Blackjack Strategies: Counting Highs and Lows
What sets Blackjack apart from most casino games is the fact that the player can affect the game's outcome right off the bat, from the very instant that the cards are cut. While the dealer is bound by the game's rules, the player actually has the power to change the course of the game.
A player can make use of any one of three main blackjack strategies. In one such strategy, one must ascertain whether to call or stand regardless of the card the dealer is showing, decide on an appropriate money management system to utilize, then set a sufficient limit for winnings and losses for when one wants to quit the game.
The second strategy suggests that the player must take the dealer's card into consideration when deciding to either call or stand. Again, one has to make use of an apt money management system and set limits on their revenues and deficits for when they decide to quit.
The third strategy, card counting, is not very easily pulled off. Casinos generally frown on card counting, and it is a skill that takes a great deal of effort and expertise to master.
Card counting operates under the principle that a deck teeming with Aces and tens holds a considerable advantage for the player in busting the dealer a lot more frequently. Meanwhile the dealer's edge lies in a deck full off small cards.
In order to estimate the abundance of high cards in a deck, a player has to designate each card that they have already played with a point value in order to keep track of them. Cards that turn out to be favorable are given plus points while those that prove less so are given minus points.
The card counting player then adds and subtracts points in accordance with the cards that have been played and makes a "running count" of the total sum. The player must then obtain the "true count" by dividing the running count according to the ratio of the remaining deck's size. Once this has been done, the player now knows the comparative quantity of high cards in that deck. The player will evaluate their hand and the dealer's up-card, mull over the opportunities presented to them and strengthen their bet correspondingly.
Card counting employs a great deal of computation, and it takes sharp memorization skills and a quick, keen mind for calculation in order to collate massive amounts of information and play the game at the same time. Even if one can manage to pull it off, they would only get an average income of about 1 per cent, which they could only make the most of by betting great amounts of money. In doing so, one risks the move being detected by the pit boss, in effect causing cards to be shuffled regularly.
Blackjack is a game where the odds are on the player's side, but only if the player is smart enough to take advantage of those odds. To this end, there are various strategies they can employ to help them along, some of which are easy to follow, some of which are more risky. The knowledge has been laid out in front of the player; it is up to their own skill to make it work.