Blackjack Instructions For Beginners
A lot of blackjack tips pages don’t account for the skill level of the reader. You’ll find people suggesting that you learn to count cards or that you practice shuffle tracking.
- The ‘rules’ of any game give you a fixed parameter within which you can manoeuvre and outplay your opponents. As it is with other games, your objective in blackjack should not just be based on the rules, but also on what outcome will favour you the best. The focus should not be on getting ‘21’ or ‘closest to 21’ as many would say.
- When asked how to play Blackjack for beginners, gambling expert John Marchell spilt the following pearls of wisdom: 'When your hand is 12-16 and the dealer shows 2-6, stand. In the same situation.
This post consists of my seven best blackjack tips for beginners. To become a better blackjack player, keep reading below and start applying the following strategies and tips.
1. Master Basic Strategy
How to Play Blackjack for Beginners Hello, I’m the blackjack innovator and in this exclusive video for OnlineGambling.com I will be discussing the basics of the casino game blackjack. This is a video designed for beginners. A Few Words about Blackjack. We assume that you opened this article because you are a beginner. Blackjack was introduced to North America in the 1800s, and after Nevada legalised gambling in 1931, its popularity skyrocketed. Today, it’s one of the most popular games in casinos all across the world. Blackjack Rules. Blackjack rules are simple, but you’ll need a thorough grasp of them before you sit down to play!
Honestly, if you ignored all the other tips on this list and just mastered basic strategy, you’d be way ahead of most other blackjack players.
What’s basic strategy? Well, it’s the mathematically optimal play in every blackjack situation.
You have the following information during each blackjack hand:
- You know what total you have.
- You know one of the dealer’s two cards.
A basic strategy table compares your total with the dealer’s face-up card to give you the mathematically best play.
In some situations, the mathematically correct decision is the one that loses the least amount of money over time. In others, the mathematically correct decision is the one that wins the most money over time.
If you ignore basic strategy, you’re probably dealing with a house edge of 3% to 4%. That’s a lot of money to lose just because you didn’t want to memorize basic strategy.
You can find basic strategy tables on hundreds of sites on the internet, but you can also find text explanations for how to play each hand correctly. You can even buy a plastic laminated basic strategy card in the gift shop at the casino.
2. Never Take Insurance
The only time that taking insurance is mathematically correct is if you’re counting cards. Since this is a list of blackjack tips for the beginner, that doesn’t apply to you.
Insurance is a side bet that the dealer has a 10 in the hole. It pays off at 2:1. The casino calls it “even money,” but the truth is, the house has a high edge on the insurance bet.
Let’s assume you’re playing in a single-deck game, and the dealer has an ace showing. You have two cards, too, and neither of them is a 10. This means you have 49 cards that aren’t accounted for in the deck. Of those, 16 of them are worth 10—all the jacks, queens, kings, and 10s.So, you have 33 ways to lose the insurance bet compared to 16 ways to win. The bet pays off at 2:1, which is the same as 32:16. That’s one extra way that the casino has to win means that the casino has an edge, but how much of an edge?
Let’s say you bet $100 on insurance 49 times. You’d win $200 on 16 of those bets, for total winnings of $3,200. But you’d also lose $100 on 33 of those bets, for total losses of $,3300.
That’s a net loss of $100 on 49 bets, or an average loss of $2.04 per hand. This means the house edge for the insurance bet is at least 2.04%. And that edge goes up if you have a card worth 10 in your hand, because you have more ways to lose.
It’s crazy to make a bet with a house edge of 2% in a game where the house edge is only 0.5%. Insurance is a sucker bet. Just don’t take it.
3. Play in the Good Blackjack Games
The rules from one blackjack game to another vary. You should play in the game with the best rules you can find.
What kinds of rules variations should you look for?
- Probably the best variation is a game played from a single deck. Always find the game being dealt from the fewest number of decks.
- If you can find a single deck game or even a game dealt from two decks, go for that game (everything else being equal).
- Next, look for games where the dealer must stand on ANY total of 17. If the dealer hits a soft 17, the house edge goes up.
It’s beyond the scope of this post to cover all the possible rules variations, but those are two of the biggest to look for: the number of decks and whether the dealer hits a soft 17 or not.
4. Don’t Mess With Counting Cards
It isn’t as hard as you think to learn how to count cards, but if you’re a beginner, you should focus on mastering basic strategy. If you can’t play with perfect basic strategy on every hand, counting cards won’t help you much anyway.
The concept behind counting cards is probably easy to understand. The idea is that the ratio of high cards to low cards changes because of the random nature of the game. Sometimes, the remaining cards in the deck are mostly high cards, and sometimes they’re mostly low cards.
High cards are 10s and aces, and they’re important because they increase your probability of getting a natural.
What should you do if you have a better chance of getting a blackjack? Obviously, you should bet more.
But if you’re a beginner, focus on mastering basic strategy first. You can learn to count cards when you become an intermediate player.
5. Skip 6/5 Blackjack Games
A recent trend in Vegas blackjack is to offer games where the payoff for a natural is 6:5 instead of 3:2. Some casinos even brag about it as if it’s a boon to the player.
The idea is that six is a bigger number than three, so unsophisticated gamblers (beginners) will think 6/5 blackjack is a better deal. But it’s not.
Sure, you’ll only get a blackjack once out of every 20 hands or so, but why would you want to give up $30 per hand? That $30, averaged over 20 hands, is an additional loss of $1.50 per hand.
Let supply and demand send 6/5 blackjack to the graveyard where it belongs.
6. Skip Video Blackjack
Video blackjack games vary widely. Some of them only offer even-money payouts on a natural. Obviously, you should avoid those games.
Video blackjack games generally deal from eight decks that are shuffled after every hand. The rules are usually worse than the rules at any of the table versions of blackjack.
On top of all that, video blackjack is twice as fast as playing at a table with a dealer, which means you’ll put twice as much money into action per hour.
Suppose you see 100 hands of blackjack per hour at a standard table, and you play for $5 per hand. That’s $500 in action. With a house edge of 0.5%, the house expects to win $2.50 per hour from you.
Double the number of hands per hour on a video blackjack game, and even if you’re facing the same rules, you’ll lose $5 per hand.
How To Play Blackjack For Beginners
Why lose more money per hour playing blackjack than you have to? Just say no to video blackjack.
7. Practice Online
One of the greatest things about the internet is the availability of free games at real money online casinos. Beginners can get a feel for how the actions work in a blackjack game without having to leave their homes or taking as much risk.
Of course, knowing how to double down and split will come in handy when you play for the first time in a live casino, too.
Conclusion
Blackjack Instruction Card
This page on blackjack tips for beginners was meant to offer advice specifically to those who are just getting started. That’s why I didn’t go into detail about how to count cards or about the specifics of basic strategy.
Blackjack Rules For Beginners
I hope you found it helpful. If you’d like to learn more about blackjack strategies and tips on how to become a better gambler, this site offers plenty of information for you to utilize. Good luck at the tables!