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Blackjack Mistakes
and Corrections
by
Henry
Tamburin
This lesson discusses Blackjack Mistakes and Corrections at Learn
to Play Blackjack
Program.
I’m not kidding when I say I’ve watched a lot of blackjack
players during my life time. The good ones all have one thing in
common. They
know how to play their hand and they know when to increase their bets.
The bad
players, on the other hand, will generally make one or more of
these mistakes.
Blackjack Mistake #1. Don’t
Know the Basic Playing Strategy
You would think that all players would know that to
win at this game,
they must learn and use correctly the basic playing strategy. This is
no
secret. Basic playing strategy is no secret – it’s readily available in
books,
in articles, and on the Internet.
For a couple of bucks you
can even purchase a plastic card
that contains the basic playing strategy that you can bring right on
the tables
when you play. How easy is that?
But I would venture a guess that at best 25% of the playing
public knows basic strategy perfectly.
Yes, even the experience players who
tell me,
“Sure I know
basic
strategy” rarely know all the plays. It’s just not good enough to know
half the
strategy and guess at the rest, or worse deviate from the right play
because
you get a “feeling” an alternate play might be better for this
particular
situation.
When you play, you need to play like a robot.
This
means
every time the dealer gives you a 16 and he shows a 10 you must hit the
hand
regardless if you lost the last time or last ten times that you made
this play
(actually surrendering is an even better play if the casino will allow
you to
surrender).
Ditto for a pair of 8’s against a dealer 10.
You
shove out more money and split. Why? Because these are
the correct plays to make, the ones that in the long run will either
save you
money or get you more money.
Don’t believe me? I’ve got
billions of computer-generated
hands to back me up.
Blackjack Mistake #2. Trying
To
Beat The House with a Betting Progression
I see this all the time. It seems players have a fascination
with betting progressions because they are easy to use and players
mistakenly
believe that what happened on previous hands will somehow affect their
chances
of winning future hands.
Well it won’t and it can’t. You are
fighting a losing
battle with progressions for one simple reason.
In the
history of blackjack, there has never been any study
that proved your chances of winning the next hand increase
based upon what happened (won or lost) in previous hands.
There is no magic bullet here. Using betting progression might be fun
because
sometimes in the short run you get to make some adrenalin-pumping big
bets that
you will win. But in the long run guess what?
The house edge
doesn’t change one iota. And what’s worse you
will lose more using betting
progressions in the long haul then just betting the same on every hand
because
your average bet increases when you use a progression (remember even
with basic
strategy the house still has the slight edge so the more you bet the
more you
stand to lose). Nope, betting progressions don’t work in the long run
so
forgetaboutit.
Blackjack Mistake #3.
Betting
More Because You Are Due to Win
Player bets $5 a hand and loses 4 or 5 hands in succession.
Now he increases his bet to $10 because he figures he is “due to win.”
You
are
not due anything in the casino and certainly not a winning hand just
because
you lost the 4 or 5 previous hands.
Remember what we said
earlier. The results of previous hands
have no bearing on the outcome of future hands. So don’t bet more
thinking you
are due to win. That’s a terrible assumption and mistake to make when
you play.
Blackjack Mistake #4. Not
Knowing When to Quit
Player gets ahead by $100. The tide turns and he starts
losing.
What do you think the player does? How many say,
“Quit with his
profits.” How many say, “Keep playing.” Probably 90% of all casual
players will
keep playing. Why? Greed and the desire for action.
I ask
you, is it better to
play 3 hours but wind up losing your profits back to the house or quit
with a
$100 profit after playing one hour?
I know what I would do.
Blackjack Mistake #5.
Believing
That the Game is All Luck
These players put blackjack in the same category as slots.
It’s all luck, so why bother? You can say that about slots, roulette,
and most
other casino games but you’d be dead wrong. Why?
For the
simple reason that it
is a game of skill and the odds can be changed in your favor if you
know how to
play the game skillfully. This has been proven over and over by many mathematicians.
You can be a successful player
that plays the best game the casino has to offer if you just avoid the above 5 mistakes
and stick to the
facts which is
learn the basic playing
strategy and use the strategy for every hand to dealt to you, only
increase
your bet if you’ve seen a preponderance of small cards over large cards in previous hands, be
prepared to lose two,
three even ten hand sin a row because sooner or later it will happen no
matter
how skillful you play, and be content with modest wins (don’t go for
the kill).
Blackjack
Mistakes is followed by the math of the game
OR
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