How many card decks generally used? when the used cards get reshuffled?

[forr]

blackjack-chart.jpg
What are the odds with this strategy?

Thanks.

[mofungoo]

Anywhere from 1 to 8 decks are generally used, with from 50% to 80+% dealt. The strategy pictured appears to be a generic shoe game strategy with surrender, and optional pair splits for doubling after split or not. If you are not counting cards using that strategy will cut the house edge to .5% or less, depending on the rules of the game that you are playing.

[forr]

So for the long run house will win?

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Did you think that they were an online Charitable Organization

dedicated to freely giving money to people with subnormal I.Q. s ?

[forr]

No, but the strategy doubles the stake when you have advantage, It doesn't give you edge?

[DM21]

No, but the strategy doubles the stake when you have advantage, It doesn't give you edge?

Doubles, splits and blackjacks only decreases the house edge. All of those are included when factoring in the house edge.

[bigplayer]

There is a reason it's called "Basic Strategy". It's just basic and does not overcome the house advantage.

[forr]

There is a reason it's called "Basic Strategy". It's just basic and does not overcome the house advantage.

Why there is other strategy that overcome house advantage?

[DM21]

Why there is other strategy that overcome house advantage?

To gain an advantage you must count cards or some advanced plays like shuffle tracking, ace sequencing or hole carding to name a few. If you want to gain an advantage in blackblack I would reccomend starting by learning basic strategy like the back of your hand and then learn a level one count. Read Norm's free book on this site, REKO is about as simple as you can get and still have an advantage. Remember, Basic Strategy First, level one count second.

[RS]

Basic Strategy -- If you follow basic strategy properly, it will cut down the house edge to somewhere between 1.0% and 0.4% for just about every blackjack game with its set of rules. Different rules affect the house edge. For example, being able to double down after you split decreases the house edge. Being able to surrender decreases the house edge. The dealer hitting on soft-17 (called "H17") increases the house edge. Likewise, the dealer standing on soft-17 (called "S17"), decreases the house edge.

Basic Strategy means that you are playing your hands with the lowest house edge possible for that set of rules. In the long run, you will still be a loser, because the house has the edge.


To gain an edge in blackjack, you have to learn some other strategy. As said above, some strategies are: Card Counting (keeping track of how many "good cards" [tens and aces] are in the deck compared to "bad cards" [2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s]). When there are enough extra "good cards" compared to "bad cards", you have an edge (though small edge), and increase your bet.

Other strategies, though more advanced than card counting include: Hole-Carding -- if you have a sloppy dealer and accidentially flashes the hole-card (the dealer's card you cannot see), you gain a tremendous edge, because you know what the dealer has, thus, can play your hand much much better than if you were only using basic strategy. For an example, if the dealer had a 10 showing and you saw he had an 9 underneath, he has 19. You would hit until you have 18 or higher. (Although, this isn't necessarily recommended because it gets a little fishy if a player is hitting his 18 against a dealer's 10.) There is ace sequencing, which is basically predicting when an ace will come out by remembering key-cards that are going to come out before the ace. Shuffle tracking is when you follow the "good cards" through the shuffle and bet higher when you're in the part of the shoe where the high cards have ended up. Again, these strategies are much MUCH more difficult to do properly than card-counting, although they have a much higher edge.


If you're interested in "beating the house" and being a long-term winner at blackjack, I'd advise you learn a simple card counting strategy. Many start off with the Hi-Lo system. Most players use this simplicity because of it's ease of use. More advanced card counting systems do indeed yield a higher edge over the house, but are harder to learn and more error prone. Not to mention, the edge on these more advanced counts aren't significantly more than the edge of Hi-Lo. Also, if you ever plan on being on a BJ team, chances are they'll be using Hi-Lo.

Or you could learn a more simple strategy, with a smaller edge than Hi-Lo (although not significantly smaller), which will be much easier to use while in live play, easier to learn, and not as error prone.

[KJ]

Or you could learn a more simple strategy, with a smaller edge than Hi-Lo (although not significantly smaller), which will be much easier to use while in live play, easier to learn, and not as error prone.

We often debate the value of different counts and clearly there is differing opinions among us on that, but I think we may be able to get a consensus to not advise players to go any 'simpler' than hi-lo or KO. Lets not encourage speed count, or Ace-five count or some other half-assed similar, short cut nonsense.

[RS]

We often debate the value of different counts and clearly there is differing opinions among us on that, but I think we may be able to get a consensus to not advise players to go any 'simpler' than hi-lo or KO. Lets not encourage speed count, or Ace-five count or some other half-assed similar, short cut nonsense.

By "easier than Hi-Lo" I meant an unbalanced count // KO, REKO, Red7, etc. NOT something like speed, Ace-5, etc. Although it is good you pointed that out, because even though I had no intention of meaning A-5/speedcount, I see how it could be easily interpreted that way.