How To Win Blackjack At Casino

Bill Kaplan, co-founder of the MIT blackjack team that took Vegas for millions, has a few tricks up his sleeve. You may not bring down the house, but here are 11 of his tips that will give amateur. In blackjack, you go head to head with the casino’s dealer. The goal of the game is to get as close to 21 as possible without “busting”, while at the same time beating the dealer’s hand. On the one hand, Blackjack is known to be the Casino game with the best odds of winning. But on the other oneit's impossible to win at Blackjack every time you play. Experienced players say you only need to apply the 'optimal basic strategy' to get a better ROI and improve your chances to win at Blackjack but.

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Blackjack offers casino gamblers some of the best odds in the casino, especially if you’re a blackjack player who understands the game’s strategy.Blackjack players who win more than they lose combine an understanding of statistics with betting strategy and card counting to turn this classic casino table game into a profitable evening of entertainment.

Casino.orgBy Arnold Snyder
© 2015 Arnold Snyder

Introduction

Unlike casinos in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, the best online casinos give generous bonuses. These casino bonuses are literally free money, and can be very valuable to players.

They have this value even though they often come with strings attached. What are the strings? If you accept a bonus, you must usually give an online casino a specified amount of action on its tables or slots to cash out your bonus and/or winnings. This action is called the wagering requirement (wr).

Some Internet casinos and bonuses are better for one type of player than another (professional gamblers learn to play every type of game, so they can make money on every kind of bonus). Be sure to look for special offers and the best online casinos for your preferred game, including real money blackjack sites.

A recently-passed law will be changing the best ways for players to deposit and withdraw money from online casinos and poker rooms. Because the options are changing rapidly, please see our deposit and withdrawal recommendations for up-to-date information.

For more information on how to win in online casinos, read below.

Is Online Gambling Legal?

Online gambling and poker are legal in most countries. In the U.S., recent administrations have beenvery hostile to online gambling and poker. (Harrah's spent a lot of money lobbying Congress to kill online casinos, which they saw as competition for their brick and mortar casinos.) However, though the Congress recently passed a law that may make transferring funds to and from online casinos and poker rooms temporarily less convenient, it did not pass a law that makes playing in online casinos and poker rooms illegal in the U.S.

According to gambling attorney I. Nelson Rose, the 1961 Federal Wire Act made betting over the telephone wires on races and sporting events illegal in the U.S., but federal courts have repeatedly ruled that the 1961 Wire Act applies only to sports and race betting, not online casino or poker play. The new law does nothing to change that.

Some online casinos and poker rooms have decided to stop accepting U.S. players for now, while they figure out the best ways to handle deposits and withdrawals for U.S. players. A number of others have decided to continue accepting U.S. players, and will work out new deposit and withdrawal methods as needed.

We will report on further developments.

U.S. players should also check their local state law before playing online. There's a lot of legal debate on whether state law applies to online gambling and poker, since the actual betting occurs outside of the state. We don't really know the answer to that, since no player has ever been charged. For players' information, the states that have passed anti-online-gambling laws are: Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and South Dakota.

Free games are available at every casino and poker room we list for any players restricted by law from playing with real money.

The Online Casino Bonus Play

The basic premise is simple: You deposit money in an online casino account. Let’s say it’s $100. Because you are a new customer, the casino adds a “bonus” of an extra $100, so your account now reads $200. Hey, that’s great! Let’s cash out now!

Yeah, right... It’s not quite that simple...

You can’t withdraw your funds yet. If it was that easy to make $100, the online casinos would have all gone broke long ago. The casino requires you play a certain amount before you can withdraw your funds. We call this the wagering requirement.

How much do they require you to wager? You look at the casino’s Terms and Conditions, which you’ll find from a link on their home page or promotions page, and you see that at this particular casino you have to wager five times the amount of your deposit and the bonus money combined. Then you can withdraw any amount of your deposit and bonus that’s left, plus any winnings from your play.

That wagering requirement will be strictly enforced. If you withdraw any funds prior to meeting this requirement, the Terms and Conditions may specify that you will lose the full amount of the bonus and any winnings from your play. (Some Internet casinos won’t allow any withdrawal of funds before meeting your wagering requirement—not even of your original deposit.)

So, you multiply your $200 (your deposit plus bonus) times five, and you realize that you must wager $1000 before you get to keep any amount of the bonus that’s left after this gambling, plus any winnings you have during this play. You may wager this $1000 any way you want. You may place ten $100 bets, or two hundred $5 bets, or a thousand $1 bets, whatever you prefer, so long as you put a total of $1000 into action.

Is This A Good Deal?

Yes, it’s a very good deal since this casino allows you to play their 6-deck blackjack games, where the house advantage is only one-half of one percent (0.50%) over a basic strategy player. And you know basic strategy.

(If you don't know basic strategy, you can follow the Correct Blackjack Basic Strategy on a Wagering Requirement Chart available at Blackjack Forum Online.)

Or they let you play video poker or Pontoon, with a similarly low house edge. Or the bonus is big enough to cover the house edge on whatever game the casino requires you to play.

You pull out your calculator and quickly determine that one-half of one percent of $1000 is only $5. That means that if you play perfect basic strategy until you’ve given them a total of $1000 of action, you would expect to still have $195 remaining, for a $95 profit on your $100 investment. Not bad!

So, you play through your $1000 in action at their blackjack tables, but unfortunately, you have a bad run of cards, and you wind up with only $165 in your account at the end of your play session. Well, a $65 profit is at least a profit, and you know that in the next casino you may have a good run of cards, leaving you with more than your $95 expectation. In the long run, you’ll sometimes win more than your expectation, and sometimes less, but for every time you play a bonus like this, you’ll average a $95 profit.

That, in a nutshell, is how it works. The bonus money that the online casinos give to new players is worth more than the cost of meeting their wagering requirements.

Let’s get familiar with some of the terminology used by professional gamblers who specialize in online casino play.

Definition: The deposit is the amount of real money you deposit with the casino or poker room cashier for the purpose of wagering on their games.
Definition: The bonus is the amount of funds the casino or poker room adds to your deposit that you may also use for wagering.
Definition: The wagering requirement is the total amount of money you must bet in the casino before you are allowed to withdraw either the bonus funds, or winnings from using the bonus funds, or both. (Poker rooms may have slightly different requirements, such as a minimum number of raked hands.) You’ll find the details of the wagering requirement in the casino or poker room’s Terms and Conditions.

For convenience, we abbreviate all of these terms. The Terms and Conditions are the T & C. The wagering requirement is the WR. The deposit is D, and the bonus is B. If our WR is five times the deposit plus bonus, we would say that the WR is 5DB. Some casinos state their wagering requirement as a multiple of the deposit alone. If a WR is ten times the deposit, we would say the WR is 10D. Get used to these abbreviations because you will use them for every online casino you visit.

How to Win in Online Casinos: The Process in a Nutshell

Here’s the basic process for making money playing in online casinos, from getting in to getting out:

1) Open a Neteller or Ecocard account by following the simple instructions at Neteller's web site or Ecocard's web site.

2) Gather information about what bonuses online casinos are offering.

3) If you see one that looks good, you click on it to get the details.

4) If the details still sound good, you go to the Terms & Conditions page to find all of the terms you must adhere to in order to meet the wagering requirement.

5) You then multiply the deposit and/or bonus by whatever factor the T & C specify as the WR to find the total amount you must wager.

6) You then check the T & C to see if any of the casino’s games are disallowed from qualifying for the WR. After you find what games are allowed, you multiply the WR times the house percentage against you, to find the cost of playing the game to meet the WR.

7) If the profit looks reasonable based on the amount of time you estimate it will take you to meet the WR, you check the T & C to see if the bonus is automatically entered into your account, or if you have to jump through any other hoops to get that bonus.

For example, some casinos specify that you must enter a “code” to apply for the bonus either before or after depositing your funds. Others may require you to email a request for the bonus. Or you may be required to bet a small amount of your own money before the bonus funds are added. Some may state that the bonus will automatically be added to your account, but that it will not appear in your account for some number of hours.

8) After ascertaining the hoops you must jump through, you make a record of all the details.

9) You now deposit funds with the casino cashier via your Neteller account or Ecocard account, and proceed to jump through any hoops necessary to get your bonus credited to your account.

10) Finally, you enter the casino and play your game of choice, keeping track of the total amount of money you bet, so that you know when you have met the WR.

11) You withdraw your funds and celebrate (but only after recording all the details. Always keep a record of details and withdrawals until you've gotten paid.)

12) You can make a lot of money playing in online casinos, and it's fun. Just be sure to follow the advice above and play only in reputable online casinos with good bonuses.

13) For more information on how to win in online casinos, read the articles in the Win Online Table of Contents, at the left of this page.♠


Back to Blackjack Forum Online Home or the Blackjack Forum Professional Gambling Library.


It’s mathematically impossible for either the house or the player to always win at the game of blackjack if both are playing a perfect game. It also comes down to how you interpret the phrase “always win.”

Is it possible to win every hand in blackjack without cheating? No, not even if the other player makes the worst choice on every hand (hitting on anything other than a 21). If both players draw 21, the push negates any win or loss.

By that reasoning alone, a cheater would have to control the deal to prevent the other player from ever drawing a blackjack.

For the sake of reasonable discussion, I’ll interpret “always win” to mean “leave the table with more money than you took in.” I still can’t offer any guarantees, but the following strategies improve your chances of always leaving the table a winner.

1 – Set a Hard Limit on Earnings

Although card counting doesn’t perform the magic people expect, as you become more experienced at counting cards you should see some improvement in your win/loss ratios. This is why, despite all the precautions they take, casinos still pay attention to card counters.

Even if you don’t count cards and only rely on “perfect play,” once you’re ahead in the game, you now have to protect your winnings.

The basic idea in good gambling practice is to only risk losing money you don’t mind losing. If you really want to get ahead, then your thinking should become more conservative as you accumulate more money.

Rather than change your playing strategy, which is why you’re ahead, just call it quits before you’ve won too much.

How much is too much? If the pit boss is paying unusual attention to your table, that could be a sign you should take a break.

2 – Practice Every Chance You Get


Some of the best blackjack experts in the world say they ran through memory exercises for months before taking on the Vegas casinos.

You need to memorize two things to be successful in blackjack—the rules of the game (including table rules) and the best blackjack strategies for each card you’re dealt.

The basic rules of the game are easy to learn. Casinos add their own rules to limit players’ chances of success or to limit their winnings. The change from 3:2 payouts to 6:5 payouts is an example of how casinos are limiting winnings.

Whether you play free online blackjack games or practice with a partner who flashes index cards at you, the more you practice, the better you’ll become.

You need to react instinctively to the cards on the table. You need to know what you can do and what you should do in every situation.

You won’t get there by losing your money for months or years on end.

3 – Pick Your Tables Carefully

Because casinos have changed many of the old school blackjack rules, standard advice that people followed 10, 15, or 20 years ago doesn’t always apply any more. The old classic blackjack strategy books were great resources in their days, but the world has changed.

Choosing the best blackjack table may be easy. You could walk into a casino that still offers the basic game. You may have to visit a few casinos in your area to find the best game.

Because finding a good table is so hard, some players now prefer playing online blackjack games. They can choose from a variety of casinos, and because of the competition, online casinos offer a lot of different blackjack variations.

When you know the table rules you want to play by, they become part of your strategy as much as part of the house’s strategy.

4 – Bet in Consistent Patterns


Standard card counting technique says you should increase your bets when the deck is favorable. Because everyone shares this advice in books, video tutorials, and articles, it’s not a secret to the casinos.

Varying your bets when the cards are favorable may lead to the unfavorable reaction by the casino—they shuffle the cards.

Although many card counters still swear by the practice, they concede it’s much harder to win this way than in years past. The solo player is less likely to win much money over all than a team.

Instead of trying to win as much as a team wins, be more consistent in your betting. A little bit of subtlety in your patterns may give you the psychological boost you need to keep playing.

How can you be consistent and subtle?

5 – Only Play When the Crowd Is Small

How To Win Playing Blackjack At Casino

This is more a matter of personal preference. But having spent some time at the blackjack tables, I find it disruptive when people constantly come and go.

That is the exact reason why I stopped trying to count cards.

Whether you prefer to count cards or not, it’s easier to focus on the game without distraction. The more people join the game, the more likely there will be chatter.

If you want to socialize, then chat away if the other players are willing to do that. But if your goal is to win, then treat the game like it’s your job. Do the work when you have the fewest distractions.

If you’re a regular high roller, you might be able to request a private table. And this is another reason why some people prefer to play online blackjack over a game in a casino. Whether it’s a live dealer table or a computer game, if you have the table to yourself, you can play without distractions.

6 – Ignore the Extras in the Game


You might be tempted to play a progressive blackjack game or to take insurance. I’ve done both, but in the long run, these game options just suck your money away from you.

The casino throws in extra options to make the game more interesting, but they’re also after your money.

Surrendering is a borderline practice. If you have the option of surrendering, some experts recommend you only do this when the cards are clearly against you.

Some casinos require late surrender, meaning you must wait for the dealer to check for a blackjack in her hand. Some games allow early surrender where you can forfeit based on the cards you see in your hand and the dealer’s face card.

Some surrender articles speak in terms of probabilities.

Should you really sit there and compute the probabilities on every hand? Not if you’ve memorized your strategies correctly.

Your decision to surrender preserves capital. You should take into consideration what the face up cards show, what the table’s rule for dealer stands is (soft 17 or not), and the number of decks in the shoe (4 to 8).

Keys To Winning At The Blackjack Table - LiveAbout

Players usually surrender on a hard 16 if the dealer shows a 9, 10, or ace. They usually surrender on a hard 15 if the dealer shows a 10 or ace.

Some players criticize a player who surrenders. It’s your decision, not theirs.

Conclusion

As a player you want to enjoy what you’re doing even if you’re there to win. It’s hard to concentrate when you feel like every hand is against you. The psychological side of the game is important.

It’s just like going to work every morning, do you love your job or not?

Win

Unless you’re there as part of a team, you don’t have to keep playing if the game isn’t fun anymore. Choosing to play only when you have a good time builds your confidence.

How To Win Blackjack At Casino - Video Results

Blackjack Tips - 20 tips for playing blackjack like Pro

Confidence doesn’t contribute directly to winning, but you’re more likely to trust your choices when you’re confident. Winning makes you confident but winning can be the result of random chance.

Best Way To Win Blackjack At Casino

How To Win Blackjack At Casino

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Your job begins before you make the first bet. Study the rules, practice good strategy, and set a goal of achieving perfect play through instinct and experience.

Cached

Whether you count cards or not, the better you play the game, the more likely you’ll leave the table a winner.