed, the dealer
deals the cards, either from one or two hand-held decks of cards, known as a
"pitch" game, or more commonly from a shoe containing four or more decks.
The dealer gives two cards to each player including himself. One of the
dealer's two cards is face-up so all the players can see it, and the other is
face down. (The face-down card is known as the "hole card". In European
blackjack, the hole card is not actually dealt until the players all play their
hands.)
The cards are dealt face up from a shoe, or face down if it is a pitch game.
In American blackjack, if the dealer's face-up card is an ace or a ten-value,
the dealer checks their hole card to see if they have a blackjack. This check
occurs before any of the players play, but after they have been offered
insurance (if the face-up card is an ace).
If the dealer has blackjack, all players lose their initial bets, except players
who also have blackjack, who push. (In some American casinos, the dealer
does not actually check the hole card until after the players have all played.
At that time, if the dealer turns out to have blackjack, all players who did not
have blackjack lose their bets, and players who increased their bets by
doubling or splitting lose only the original bet, and have the additional bets
returned to them; thus, the end result is precisely as if the dealer had
checked the hole card before playing.)
A two-card hand of 21 (an ace plus a ten-value card) is called a "blackjack"
or a "natural", and is an automatic winner (unless the dealer has blackjack as
well, in which case the hand is a push). A player with a natural is usually paid
3:2 on his bet. Some casinos pay only 6:5 on blackjacks; although this
reduced payout has generally been restricted to single-deck games. This
reduced payout for a natural increases the house advantage over a player by
as much as 1000 percent.
How to Play - Part 2
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The player's options for playing his or her hand are:
Hit: Take another card.
Signal: (Handheld) scrape cards against table; (face up) touch finger
to table
Stand: Take no more cards, also "stick" or "stay".
Signal: (Handheld) slide cards under bet; (face up) move
hand horizontally
Double down: Increase the bet to a maximum of double the original bet
and take exactly one more card. For example, if the player's
original bet was $25, the player could increase the bet by up
to an additional $25, for a new total bet of up to $50.
Increasing the wager to less than twice the original bet is
called "double down for less", and is not always permitted.
Signal: Place additional chips next to (not on top of) original bet,
make "one finger" sign
Split: Double the bet and have each card be the first card in a new
hand. This option is available only when both cards have the
same rank or, depending on the locality, value.
Signal: Place additional chips next to (not on top of) original bet,
make "two fingers" sign
Surrender: Forfeit half the bet and give up the hand. This option is not
always available.
Signal: Make 'chopping' motion over bet (signal is rare, usually just
done verbally)
Hand signals are required in most casinos, so that in case of a dispute, a
video record exists of the player's decisions.
The player's turn is over after deciding to stand, doubling down to take a
single card, or busting. If the player busts, he or she loses the bet even if the
dealer goes on to bust.
After all the players have finished making their decisions, the dealer then
reveals his or her hidden hole card and plays the hand. House rules say that
the dealer must hit until he or she has at least 17, regardless of what the
players have. In some casinos a dealer must also hit a soft 17 (a combination
of cards adding up to either 7 or 17, such as an ace and a 6).
If the dealer busts then all remaining players win. Bets are normally paid out
at the odds of 1:1. Players who push (tie) with the dealer receive their
original bet back.
Player Decisions
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Each Blackjack variation has its own set of rules, strategies and odds. It is
advised to take a look at the rules of the specific variation before playing.
Not all rules are posted. The player has to ask, either beforehand or when
the situation occurs. Over 100 variations exist.
Dealer soft 17
There are two slightly different dealer strategies. In the "S17" game, dealer
stands on all 17s. In the "H17" game, dealer hits on soft 17s; of course, he
stands on hard 17s. (In either case, the dealer has no choice; he must or
must not hit.) The H17 game is substantially less favorable to the player.
Which game is customary depends on locality. Las Vegas Strip rules are
about equally split.
Number of decks
All things being equal, fewer decks are more favorable for the player. (This is
true for basic strategy players, even without card counting.) In fact, all things
are not equal; multi-deck games almost always have otherwise better rules
than single-deck games.
Late surrender
The player may "give up" and get back half his bet, before taking any other
action. (In some places, this is posted, "surrender is available", while in other
places, it is available, but it is not posted.) In some cases (15 vs. ten, 16 vs.
9, 16 vs. ace), this is slightly favorable. In one important case (16 vs. ten), it
is definitely favorable.
Resplit to nn
(In other words, the option to split exists for a two-card hand from a split the
same as the first two cards.) The simplest rule is "resplit infinite"; this means
that the player may continue to split so long as he receives same-value cards
and is willing to put up the additional bet. More typically, the rule is "resplit to
four." These rules are practically identical, since even four hands is fairly
unusual.
Resplit aces
In general, after splitting aces, the player gets only one card even with the
above rule. With this rule in effect, an exception is made: if the second card
is an ace, the player can resplit. (This is a favorable rule.)
Double after split
In other words, the option exists to double for a two-card hand from a split
the same as the first two cards. Generally, the player should play a hand
after a split the same as the first two cards. However, this rule does slightly
change which hands should be split in the first place.
Double on 10 or 11 only
Often called "Reno" rules. (Also seen is "double on 9, 10, or 11 only".) It is
annoying to many players because doubling soft hands is considered part of
the game.
Rules Variations - 1
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European no-hole-card rule
In some places, the dealer does not receive a hole card, but if the dealer is
later found to have blackjack, the player loses only his original bet but not
any additional bets (doubles or splits). This has the same advantage as the
usual game and it should not be considered "European no-hole-card rule".
Altered payout for natural
In some places, a natural pays 6:5 or even 1:1. This is the most unfavorable
variation, increasing the house edge significantly more than any other player
restriction.
Dealer wins ties
This is catastrophic to the player, though rarely used in standard Blackjack. It
is sometimes seen in "blackjack-like" games.
Five card charlie
With this rule, the player always wins when five cards have been drawn
without busting.
Rules Variations - 2
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If the dealer's upcard is an Ace, the player is offered the option of taking
Insurance before the dealer checks his 'hole card'.
The player who wishes to take Insurance can bet an amount up to half his
original bet. The Insurance bet is placed separately on a special portion of
the table, which usually carries the words "Insurance Pays 2:1". The player
who is taking Insurance is betting that the dealer was dealt a natural, i.e. a
two-card 21 (a blackjack), and this bet by the player pays off 2:1 if it wins.
It is called insurance because it, in effect, can protect the original bet if the
dealer has a blackjack. If you bet the full half of the original bet, you win the
same amount of the player's Blackjack wager. In this case, if insurance is
taken and the player doesn't have blackjack but dealer does, no money is
lost.
Of course the dealer can end up not having blackjack and the player can still
win or lose the blackjack bet, and the insurance bet is forfeit. Insurance is a
bad bet for the non-counting player who has no knowledge of the hole card
because it has a house edge of 2% to 15%, depending on number of decks
used and visible 10-cards.
Essentially, taking insurance amounts to betting that the dealer's hole card is
a ten or face card. Since in an infinite deck, 4/13 of the cards are tens or
face cards, an unbiased insurance wager would actually pay 9:4, or 2.25:1;
since the bet only pays 2:1, the house has a strong advantage.
However, if the player has been counting cards, he may know that more than
a third of the deck is ten-value cards, in which case insurance becomes a
good bet. If a player has a natural (an ace and a ten or face-card) and the
dealer is showing an ace, the dealer usually asks the player "Even money?"
instead of offering insurance. If the player accepts the offer, he is
immediately paid 1:1 for his natural, regardless of whether the dealer has
blackjack.
Thus, accepting "even money" has exactly the same payout as buying
insurance: if the dealer does not have blackjack, the player would forfeit the
insurance bet and win 3:2 on the natural, thus receiving a net payout equal
to the original bet; if the dealer does have blackjack, the player would push
on the natural and win 2:1 on the insurance wager, again receiving a net
payout equal to the original bet.
Since taking "even money" is equivalent to buying insurance, it is likewise a
bad choice for the player, unless he has been counting cards and knows the
deck has an unusually high proportion of ten-value cards.
In casinos where a hole card is dealt, a dealer who is showing a card with a
value of Ace or 10 may slide the corner of his or her facedown card over a
small mirror or electronic sensor on the tabletop in order to check whether
he has a natural. This practice minimizes the risk of inadvertently revealing
the hole card, which may give the sharp-eyed player a considerable
advantage.
Insurance
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Insurance Table
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If you are new to the game of Blackjack, its worth looking at the visual
instructions for a re-cap. Simply click on the image below to be re-directed
to the web based video. You will need to have your sound turned on.
for the Visual Instructions. Click Here
Visual Instructions
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Because Blackjack has an element of player choice, players can reduce casino
advantage by playing optimally. The complete set of optimal plays is known
as basic strategy. There are slight variations depending on the house rules
and number of decks.
The strategy chart above is a basic strategy table for 3 or more decks, dealer
stands on soft 17, double on any 2 cards, double after split allowed, dealer
peeks for Blackjack, and Blackjack pays 3:2.
The chart will help you make the best decisions for when you should Stand,
Hit, Double Down, Surrender of Split when playing. Playing with a chart is the
best way to play every possible situation. (You can create your own chart by
hitting the 'Strategy Calculator' button (or ).
Most Las Vegas strip casinos hit on soft 17. This rule change requires a
slightly modified basic strategy table - double on 11 vs A, double on A/7 vs 2,
and double on A/8 vs 6. Most casinos outside of Vegas still stand on soft 17.
click here
Blackjack Strategy 1
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Card counting
Basic strategy provides the player with the optimal play for any Blackjack
situation based on millions of hands played in the long run. However in the
short run, as the cards are dealt from the deck, the remaining deck is no
longer complete. By keeping track of the cards that have already been
played, it is possible to know when the cards remaining in the deck are
advantageous for the player.
Card counting creates two opportunities:
1. The player can make larger bets when he or she has the advantage.
For example, the player can increase the starting bet if there are many aces
and tens left in the deck, in the hope of hitting a Blackjack.
2. The player can use information about the remaining cards to improve
upon the basic strategy rules for specific hands played. For example, with
many tens left in the deck, the player may double down in more situations
since there is a better chance of making a strong hand.
Virtually all card counting systems do not require the player to remember
which cards have been played. Rather, a point system is established for the
cards, and the player keeps track of a simple point count as the cards are
played out from the dealer.
Depending on the particular blackjack rules in a given casino, basic strategy
reduces the house advantage to near 0 with some single-deck games, and
less than one percent in a multi-deck game. Card counting, if done correctly,
can give the player an advantage, typically ranging from 0 to 2% over the
house.
To counter card counting, many casinos switched from a single deck to
multiple decks, with the cards dealt out of a container known as a "shoe".
In most US jurisdictions, card counting is legal and is not considered
cheating.
However, most casinos have the right to ban players, with or without cause,
and card counting is frequently used as a justification to ban a player.
Usually, the casino host will simply inform the player that he or she is no
longer welcome to play at that casino. Players must be careful not to signal
the fact that they are counting. The use of electronic or other counting
devices is usually illegal.
Blackjack Strategy 2
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Composition-dependent strategy
Basic strategy is based on a player's point total and the dealer's visible card.
A player's ideal decision may depend on the composition of his hand, not just
the information considered in the basic strategy. For example, a player should
ordinarily stand when holding 12 against a dealer 4.
However, in a single deck game, the player should hit if his 12 consists of a
10 and a 2; this is because the player wants to receive any card other than a
10 if hitting, and the 10 in the player's hand is one less card available to
cause a bust for the player or the dealer.
However, in situations where basic and composition-dependent strategy lead
to different actions, the difference in expected value between the two
decisions will be small.
Additionally, as the number of decks used in a Blackjack game rises, both the
number of situations where composition determines the correct strategy and
the house edge improvement from using a composition-dependent strategy
will fall.
Using a composition-dependent strategy only reduces house edge by
0.0031% in a six-deck game, less than one tenth the improvement in a
single-deck game (0.0387%).
Blackjack Strategy 3
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Shuffle tracking
Techniques other than card counting can swing the advantage of casino
Blackjack towards the player. All such techniques are based on the value of
the cards to the player and the casino, as originally conceived by Edward O.
Thorp.
One technique, mainly applicable in multi-deck games, involves tracking
groups of cards (aka slugs, clumps, packs) during the play of the shoe,
following them through the shuffle and then playing and betting accordingly
when those cards come into play from the new shoe.
This technique, which is admittedly much more difficult than straight card
counting and requires excellent eyesight and powers of visual estimation, has
the additional benefit of fooling the casino people who are monitoring the
player's actions and the count, since the shuffle tracker could be, at times,
betting and/or playing opposite to how a straightforward card counter would.
Arnold Snyder's articles in Blackjack Forum magazine brought shuffle tracking
to the general public. His book, The Shuffle Tracker's Cookbook,
mathematically analyzed the player edge available from shuffle tracking
based on the actual size of the tracked slug.
Jerry L. Patterson also developed and published a shuffle-tracking method for
tracking favorable clumps of cards and cutting them into play and tracking
unfavorable clumps of cards and cutting them out of play.
Other legal methods of gaining a player advantage at Blackjack include a
wide variety of techniques for hole carding or gaining information about the
next card to be dealt.
Blackjack Strategy 4
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By now, you will have gained a good idea of playing Blackjack and developed
a strategy, but let's take this a step further.
First of all, let's just go over some of the basics in a little more detail:
House Advantage (aka House Edge)
As you know, the dealer must hit on 16 or below, and stand on 17 or above.
However, if the dealer goes above 21, he busts.
If your total is the same as the dealer, you don't win or lose, so that's a
'Stand Off'. If your total is higher, you win, but if it's lower, you lose.
The casino has a 'House Advantage' in order to generate a profit. This takes
the form of the player playing their hand before the dealer. In real terms, this
means that if you both go bust (over 21), the dealer still collects your money.
The chance of the dealer going bust is 28%. If you follow the dealer's rules
of play, your chance of going bust is also 28%. So the chance of you both
going bust on the same hand is 7.84% (28% x 28%). This 7.84% is the
House Advantage.
However, for a natural Blackjack, you get paid 3-2 and the dealer receives
even money. In this case, the House Advantage drops to 5.9%. So, if you
gambled 100, you would expect to lose 5.90
Basic Strategy
You could take another card to reduce the chance of going bust to zero.
There are many times the dealer's cards are likely to total 17-21. By taking
another card in this case increases your winning chances.
The Basic Strategy is designed to reduce the chances of you going bust.
Using the basic strategy for each card the dealer has and each total in your
hand, you will know what the best option is to take, be it Hit (H), Stand (S),
Double (D) or Split (Sp).
By using the rules of Basic Strategy, the House Advantage reduces to 0.5%,
so gambling 100, you would expect to lose 0.50.
The next page will show the basic strategy chart.
Winner Secrets 1
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The Basic Strategy Chart
Key to Chart:
H=Hit, S=Stand, Sp=Split, Dh=Double (hit if not possible),
Ds=Double (stand if not possible), Su=Surrender (hit if not possible),
Ss=Surrender (stand if not possible)
Winner Secrets 2
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Casino Bonuses
Most online casinos will offer you a sign-up bonus. This will vary per casino,
with some doubling your initial deposit to others that will give a set-amount
for any deposit level.
Is this a casino plan to get you to join and to take your money?
Yes, of course it is.
And competition between online casinos to take-on more players on is
hotting up, so the bonuses are getting higher and higher, and more tempting.
But, this is where the casinos have shot themselves in the foot.
Each individual casino expects you to play in just their online casino, and are
expecting your loyalty in return for their 'gracious' bonus. You then gamble
your bonus and start digging into your own money to play. That's why it's
best to understand the casino 'wager requirements'.
Let's say you sign-up and make a deposit of 100. Most casinos will double
your deposit with a bonus, so you will receive a bonus of 100. But before
you can withdraw your winnings, you need to meet the wager requirements,
so in this case, you will need to wager EIGHT times the deposit and bonus
(1600).
The casino counts on hoping that you have a long run of bad luck, wagered
the full 1600, and lost both the bonus and your money. They win.
Let's go back to the house advantage being 0.5%. With this knowledge, we
are able to calculate the probability of losing the entire bonus before
gambling the minimum wagering requirement.
The more you gamble each hand, the less bets you need to make in order to
meet the requirement. But, there is also a greater chance of losing the lot.
This is illustrated in the table below:
Using this method is widely used for making money from online casinos, but
playing 1600 hands at 1 for a win of only 100 can become very boring. So,
let's swiftly move onto the next page for Blackjack Winners Secrets.
Winner Secrets 3
Amount Wagered
Each Hand
Number of Hands
to Play
Chance of Losing
the Bonus
1 1,600 4.5%
2 800 15%
4 400 30%
8 200 45%
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Some casinos will offer a bonus at 200% for the maximum deposit amount of
200 and only a 4X wager requirement instead of the usual 8X. Sounds good,
but, as usual, there is a catch. You don't get to keep the bonus.
So, if you were to make a deposit of 100, you will gain a bonus of 200
bringing your total playing balance to 300.
The wager requirement is 4 x 300 (1200) worth of bets. If your balance
goes down to 200, you can't withdraw this, as the casino will take it back as
their bonus, leaving you with nothing. What is the method of making any
money out of the bonus? It's by betting big.
Let's say you make a bet of 300 on your first hand, you can win 300, but
you can only lose 100, as 200 of the total was not your money in the first
place.
Most casinos will have a table limit of 500, so that is the maximum you can
bet on one hand. And that is how much you need to bet on your second
hand. In just two hands, by risking only 100, you could end up with 1100
in your balance. Take your deposit of 100 and the bonus of 200 away from
this balance, and you are left with 800 profit.
Now that you have gambled 800, this leaves only 400 to gamble to meet
the requirements. You could potentially gamble 400 in one hand to
maximise your expected return, but the chances of winning 3 hands in a row
are quite low.
So it's time to go back to small bets of around 10 a hand until you've met
the total 1200 requirement. You will need to follow the basic strategy
(shown above) and statistically you should not lose much or any of your 800
profit by playing small bets.
By using the house advantage (0.5%) as a guide and then being a little more
conservative, let's say that the chances of winning a hand is 0.48. The
chances of winning two hands in a row is 48% x 48% = 23.04%, and your
chance of not winning the two hands is 100% - 23.04% = 76.96%
Your expected return is then (800 x 23.04%) - (100 x 76.96%) = 107.36
The chances of winning at any individual casino is a low 23.04%, so this
strategy will only work if you sign-up with a number of different casinos. The
more casinos you sign up with and use this strategy, the higher the chances
are that you stand to win.
Winner Secrets 4
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It should also be noted that Blackjack isn't a game of just winning or losing,
as there are also stand-offs, which are fine as they add towards your
wagering requirements. So, as a possibility, you could have three stand-offs
in a row, then win on the 4th hand, giving you 300, which you will be able
to withdraw.
I have recommended some casinos to play in (click the banners to the right),
however you may not wish to deposit 100 in each one, which is fully
understandable.
You may even consider 100 in just one casino a high risk. If that is the case,
you can also use the strategy on smaller amounts. You may want to deposit
only 30. This will give you a bonus of 60, making your balance a total of
90 to play with.
Here, you will need to bet 90 on your first hand, then 180 on your second.
The strategy also works well on casinos with bonus offers of less than 200%,
and at the time of writing this, the casinos I recommend all offer 200%, but
this changes on a regular basis.
The bonus as you are reading this could now be more, or it could be less
than 200%. So it's also best to check with the casino terms and conditions
for any details on wagering requirements.
I hope this strategy helps you, but always keep in mind that gambling is still
gambling. There is not (and never will be) any sure-fire strategy or system
for beating the casino 100% each time you play.
Using the strategy outlined in this ebook, together with your diligence, will
ensure you play an enjoyable game of Blackjack every time.
Winner Secrets 5
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Click on the image below to be taken to the web-based interactive strategy
chart calculator for your own customised chart.
Chart Calculator
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