I strive to never lose a hand by taking a hit.
I never take a hit on 12 or higher, instead I wait and see if the dealer will bust if I have a 12-16.
I also split 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s and of course aces. I am unsure whether or not its useful to split 10 value cards, while on the one hand I could get a 21 or a second 20 point hand, its possible I could end up hoping the dealer busts when I could have had a sure 20 in the first place.
I always double down if I have 11, and I used to double down every time when I had 10, but I'm not sure if its worth doubling my bet with a 10 hand when I could just hit and lose less money if I get a bad card.
In all other hands I just take a hit until I have a count of 12 or higher then stop and find out what the dealer ends up with.
I also never buy insurance before dealer checks for blackjack, or take even money when I have a blackjack.
The best casino advantages I found to look for are the ability to hit after splitting aces, the ability to double down after a hit, and casinos that pay blackjack money even if you take hits to reach 21. Of course a good betting spread is good with a low min and high max. The ones I normally use are 3 or 5 dollar min and 500 dollar max. There is a 1000 dollar max casino in my state but I haven't been to it yet.
I buy into a table with 1000 dollars, and bet the min (normally 5$) until I lose 3 times in a row. Then I bet 30 dollars, 100, 300, 500 respectively after that until I have won a hand before returning to my 5 dollar bets.
If I buy in with 1000 dollars, the worst thing that can happen is I lose 1000 dollars and try again another time I have the money.
Mathematically its possible if not probable that I could end up with every dollar the casino has, given time for enough blackjack hands.
I realize that by not playing basic blackjack strategy or optimal blackjack strategy as people like to call it, my odds must be close to 40% on any given hand.
But even if the house has a 60% advantage, or 10% advantage depending on how you look at it, in any given 7 hands there is only a 3% chance of the dealer winning all 7 hands.
Its only between 128 and 254 hands in a row that its very probable the dealer will win 7 hands in a row.
Given that in a shoe with at least 2 other players and the dealer doesn't have enough cards for more than about 50 hands, I'm confident that I can sit at one table for hours on end growing my initial 1000 dollars into several thousand.
And I have done just that in the past.
A couple things I'm open to suggestion on, are what are your thoughts about my decisions to hit, stand, split, or double down.
And I was wondering what you think is a good time to collect my winnings and leave? Is +3000 enough, or should I push for +6000 as I have done before?
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