Why Head-to-Head is Dead

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Flickr

Back in the days when men were men and women played slots, back when blackjack was dealt exclusively from a single deck down to the last card, everybody who knew anything agreed that playing head-to-head against the dealer was the only way to go. In the first place, more players meant less rounds in favorable situations. Situations which you might have waited hours for in order to jump your wager. In the second place, once you finally reached the promised land and encountered a plus deck, you didn't want the knucklehead  playing first base to get the no-brainer you were betting on. Thirdly, if the house was foolhardy enough to deal all the way down to the bottom of the deck and you were fortunate enough to have the table all to yourself, there were some devastating tactics made possible by the technique known as end-play. The only downside to such a scenario was that if you were flying solo, your act had better have been damned good. After all, the pit boss had nobody to look at but you.

The Good, The Bad and the Studly

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

Of all the sports available in this world, blackjack is certainly one of the strangest. In all other sporting pursuits, be it baseball, football, golf, tennis or poker, the best players in the world not only get to bring home the bacon, their pictures are plastered on everything from magaziness to cereal boxes. Yet in blackjack, the best of the best are forced to act like spies not yet in from the cold, hiding their identities and their intentions behind numerous facades, the penetration of which would mean their swift ejection from the game. Like the cold warriors of yesterday, once identified, a card counters days are numbered.

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.

You Can't Win Them All

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Vimeo.com

You’re familiar with the old adage, “You can’t win them all.”  Well, that saying applies doubly in the casinos.  First of all, there is the matter of selecting the right game to play.  By that, I mean if your game of choice is governed by a random trial process where one outcome has no effect on the next, your ability to beat these games is limited at best.  Sure, you might be on a craps table just in time for a monster roll that nets thousands of dollars.  But if you record every win and loss, you will find out over time that all those little losses will more than overcome any occasional dice windfall.

The same goes for roulette, especially if you play an American wheel with 2 house numbers.  The average house edge for every bet on an American wheel is 5.26%.  So, while you may find success in any given hour of play, should you continue to wager on the wheel, sooner or later the math will out and the worm will turn.

Nobody's Perfect

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

As I have pointed out to players time and again, it doesn't matter how high of a mathematical
advantage a card counting system may purport to offer.  A multi-parameter advanced point count with a 1.5% player's edge sounds great on paper.  But if you have to perform a myriad of mental gymnastics to achieve it, what good is it going to do you.  That 1.5% advantage is based on perfect play.  I hate to break it to you, but nobody's perfect.  Even I make a mistake or two from time to time.  I'm only human.