A Simple Blackjack Betting Guide

By Matt Jackson

A Quick Introduction To Blackjack

Blackjack was originally played in the 1700s in France when the game was called Vingt Un, or 21. It was first seen in America in Indiana at the beginning of the 1900s, when odds of 6:4 were first paid on a winning blackjack. The game was initially unpopular in America, and so this added incentive was introduced to persuade people to play the game and it didn’t take long before casinos and gambling halls found the game to be a lot more popular because of the relative ease and the comparatively small house advantage offered.

The Basic Rules Of Blackjack

The basic premise of blackjack is to get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over 21. If it’s a draw you receive your money back and if you alone get a blackjack you receive one and a half times your stake as winnings. If you do beat the dealer you receive the amount you staked as your winnings. The basic strategy for blackjack is based around the fact that the dealer must keep drawing cards until he has a hand of 17 or higher and when he reaches 17 he must stand. In contrast, the player can hit or stand on any number.

The Basic Premise Of Blackjack Betting Strategies

Because all picture cards and 10 value face cards all have a value of 10 this means there is a 31% chance that the next card in the deck will be worth 10 points. For this reason you should assume that the dealer’s next card is worth 10 points. So if the dealer is showing a 7 then you should play as though he has 17. Obviously this means that if the dealer is showing between a 2 and a 6 you are in a strong position because he must keep taking cards until he reaches a point total of 17 or more. You should presume his next card will be a 10, and the card after will also be a 10.

Splitting Cards

By using the opportunity to split your cards or double down you can begin to turn the slight house advantage into a slight player advantage and make yourself a small profit, or at least a smaller loss. If you are dealt a pair of cards then you may split them. You must stake a bet equivalent to your original stake and then play as though you have two hands both initially consisting of one card from the pair. Never split pairs of 10s, 5s or 4s but always split Aces and 8s. You should judge the dealer’s hand and determine whether to split any other pairs.

Doubling Down

Many casinos allow you to double down and this means you will double the stake on a hand but will receive only one more card. Once this one card is dealt your turn is over and it is the turn of the dealer. 10 and 11 are usually the time to be doubling down but, again, a lot will be determined by the card the dealer has. Staking strategies do work well with Blackjack but you should be sure that you do not fall into the trap of increasing your bets when you lose. This basic strategy was called the Martingale strategy and while it theoretically produces a profit every single time you step into a casino, the practice can turn out to be a very different matter.

The Martingale System.

The Martingale system means you double your bet every time you lose and reset your stake to your original starting point when you win. In this way, every time you have a winning hand you win back all the money from your losses plus a small profit but you will need a large bank roll to cover long losing streaks and table limits have been put in place to prevent this system from being used successfully. You are in fact much better raising your stakes when you win to take advantage of winning runs, or lucky streaks as the more superstitious may refer to them. Staking plans can rarely turn a losing streak into a winning streak but they can minimize losses and ensure that winning streaks really do pay out a reasonable amount of money.