Should You Take Insurance?

Biy Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

Having played and taught blackjack for many years, it never ceases to amaze me how much money is
lost by players due to casino misinformation.  Whether we're talking about the ever popular fallacy concerning luck (which does not exist), or the equally influential dream of hitting the big jackpot that keeps suckers coming back to lose more money, casino fairy tales are nothing if not persistent. Having said that, there is one piece of misinformation concerning blackjack that is so pervasive that even the dealers don't understand wjat's what.  I'm talking about the Insurance Wager.

Any time the dealer shows an ace, he or she will ask the players if they want to take insurance.  The wager permits the player to wager up to half their bet. The highest paying of all wagers on the table at 2 to 1, it pays off to equal the amount of the original wager.  It is also the least understood of all blackjack bets.

The Real Deal

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

Sadly, most people's opinion of card counting comes from watching Hollywood blockbusters.  In
these dramatized acconts, the wily card counters, who are either portrayed as MIT grad students or autistic savants, are out to walk away with millions of dollars in profits.  Along the way, they are forced to contend with pit bosses who are only too happy to drag these threats to the casino's bottom line into the back room where they can be taught a painful lesson.  The movies, while entertaining, have taken so many liberties with card counting that I thought I would devote a blog to busting some myths.

Boot Camp for Blackjack

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Okay, troops, so you think you got what it takes to be a Player? I don't mean no sniveling, bed wetting, mama's boy of a GAMBLER! What I'm talking about is a tough as nails, never say die, lean, mean card counting machine. Well, you better get one thing straight, recruit. If you're going to make the grade and get your stripes you're going to have to live, eat, drink, and breathe this game. You're going to have to make this the single most important thing in your life. Because when the artillery is pounding and the bullets are flying, there's only one thing that's going to stand between you and defeat. And that one thing is D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E. What did I say? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Can You Beat the Casinos at Their Own Game?

by Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of commons.wilimedia.org

The title of the world's first card counting book was called "Beat the Dealer."  It was written by Edward O.Thorpe who wasn't a professional player by trade.  What he was when he wrote the book in 1962, was a mathematician.  That means he was smart enough to realize that the only way anyone could overcome the house edge at 21 was by using math.  He realized that unlike nearly every other game in the house (the exception being poker), every time a card was drawn from the deck, the odds changed.  But what really made blackjack a worthy research project was the fact that sometimes, whether players realized it or not, the edge was not with the house.  Sometimes the odds in blackjack favored the player.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

"There's a sucker born every minute," is a phrase allegedly coined by world-class showman P.T. Barnum.  While Barnum's business revolved around the circus, old P.T. would have fit right into the avaricious world of casino gaming.  Like it or not, the casinos are all about getting players to let their guard down.  Everything from the color of the carpets to the use of chips, not to mention free drinks, is designed to seperate players from their money.  No amount of glitz and glamour can do more than gloss over the fact that when you get right down to it, every casino is nothing more than a giant Hoover vacuum cleaner that tries its best to plug its snout into your wallet.

Of course, it doesn't help that most players make the casino's job easy by playing games that they know little or nothing about.  Whether it's a greenhorn player that wanders over to the roulette wheel, or a craps player who insists on betting the prop bets, most players are sheep that are sure to get sheered.