Blackjack strategy – Page 4

To Switch or Not to Switch

The game of Blackjack Switch sounds quite easy to play on the surface. Especially since it allows you the option of switching your second cards. Because this blackjack variation gives you that option it seems like playing Switch would be a pretty easy thing to do.

Not always.

How do you know if your original hands are better or if the switched hands are better? There is no basic strategy for Blackjack Switch, just your own brain and logic.

Take a look at this example to get what I mean:

We are going to say that the dealer has a 7 showing. When the beginning dealing is down you have an Ace/7 on one hand and a 10/9 on the other. You have a soft 18 and a hard 19.

If you were to switch them, you would strengthen one hand to soft 20 (Ace/9) and weaken the other to a hard 17 (10/7)?

This sort of situation is what makes Blackjack Switch not as easy as it seems.

So which is better: to have two reasonably strong hands, or one really strong and one that is one the weak side?

For your answer look at how I summed up the situation in the last sentence.

Still do not see it? Here it is:

When facing a dealer who is holding a fairly strong card and you have the option of two reasonably strong hands versus one really strong and one fairly weak, it is best to go with the two reasonably strong hands.

If you were to switch to the soft 20 and hard 17, you run the risk of winning one hand and losing with the other. That sort of winning will only cause you to break even and you will not walk away from the round any better off than when you started. True, it is better than losing both hands, but what if you could win both hands and make a profit?

Which is exactly what you can do by having two reasonably strong hands. While they are not guaranteed to win, they still put you in a better position to win both hands, which is your goal when playing Blackjack Switch.

This is why Blackjack Switch requires some brain work and logic when choosing to switch the second cards or not. This is not a blackjack game in which you just have the cards switched just for the sake of switching them.

Things I Do Like About Blackjack

Earlier today I gave a couple of the things that I do not like about my beloved blackjack. So now it is time to name some of the things that I do like about blackjack. These would be the incentives to play blackjack, people.

First off it has the lowest house edge out of all of the casino games out there. And that is before applying any blackjack strategy to the game.

Depending on what the house rules are, a standard game of blackjack will start with a house edge of 2% to 5%. When you compare it to the 14% that slots games have

Things I Do Not Like About Blackjack

I love the game of blackjack. The one on one feeling that you get from playing only against the table, even if you are at a full table. The smooth feeling you get when you know your blackjack strategy is doing its thing against the house edge. The feeling of knowing that I am playing the one game in the entire casino or online casino that has the best odds for me to win and make a profit.

But it is true that there are some things that I just do not like about blackjack.

For one thing I do not like insurance.

I do not like the sneaky way the casinos present this playing option as something that benefits the player when in fact it is designed purely to try to take more money from the player

Sneaky, Sneaky Blackjack Insurance

Imagine that there is a way to protect your blackjack wager. A sort of insurance that will cover your wager so that you do not lose it in case the dealer turns up that natural blackjack.

Such a thing exists. And it is called insurance in blackjack. But it is not as rosy of a picture as casinos would like for you to believe.

Insurance is offered when the dealer has an Ace for an up card. It is offered because an Ace is required for a natural blackjack, and is the less common of the two cards needed. So the feeling is that if the less common required card is present, there is a good chance that the hole card will have a value of 10.

This is what casinos would like for you to think. But let

Card Counting: Really Illegal?

As I began to discuss yesterday, card counting is surrounded by blackjack myths. It increase the mystique of this blackjack strategy skill. It also raises it up on a pedestal as the blackjack strategy skill that every player wants but just does not think he can achieve. All because of the myths that surround card counting.

One of the myths about card counting makes up most of the intimidation about the skill, and casinos are only too happy to allow that myth to keep going. It is widely believed that card counting is illegal.

The truth is that there is no law that says that a player is not allowed to think

Soft Hands in Blackjack

Recently I talked a bit about the different types of hands players are going to find when playing blackjack. Most specifically I talked about

Hard Hands in Blackjack

In the game of blackjack there are three types of hands: hard hands, soft hands and pairs. Each of these types of blackjack hands has a different type of strategy. This is because each type of hand has something about it that makes it different.

Hence, different types.

Moving on, we are going to look at hard hands and blackjack strategy for hard hands today.

In blackjack, hard hands are the most basic of hands. The two cards that make them up are not worth the same value each and neither card has a flexible value. Because of those simple little facts, hard hands are the easiest hands to play

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