Twenty one - it's blackjack. Play in no deposit casinos.

Counting Cards in Blackjack

Lilly — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:19:52 +0000

Traditional blackjack requires a set skill, that of counting. Counting and being able to figure out numbers quickly is the best way to successfully play blackjack. When you play blackjack online, you must still use your own knowledge and mathematical discretion in order to win.

When you play blackjack or online blackjack, there are various tips and methods that may help you. Firstly, there is the basic ability to count the numbers on the cards. This may seem like enough in order to calculate a 21 sum, but you must know more.

Playing blackjack for fun is easy when you sum up 21 for yourself. Playing blackjack successfully, using strategies, means being able to figure out the card sum of other players and even the dealer. This is capable with the proper strategies.

One card counting system is the KO card counting system or Knock Out system. If you count down the deck of cards, you do not end up with a zero. The KO system is great for those who have trouble with the HI-LO system and anyone who has trouble running any count conversion. This is especially helpful to try when you are learning new card counting systems for Blackjack.

Remember that when you want to play blackjack online, you are already in a position to win. You’ve got the comfort of your own home and the luxury of your own pc to work with. Blackjack online requires your enthusiasm and a winning personality. Having techniques like card counting is something great to add to your abilities as an online casino player.

There are many card counting techniques for blackjack. KO is just one of them. Use it at your discretion and enjoy the outcome. If this particular card counting technique does not work for you, find another one. In the end, the only one who can win blackjack online is you.

History of blackjack

Lilly — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:25:20 +0000

None of the descriptions of vingt-un in various old Hoyles mention anything about an "insurance" wager being allowed. This feature was added to the game of twenty-one much later in its history, most likely in the U.S. According to Steve Forte, the insurance wager was probably added in Nevada casinos sometime around the late 1950s. Photographs of casino blackjack tables from the 1950s do not show the familiar "Insurance Pays 2 to 1" signs on the layout, though photographs of tables from the 1960s usually do display this wording. I’ll also note that in the 1957 analysis of blackjack by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel, and McDermott, in their groundbreaking Playing Blackjack to Win, they state that most Nevada casinos offer insurance, and mention two forms of insurance available-insuring against an ace-up blackjack for 2 to 1, and insuring against a ten-up blackjack for 10 to 1. That ten-up insurance option has long since disappeared from any Nevada casino that ever offered it. The similarity of the insurance option at blackjack to the insurance bet at trente-et-quarante is undeniable, and as trente-et-quarante is still popular in the casinos of both France and Italy, I suspect the addition of this rule to blackjack started with someone familiar with trente-et-quarante.

And as for Insurance …

Lilly — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:42:57 +0000

One other older European card game probably contributed a single feature to our modern day game of blackjack. The French card game oftrente-et-quarante, or "thirtyand-forty," which was introduced at the Spa Casino in Belgium in 1780, had the same card values as quinze, and a target total of thirty-one, but a structure similar to baccarat, where the players could bet on either of two hands dealt. But there was one curious feature oftrente-et-quarante that later became a feature of modern blackjack. Trente-et-quarante was a house-banked game, and the house edge came from the house taking half of all bets when both hands totaled exactly thirty-one. But players were allowed to place an "insurance" wager against this possibility.

Insurance

Lilly — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:46:13 +0000

“Insurance” is an option in which the player may bet on whether or not the dealer has blackjack. Whenever an ace appears as the dealer’s up-card, the casino player has the option to purchase insurance on the best blackjack odds table. Insurance may be taken for any amount up to or equaling half of the player’s initial wager. The dealer then checks for blackjack. If the dealer has blackjack, the original wager is lost - but the insurance bet is paid at 2:1, which equals the amount of the original wager. So in the end the player breaks even, which supports the definition of traditional insurance - that of indemnifying the insured. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the insurance bet is collected as a losing wager, and the hand continues on like any other.

Soft hands

Lilly — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:27:13 +0000

Soft hands are usually very good blackjack hands for the player in that an opportunity exists to improve, at least initially, without the possibility of busting. There are some blackjack trainer soft hand totals, such as 19,20, and 21, where it’s advisable for the player not to take additional cards, but more often than’ not, a soft hand means a “free” opportunity to improve blackjack bonus offers.

Surrender

Lilly — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:11:58 +0000

“Surrender” is an option that allows the player to give up, or surrender, after the first two cards are dealt, and in doing so forfeit half of his original wager. There are two varieties of surrender: early surrender and late, or conventional, surrender. The notable difference is that early surrender allows the player to give up his hand before the dealer checks for blackjack - if the dealer’s upcard is an ace or ten. Conventional surrender is the ability to bow out only after the dealer checks for progressive blackjack. Depending largely on both the player’s hand and the dealer’s up card, the option to surrender, when available, can be a very advantageous one. For that reason, the option isn’t always offered, and in fact is lessening in popularity. Surrender will be touched on in more detail in the Chapter Two section titled “Rules Variations.”

Hard Hands and Soft Hands

Lilly — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:58:12 +0000

Because the ace can be worth either 1 or 11 depending on which is more favorable, special terminology is used to describe a hand that distinguishes how it is being used. Hands in which an ace is counted as n are known as “soft hands,” while those hands without an ace or where any number of aces are counted as one are known as “hard hands.” For example, a 17 comprising an ace and a 6 is referred to as a “Soft 17.” Likewise, an ace and a 4 comprise a Soft 15. But what happens if we add a queen to a Soft 15, as might happen in play? With the presence of a queen, the value of the ace must now be counted as 1 - otherwise our total would exceed 21. Counting the ace as 1, our total, now made up of an ace, a 4, and a queen, went from a Soft 15 to a hard hand of the same total.

Casinos: Love them or Leave them

Lilly — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:54:09 +0000

Like it or not, it’s hard to go anywhere in this country, or in the world for that matter, and not be within striking distance of a casino. As touched on in the last chapter, that wasn’t the case ten or fifteen years ago, at least in the United States. But it certainly is now.
So what are these places really all about? What goes on behind the scenes? And now that you’re going to be part of an elite group of players that actually wins money in the long run, what will you need to know?
Let’s talk about casinos and game of online blackjack
- where they are, what’s in them, how you’ll interface, and some other interesting things to know about an environment truly unlike any other.