Basic Strategy

Basic strategy points are well thought out approaches to the game that can either help you win more, help you lose less, or help you to achieve both of those outcomes, especially when used in conjunction with a Blackjack chart. Here is a list of basic strategy points that you can start using right away to improve your chances of walking away from the tables with a profit…

• Always remember that you can win. Other people have done it, and some are doing it right now as you read this words, so don’t think that losing is inevitable.

• If you are losing at a particular table, set a hand loss limit (we suggest three to five losing hands) and move if you reach this limit.

• Focus on the dealer and his up card, not on the way the other players at the table are performing.

• If other players at the table are upsetting you with their playing strategies, switch to another table.

• Use a winning progressive method of betting by predetermining a percentage increase for each winning bet and sticking to it. For example, you could increase your winning bets by approximately 50% after the second win: £2, £2, £3, £5, £7, £10, £15, £22, etc, and at the same time continually bet the table minimum when losing.

• Never increase your bet when losing. This is one of the best blackjack strategies you will ever come across, because the most common alternative of increasing stakes (for example, a double-up-to-catch-up strategy) is modelled on the lamb trotting into the slaughterhouse.

• Keep your emotions under control. The dealer isn’t responsible for the cards that you are dealt, only for dealing them, so don't take you're losses out on him.

• Don’t drink and play blackjack. In the gaming business, casino bosses call those free libations “chip removers”, and for very good reason – the more you guzzle the more you will lose.

• Be self-disciplined by setting you own loss limits and win goals.

• Only bet what you can afford to lose. Rent, car payments and other day-to-day expenses have no place in a casino.

• Ask for freebies. Even if you play blackjack for small stakes there is nothing wrong with asking for a free meal, a deck of cards or a pair of dice. Don’t wait to be offered such things because the pit personnel will most likely be too busy tracking the high rollers. However, they will often say yes if you request a freebie.

• Always play in a casino that offers the most player-friendly rules so that your blackjack strategies will be most effective. To avoid hostile playing conditions in blackjack, look for the following combination of rules that are favourable to the player:

• A single deck game
• Surrender, both early and late
• Double down allowed on any two cards
• Double down allowed after splitting pairs
• Multiple pair splitting allowed, plus re-splitting aces
• Dealer stands on a soft 17
• Deep deck penetration

• When you feel tired, stop playing, or at least take a break and rest for a few hours. Nobody plays blackjack well when they are half asleep.

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