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BLACKJACK

A Champion's Guide

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

CHAPTER 1

THE GAME

The reader must be able to understand the effect of each rule and of each possible variation.

Beat the dealer (1962-1966) Edward Thorp

THE RULES

Blackjack is played at special semi-circular tables; the dealer sits behind the table and up to seven players sit around the edge, each of whom plays alone against the dealer. Usually six normal decks of 52 cards are used, which are well shuffled and then dealt from the shoe, the special device, also known as the sabot in other games, which deals cards one by one.

Picture cards are worth 10 points, the Ace can be worth 1 or 11 at the player's discretion and the other cards are worth their face value. The aim of the game is to achieve a total score, by adding up the value of your cards, that is greater than the dealer's, but without going over 21.

Before receiving their cards, players place a bet by placing their chips in the special betting space; the bet can be of any amount within the minimum and maximum limits of the table. When all bets have been made and the dealer announces "rien ne va plus", no further bets can be added, moved or removed.

The dealer distributes one card face-up to each player and one to himself; then a further card face-up to the players, but not to himself. Having assessed the sum of their two cards one by one the players, starting from the player to the dealer's left, can request one or more further cards (one at a time) with the intention of reaching or getting as close as possible to 21, or they might decide to "stand", which means stopping at the score achieved without requesting more cards. Anyone who goes over 21 "goes bust" and the dealer collects the bet.

If your hand contains an Ace which can be counted as 11 without going bust, the total is known as "soft", all other hands are known instead as "hard". For example 7+8 and K+3+A are hard, while 5+2+A and 2+A+7 are soft.

Once all the players have played their hand, the dealer takes his second card and is then obliged to draw more cards until he goes over 16; but when he has 17 or over he must stand, meaning he can no longer hit.

At the end the dealer compares his score with those of each player: if his is hi- gher, he wins and takes the bet, if his is less he pays out equal to the wager and in the case of a tied score the hand is null and void and the bet is simply returned to the player. Of course, if the dealer goes bust he loses against all the players remaining in the game and pays their bets equal to the wager.

If a player gets "blackjack" (or natural), meaning a total of 21 with just 2 cards (an Ace and any card with a value of 10), the dealer pays one and a half times the wager, unless he also got blackjack on his turn, in which case the hand is null and void.

Players normally bet in the betting space in front of them, but if there are other spaces free they can bet in them too.

Bets are also permitted where another player has already made a bet, but only the first player can control the hand and the second player cannot reprove him in any way for the way he played.

Once a hand is finished the dealer collects all the used cards and places them in the appropriate box; then a new hand is played in the same manner as the first. The deck is never finished however, in fact as a rule it is cut with a special plastic cutting card: when this is exposed all the cards are reshuffled.

PLAYER OPTIONS

There are some other options that players might use in certain game situations: doubling down, splitting and insurance.

The fact is that these options have numerous variations. There is no standard rule, instead every casino, or rather, every single table, applies what they believe. We deem the rules that are used in the majority of European casinos to be stan- dard, but we will also analyse the main variations.

Double down

Having received his first two cards and seen the dealer's first card, the player can decide to double down his bet, no matter what the initial two cards are. The downside is that if the player doubles down he receives one card, and one card only, from the dealer.

If other players have bet on the player who doubles down, they are not obliged to double down themselves, but they must nevertheless accept the attribution of just one card.

Let us examine an example. The player has 6-5 against the dealer's 7: if he dou- bles down and receives a 10 he obtains an unbeatable 21, but he might receive a 2 instead which stops him at a modest 13.

Split

When the player receives two initial cards of equal value he can decide to split them and consider them as two separate hands. This is how it works: the two equal cards are separated and the player places a bet equal to his original bet be- fore each. The dealer distributes a second card to each of the two original cards and the two hands are played separately, one after the other. Picture cards are all considered to be worth 10 and any two cards worth 10 can be split (but this is never to your advantage).

For example, the player has 8-8 against the dealer's 9 and decides to split. He receives a 6 for the first 8 which takes him to 14: an insignificant total against the dealer's 9, so he hits again; the card is dealt and he goes bust so the dealer takes the bet. For the second 8 he receives an Ace, which takes the total to 19, a good number to stand on. The dealer draws another 9 and therefore loses with a total of 18 against the player's 19.

One bet lost and one won.

If, having split, the player receives another card of the same value, it is normally permitted to split the pair again and this process can be repeated up to four times.

In the rules that we deem standard, the player, having split and received the second card, cannot double down in any of the split hands.

A specific rule is applied to pairs of Aces. A player that receives two Aces can split them in the same way as a normal pair, but can then only receive one other card per hand (so he will close both hands with just two cards) and what is more, he cannot split again if he receives another Ace. Moreover if the second card is a 10 the score is deemed a normal 21 and not blackjack. During a split the decisions of the "controlling" player are binding for any other players who have bet on his hand.

Insurance

When the dealer's first card is an Ace, players can choose to insure themselves against the possibility of the dealer getting blackjack. In this case they make an extra bet (normally equal to half of the original bet) that is paid 2:1. In practice, if the dealer gets blackjack he pays the extra bet twice, otherwise he takes it. In any case, the player plays his hand against the dealer.

The decision to take insurance is not bound to the choice of the controlling player.

It is not wise to lose too much time over this option because it is almost never advantageous. It is essentially a bet that a card worth 10 will be dealt and that the dealer will therefore have blackjack. Considering that there are 16 cards with a value of 10 in every 52, in order for the bet to be fair it should be paid 36:16, or 9:4, a good deal more than the 2:1 offered; the dealer keeps a margin of approximately 8%. However this approximation does not have absolute value since, depending on the cards dealt, the remaining deck might be more or less full of 10s. Those who count the dealt cards might find themselves in situations in which taking insurance is actually advantageous to the player.

Bet variations

As well as the right to double down, split and take insurance, the player has another weapon up his sleeve. From hand to hand he can decide to vary his bet, increasing it when the situation becomes advantageous (we will see how in the advanced strategy chapter) and decreasing it when it becomes disadvantageous; this essentially means winning more when you win and losing less when you lose.

VARIATIONS

As we mentioned previously, there are many rules that vary from casino to casino and often from table to table within the same casino. These variations are sometimes decisive in choosing which strategy to adopt, it is therefore very important that each player is well-informed about the rules before sitting at a table, so as not to run into unfortunate misunderstandings that might cost him money.

As well as affecting which strategy to adopt, each variation also alters the advantage of the casino, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively; further on, in the advanced strategy chapter, we will see by exactly how much, in percentages, playing with a certain variation influences the dealer's profit margin.

Dealing

The dealer does not always deal a single card to himself (European no hole card rule). In fact in American, and some European, casinos the dealer takes two cards straight away, one face-up and the other face-down. If the up card is a 10 or Ace, the dealer checks whether the second card makes blackjack, obviously without showing it to the players. It is at this point that he takes insurance bets and then, if he has blackjack, declares it. This rule is advantageous for players as they discover straight away whether the dealer has blackjack without losing money by deciding to double down or split.

Number of decks

As a rule blackjack is played with 6 decks, but you will find tables with 4 to 8 decks or even tables where you play with 1 or 2 decks. The fewer decks there are, the more advantageous it is for the player who applies advanced strategies, in fact he can effectively use card-counting techniques.

Double down

In some casinos doubling down is only permitted if the total of the first two cards is 9, 10 or 11, in others it is only permitted with 10 and 11. Of course the less choice the player has, the more he is at a disadvantage.

Split

If, having split a pair, the player receives another card of equal value, in some casinos he can also split the new pair, but it is very rare that players are permitted to re-split Aces. On some tables it is permitted to double down after a split. These variations are favourable to the player.

Surrender

Some casinos allow surrender, which gives the players a chance to stop playing and retrieve half of their bet once they have seen the initial cards dealt. There are two different types: early surrender and late surrender. With the latter players can only surrender after the dealer has checked whether he has blackjack. Almost no casino in the world still permits early surrender, as it gives players too much of an advantage, while late surrender is mostly allowed in casinos in Asia and the Caribbean. Since late surrender means that the player can surrender only after the dealer has checked that he hasn't made blackjack, this option is not offered in the majority of European casinos, where the no hole card rule is used instead, as this implies that the dealer will check whether he has blackjack only after the last player has finished his turn.

17 soft

In some casinos the dealer has to stand with a hard 17, while with a soft 17 he is obliged to hit.

CHAPTER 2

BASIC STRATEGY

Players, for some strange reason, tend not to make the decisions most favourable to them, only to then bemoan the bad luck that follows them.

Dario De Toffoli and Margherita Bonaldi

CORRECT DECISIONS

The Blackjack player must constantly make decisions.

First of all, he must learn when to hit and when to stand, and should never act on impulse - there are tables that show the best move for every single game situation. These are tables that have been compiled with the utmost accuracy, applying the theory of probability to each situation. Any decision other than that suggested in the table will only reduce the chances of winning. And of course the purpose of the game is precisely the opposite: to maximise the chances of winning in the long run.

The Blackjack player must then learn to exploit the options offered by the casino, such as doubling down and splitting: only then can he hope to compete with the dealer. Here again, he must never trust his feelings, but quite simply follow the tables which show the statistically most productive action to take in each situation. The reality is that the majority of players don't pay attention to the tables, lose and then bemoan their misfortune, rather than their irrational behaviour. These are dream clients for the casinos!

There is no room for imagination in Blackjack! Anyone wanting to give free rein to their creativity is better off playing Poker. Blackjack is an entirely mechanical game! It is interesting, complex, appealing, fun ... but completely mechanical. It's a game that is "resolved" by mathematics as it were, and anyone who ignores the maths is quite simply wrong.

In other words, a "basic strategy" has been developed using the probability theory, which allows the player to play as best as possible in every situation, only taking his own cards and the dealer's up card into account. This strategy can be summed up in a series of tables that show the most advantageous decision for the player in all possible game situations.

We show these tables over the following pages with the warning that in some cases the strategy may vary according to the specific rules of a casino. The strategy proposed here refers specifically to Blackjack played by the fol- lowing rules:

• It is played with six decks;

• The "no hole card rule" is in force, meaning the dealer only looks at his second card after all players have played their hands;

• The dealer must stand on soft 17;

• No doubling down is permitted after a split.

The rows contain the total of the player's cards, the columns show the dealer's up card. So always hit with totals of up to 11 and always stand with totals of 17 or greater. Only when the player has a total between 12 and 16 does the choice depend on the dealer's card.

For example, hit with 12 if the dealer has a 3, but stand if it has a 4.

For example, stand with 16 if the dealer has a 6, but hit if he has a 7. Trust me,

I know many players stand with 16, but that is a mistake.

The second table shows the game situations in which the player has a "soft" total, meaning he has an Ace in hand that can count as 11 without making him go bust.

Here too the rows contain the player's total and the columns the dealer's up card.

The player should always hit with a "soft" total that is less or equal to 17 (we will see later that in some cases it is also advantageous to double down), while with a total greater than 18 it is best to stand. Only a total of 18 presents different options: only hit against the dealer's 9, 10 or Ace (this is intuitive since with these initial cards the dealer has a high probability of achieving a total greater than 18, as 4 out of 13 cards have a value of 10).

In the columns we have the possible values of the dealer's up card and in the rows the possible totals of the player, after the first two cards.

While many casinos allow doubling down with any total, obviously it is only advantageous to do so in some cases, because having doubled down the player will receive one card and one card only. To be specific, it is ill-advised with all "hard" totals of less than 9 or greater 11, while for players with 9, 10 or 11 in hand it becomes an excellent option.

With a 10 for example, the player must almost always double down, provided that the dealer does not also have a 10, or an Ace.

But, when the player has an Ace in hand, he must not double down if the other card is greater than 7, because in this case he already has an excellent 19 at least and receiving another card would most likely obtain a worse result. However, in other cases it is sometimes the best move; for example, double down with A-5 in hand if the dealer has 4, 5 or 6, while with A-3 only double down if the dealer has 5 or 6.

The rows show the possible pairs and the columns the value of the dealer's up card. We see that you never split with 4-4, 5-5 or 10-10, whereas in other cases split- ting is very often an advantageous option. For example, with a pair of 7's we split if the dealer has a total of between 2 and 7, but not if the dealer has an 8, 9, 10 or Ace. With 9-9 we split unless the dealer has a 7, 10 or Ace (because the most probable card, 10, brings us to a total of 19 if we split, which is better than the 18 in hand).

THE EFFECTS OF GAME VARIATIONS

As explained in the chapter on the rules of the game, the adoption of some game variations can modify the strategy, sometimes significantly.

There are two rules in particular that play an important role in defining a correct strategy: the "no hole card rule" and whether or not doubling down is allowed after a split.

In general, the game is played in Europe with the "no hole card rule", which means the dealer draws the second card only after players have played their hands; the basic idea is that if the dealer shows an Ace or 10, the player cannot exclude the possibility that it may have blackjack and so plays less aggressively. In America on the other hand, the dealer generally draws his second card straight away and checks whether he has blackjack before the players make their decisions.

The other important rule is the possibility of doubling down after a split; when this is permitted players must split more often in order to make the most of the advantageous opportunities to double down that may arise following a split.

Let's see which strategies are influenced by these particular rules.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from BLACKJACK by DARIO DE TOFFOLI, MARGHERITA BONALDI. Copyright © 2013 Dario De Toffoli and Margherita Bonaldi. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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