The Blackjack Odds Card: An Absolute Essential for Online Play
Correcting playing blackjack may be a science, but it isn’t rocket science. Though often romanticized as an incredibly complex game of skill in movies, books and your buddy’s stories from his last trip to Las Vegas, blackjack need not be so difficult – especially with your new companion in online blackjack, the friendly Blackjack Odds Card.
Everyone knows that the house has the smallest advantage in blackjack among all casino and table games: a margin of just about 1% is in the house’s favor. Unfortunately, the typical player assuming blackjack is as easy as it looks, sits down at a table and throws away far more than 1% of hands simply by not knowing the math in the game.
If you’re just starting out – or even if you cannot state without hesitation when you double down on A-2 – find a odds card for your next online blackjack session now. Such cards are easily located with a Google search.
The card basically lists on the left margin all the possible hands a dealer might draw. Across the top are the thirteen cards a dealer may show, creating a grid. The resulting squares are then color-coded as to five possible player actions for the next card: hit, stand, double down, split or surrender/hit.
You’ll instantly see the difficulty in accepting some of this strategy, as some of these decisions are quite counterintuitive: Do you really split 7s almost half the time? Are there really four situations to split 2s? Nevertheless, this is the way the pros play. Bear in mind that this strategy may need to be changed slightly in blackjack variations.
The best part of the blackjack odds card of course comes when you no longer have to use it anymore. Through repetition, even the oddest-seeming situations become commonplace to the seasoned player and you’ll soon be without the crutch at all. In the real world, some casinos frown upon use of odds cards (and they’re a bit embarrassing to be seen with, anyway), so practice online to become a proper-looking player.
And after you’ve gotten yourself a blackjack odds card, please see this list of online gambling sites which provide top-quality Internet blackjack gaming.