- Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Online
- Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Printable
- Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Free
A very important principle in card counting and blackjack odds is higher value cards (10's) help the player and lower value cards hurt the player. The reason is the dealer MUST hit to a 17 or higher.
Blackjack uses a standard deck of playing cards and a set of rules that allows for a manipulation of the house edge based on the cards that have been dealt and the ones left in the deck. Further manipulation of the house edge can be made based on how you play hands.
- You can definitely still be profitable, and with the right skill set you may be able to land on a profitable rotation of casinos to make money from. It’s not horribly consistent though with both the inherent volatility of BJ and trying to balance playing enough money without drawing attention to yourself.
- While counting isn’t prohibited per se, that does not suggest you’ll get off scot-free if you are thought of doing so. Keep reading to discover what occurs when gambling establishments spot a card counter man, and how to decrease the opportunities of getting captured.
Card counters use these facts to raise and lower their bets in certain situations to overcome the house edge, and some of them are able to make a long-term profit. It’s not easy, but blackjack can be beaten.
The common belief is that the only way to beat blackjack is by counting cards. But if you know what you’re doing and can find the right situations, you can learn how to beat blackjack without counting cards.
To be honest, I’m convinced it’s easier to learn how to count cards than do some of the things on this page, but not everyone holds the belief that they can count cards. Keep reading to see if you have what it takes to win without counting.
1 – Play Perfect Strategy
If you want to have the best chance to beat blackjack without counting cards, you need to start by learning how to use basic strategy.
Each hand you receive in blackjack has one particular way it should be played, based on what the dealer shows as her up card.
Basic strategy plays are based on the odds of each card being dealt, and are designed to reduce the house edge.
You’re going to learn more about how the rules of the game change the house edge in the next section, but when you use perfect basic strategy combined with good rules, you can often play blackjack with less-than-a-half-percent house edge.
Basic strategy seems complicated at first, but when you practice, you can quickly learn how to make the correct plays. You can use a chart to help you, and even if you don’t want to memorize the plays, you can use the chart while playing.
Here’s a link to a basic blackjack strategy chart:
Blackjack Strategy Chart
Find your hand down the left-hand side of the chart, and find the dealer’s face-up card along the top. The chart tells you the best play for each situation. It might not seem like the play is the best for each hand, but the chart has been developed using computer programs, and each play has been carefully considered. Any time you don’t use the correct play, it costs you money in the long run.
Here’s an example using a strategy chart:
You receive a seven and a six, and the dealer has a six showing. You find your hand, a hard total of 13, on the left, and look under the dealer’s six. The proper play is to stand.
Here’s another example:
You receive a pair of eights, and the dealer has a nine. You find your hand under the section for splits. The correct play is to split.
When you have an ace that can be counted as a one or 11, you look under the soft hands section to find the best play.
The final thing you need to know about basic strategy is to never take insurance or even money. Insurance is a bad bet and costs you money.
2 – Find Games with Good Rules
The basic rules for blackjack are the same in all games, but many secondary rules variations change the house edge. The difference in house edge changes from rule to rule, but if you can find games with more good rules than bad, it lowers the house edge.
Let’s assume the following rules apply:
- A game with the exact same rules, except it only uses two decks, has a house edge of .255%.
- An eight-deck game with the same rules, except the dealer hits on soft 17, has a house edge of .661%.
Here’s a list of rules that are good for you and lower the house edge. Try to find games that have as many of these rules as possible:
- It’s better if the dealer stands on a soft 17.
- The fewer the number of decks, the better.
- Surrender is better than no surrender.
- The more hands you can double down on, the better.
- The more split options you have, the better.
In addition to these rules, you should never play a blackjack game that pays less than three-to-two for a natural blackjack. Many tables have switched to six-to-five payouts, and this increases the house edge so much that it makes the games unplayable.
3 – Shuffle Tracking
Shuffle tracking is an advanced blackjack strategy. The idea is to identify a group of favorable cards and track them through the shuffle.
When they are going to be dealt back out, you raise your bets to take advantage of a greater chance to get a blackjack and win.
When you have a better chance than normal to receive high cards (mostly 10 value cards and aces), you have a better chance to get totals of 20 and natural blackjacks. Because blackjacks pay three-to-two instead of one-to-one, when your chance of receiving one goes up, it reduces the house edge.
If you can successfully identify slugs or groups of cards with a high percentage of aces, face cards, and tens, you can play with an edge over the house.
Shuffle tracking is hard, and in some games, it’s impossible. Games that use automatic shuffling machines or continuous shuffling machines can’t be tracked. But if you play where the discards are, you should try to start tracking parts of the deck through the shuffle.
Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Online
When you see a group of high cards placed into the discard tray, remember where they are located and then try to watch what happens to them as they go through a shuffle. The first several times you try to do this, you’re probably going to struggle.
But with practice and experience, you might be able to learn how to do it with enough accuracy to get an edge.
The best way to practice is to do it at home. Get a few decks of cards, take a section of 10 to 12 cards, mark the edges of these cards with a marker so you can see them in the deck, and then see what happens to them as you shuffle.
Different casinos have different shuffling techniques, so watch how the dealers shuffle at the casino where you usually play and try to replicate the procedure.
As you practice, you can learn where the marked cards tend to end up after they get shuffled. Each dealer is a little bit different, so your results won’t be perfect, but they don’t have to be perfect for you to get an edge.
You can also track small groups of aces. Any hand that has an ace is more profitable than other hands, so if you can identify when an ace is coming, you can raise your bet.
You can try to track aces through the shuffle, or you can remember the order and suit of several aces as they get placed in the discard tray. After the shuffle, when you see the first ace come out, you can make a prediction on when the next will be dealt.
Here’s an example:
If you’re playing a two-deck game and see the ace of clubs, ace of diamonds, ace of diamonds, and ace of clubs all go into the discard tray close together, when the first ace of clubs comes out after the shuffle, the two aces of diamonds should be soon to follow. These should be followed by the other ace of clubs.
Just like normal shuffle tracking, this isn’t an exact science. But with experience, you can improve your predictive abilities. You can practice ace tracking at home the same way you would practice shuffle tracking.
Mark the edge of all of the aces in the deck, put a few of them together, and see where they end up when shuffled.
4 – Hole Card Play
Just like shuffle tracking, hole card play is an advanced strategy, and only a few players are able to do it.
Even though casinos train their dealers to deal so that you can’t see their card, some dealers are sloppy and will slightly flash their hole card value, which can help you if you know where and when to look for it.
When choosing a seat at the table, the best ones for spotting hole cards will be the seats directly in front of the dealer or to the opposite side of the hand they deal with. The closer your eyes are to the surface of the table, the better the chance to see the cards.
Use discretion, however, because most casinos are aware that hole card players exist, and if they think you’re trying to do it, they can change dealers, correct the dealer’s procedure, or make you stop playing.
You should start watching how every dealer places their down card to identify the ones that flash the value. Some dealers flash every card, and some just flash one from time to time. The only way to find sloppy dealers is to watch them on every deal.
You can practice reading hole cards at home by having someone deal in a sloppy way. Make sure they deal at the same speed as the dealers in the casino. You need to train your eyes and brain to read the card in a split second.
Many hole carders simply catch if the card is a face card or not. Even with this little bit of extra information, you can improve your playing decisions to the point where you can turn a profit.
Hole card play isn’t easy, and not everyone can do it. But if you can find sloppy dealers and read some of the cards, it can push the small house edge over the line to where you have a small edge.
5 – Get Someone Else to Count
One of the best ways to beat blackjack without counting is to get someone else to count. You can even get a group of players to count different tables at the same time. If you don’t want to learn how to count or don’t think you can, you can build a team.
Find one or more people who can count cards or who can learn how to count, and have them start playing at the beginning of a shoe and making table minimum bets. When the shoe reaches a point where the count is positive enough to raise the bet, they secretly signal you to join the table.
Your counter or counters always stay with minimum bets, and you always sit down and make larger bets. This way the counter is never identified as a card counter by the casino, and you always make bets with a positive shoe. The counter also needs to secretly signal you when the count for the shoe goes bad, so you can stop playing.
You can set this up like a true team where everyone puts in an equal amount for the team bankroll and receives an equal share of the profits. The other option is to hire the counters, provide their bankroll, and pay them a flat fee to count.
Both options require a level of trust, so you want to find reliable people who you don’t have to worry about stealing or making mistakes.
You only need one counter to make this work, but if you have two or more, they can count at different tables. This increases the amount of time you get to play with a high count. With only one counter, they might need to play through three or four shoes before finding a good count.
If you have three or four counters, you might be able to jump from table to table and end up playing most of the time you’re in the casino.
When you form and work with a team, you should never be seen together at the casino. Never enter or leave together and never talk while anywhere on the casino property. Most casinos have surveillance cameras everywhere, and you don’t want the casino to be able to connect any team members.
And even if you plan everything carefully and never get caught, you still need to play in different casinos. The longer your team plays in the same place, the higher the likelihood that the casino will realize that something is going on.
Conclusion
Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Printable
You can learn how to beat blackjack without counting cards, but it’s challenging. You should start by doing things to make the house edge as low as possible. Using perfect basic strategy and finding games with favorable rules is where you begin.
Then you need to learn how to use one of the other strategies on this page. Shuffle tracking and hole card play are two ways you can get an edge, but neither works all of the time. Your final option is to find someone else to count cards for you.
Can You Make A Living Playing Blackjack Without Counting Cards Free
Now that you know how to beat blackjack without counting, you’re ready to get started!
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