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Blackjack Players:
The Difference
by
Henry
Tamburin
Blackjack Players is about noting the difference
between the average and skilled including online
blackjack.
It may seem strange, but it’s true, that playing
conditions that favor a skilled card
counter are not necessarily the best
playing conditions for an average basic strategy player. How can this
be?
This lesson at Learn to
Play Blackjack will
explain.
Let’s first look at the average blackjack player
that knows most, or ideally all, of
the basic playing strategy. The latter is the mathematically correct
way to
play every hand dealt to you and it should be learned before
you play because it will significantly reduce the house
advantage against you. Notice I said, “reduce”, eliminate, the house
edge
against you.
The fact of the matter is that even though the
basic playing
strategy is a must-learn first step for anyone that wants to be a
skilled
blackjack player, the casino will still posses a tiny edge over you
when you play
(about
0.5% in most multi deck games).
This
means the basic strategy person stands to lose 0.5% of each wager made
at
a table. That’s
fifty cents in expected
losses for every $100 worth of bets. Sort of like a hidden tax which
you pay
the casino every time your wagers total $100.
I know it
doesn’t seem like much
money but most people
make a lot of bets
in their lifetime and so their actual loss can amount to a lot of money.
The point is that since all basic strategy people face a
negative expectation (that’s the mathematical way of saying that the
house has
the advantage), the more money that a basic strategy wagers in their
lifetime,
the more money they stand to lose.
Sure, in some playing
sessions, the basic
strategy blackjack player will get the cards coming their way and they
will be
big
winners. In others,
they’ll wind up with
all losing stiff hands. But in the long run when you add the up the
amount won
and compare it to the amount lost, you’ll wind up in the red.
It
has to be
because the casino has the math working in their favor (remember that
hidden
tax) and after many playing sessions that tiny house edge will take
eventually
take its toll on your playing bankroll
So what’s a basic strategy person supposed to do about all
this?
Try s-l-o-w-i-n-g
down your game.
How? For one, play at crowded tables
rather than empty tables. The reason is because if you play at a table filled with 6 or 7
people you’ll be
dealt less hands per hour and decrease your exposure to that 0.5%
casino
advantage. Look at these numbers to see what I mean.
Blackjack players at a full table are dealt 60 hands
per hour.
Assume $10 average bet this means in one hour the person stands to lose
$3 due
to the house edge ($10 average bet times 60 hands per hour times 0.5%
house
advantage =$3).
Note that the $3 is an average theoretical loss and most
likely the blackjack player will win more or lose less than $3 after an
hour of
play. But
over time the math will begin to take its toll and the person will
average a
loss of $3 per hour due to casino’s small, but real, 0.5% edge.
Let’s suppose instead our basic strategy person opts to play
at a less crowded blackjack table with only 1 or 2 others. Yes, he’s
got more
elbow room but it comes at a price. With fewer, the dealer will deal
more hands
per hour and the game gets faster.
Instead of being dealt 60
hands per hour, you
will get about 150 hands per hour. Now do the math.
10% average bet times 150 hands per hour times 0.005% =
$7.50 average loss per hour.
All of a sudden, the $3 per hour theoretical loss zooms to
$7.50, or slightly more than double the hourly loss rate. Notice that
nothing
about the game has changed except the speed.
The bottom line is that it’s more beneficial for basic
strategy people that have a negative expectation to play on crowded tables rather than uncrowded
tables because it reduces their long-term losses.
Now what about a blackjack card counter? Unlike the basic
strategy person that faces a negative expectation, the card counter has
turned
the tables on the casino and has a positive expectation (i.e. the card
counter
has the advantage over the casinos).
In this situation, the
card counter stands
to earn about 0.5 to 1.0% of every wager made. So card counters will
win more
the greater number of hands the dealer deals per hour. This is why card
counter’s
prefer to play solo or with as few as possible (there are other reasons
but
this is the main one).
What else can make a game
fast and increase basic strategy losses? How about those new
Continuous Shuffling Machines (CSM’s) that many casinos have
implemented on
their tables?
A CSM is an automatic shuffler with this characteristic.
After each round (or several rounds) the dealer will place the discards
back in
to the CSM to be randomly reshuffled with the unplayed decks of cards
(usually
a CSM uses 4 or 5 decks of cards).
In other words, the cards
go round and round
(like playing against an infinite deck of cards) and the dealer never
pauses to
manually reshuffle the decks. No pause means the dealer can deal more
hands per
hour. About 20% more on average and that’s not good for the basic
strategy person
because that means hourly theoretical loss will increase by 20%
(remember that
fifty cent tax you play per hand).
So
the bottom line is that basic strategy players should stay away from
playing blackjack
on tables that use a CSM.
Speed might be good if you are in a race, but when it comes
to blackjack players, speed will kill the average bankroll.
So
learn to slow
down your play and you’ll wind up losing less money in the long run.
Blackjack
Players is followed by mistakes and corrections
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