Playing blackjack can be a fun, exhilarating and hopefully lucrative experience. When you have a downswing at the tables, it can certainly detract from the excitement factor. By following a few valuable blackjack tips, you can not only decrease the chance of having a bad day on the felt, but also increase your chances of walking away with a tidy profit.
In this article, we’ll be discussing a few solid blackjack tips to help you improve your game.
Blackjack Tips #1: Use a Blackjack Strategy Chart
When you play Blackjack, intuition will only get you so far. Relying on intuition is certainly better than relying on luck alone, but your intuition isn’t going to give you the best mathematically probable odds of winning each hand. That’s what blackjack strategy charts are for.
A blackjack strategy chart will tell you exactly what to do in every possible situation, depending on your own cards and the face-up card of the dealer. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win every hand, but probabilities always follow through in the long run.
You will find a Blackjack Strategy Chart provided in our previous article: Basic Blackjack Strategy
Blackjack Tips #2: Play Reasonable Stakes
Every blackjack table has a minimum and maximum stake limit. Make sure you play within your bankroll’s stake range. If you brought $200, don’t go to a blackjack table with a high minimum. Your bankroll should be able to last at least 40-50 hands. If you have $200, you should not be betting more than $5-10 increments. Read more at our blackjack bankroll management article.
Blackjack Tips #3: Play Blackjack Online
Playing blackjack in a live casino certainly has its advantages, like a more thrilling adventure with real people cheering you on. But it also has its disadvantages. You can easily become too overcome by the excitement and forget when to stop. Playing online blackjack can be just as fun, minus the bright lights and crowd noise, but this can work to your advantage as well, keeping you from getting distracted.
Online blackjack will also save you a lot of expenses in the end. You aren’t traveling, spending gas money or paying for accommodations. You don’t even have to tip the dealer when you walk away a winner.
Blackjack Tip #4: Card Counting
This blackjack tip somewhat contradicts the previous tip, but if you’re going to play live, it is worth mentioning. Blackjack card counting is not nearly so difficult as some would lead you to believe, especially media and film makers. Using a basic blackjack card counting system can greatly increase your chances of making a substantial profit. However, card counting can only be used in a live casino, not when playing online blackjack, since online blackjack games re-shuffle the deck with every hand.
Blackjack Tips #5: Know When to Quit
Like any casino game, it’s extremely important to know when enough is enough. Of course you never want to spend more than you can afford to lose, so only bring this much in your bankroll and never, ever exceed this amount; but that’s not exactly what we were getting at. We’re specifically talking about knowing when to quit when you’re ahead.
Casinos make most of their money from players who just can’t seem to quit, no matter how much profit they’ve made. Eventually, they lose it all. To avoid this, set aside profits as they come in. continue to spend from your bankroll, but not your profits. Once your bankroll runs out, your profits are yours to keep. Hopefully they exceed your starting bankroll!
