Top 10 Blackjack Tips
Looking to elevate your blackjack skills before you face the dealer? We’ve compiled the best 10 blackjack techniques tips, and tricks you can use to increase your winning odds at online casino and avoid making mistakes that will cause you to go bust.
Remember, blackjack is a combination of chance and strategy, so you’ll want to keep in mind that losing is part of the game, but sharpening your skills can certainly give you an improved advantage in this popular casino game.
That said, let’s take a look at the best blackjack tips to help you elevate your game and beat the dealer the next time you visit an online or live casino like Britain Play UK!
1. Learn Basic Strategy
One of the best blackjack tips you might often read about when researching this game is to learn and use basic blackjack strategy. Basic strategy is a relatively simple system for playing optimal blackjack and ensuring you’re making the most statistically advantageous moves in the game based on your cards and the dealer’s visible card.
Using this strategy is one of the most common blackjack tips for expert play because it reduces the chances of making mistakes, especially if you’re a beginner. Basic strategy is ideal for beginners because it presents blackjack charts or tables that can be used as a quick guide when deciding, if you should hit, stand, double, or take any other action offered in the game.
It’s advised to learn basic strategy by memorising the most important rules, but you don’t need to remember every combination. You can always refer to it to see the best move according to your hand total and the dealer’s card.
2. Split Aces and Eights
One of the most crucial online blackjack tips you can take away from the basic blackjack tips above is what to do with a pair of Aces or eights. According to basic strategy rules, these pairs should always be split into two new pairs, regardless of the dealer’s card.
The reason for splitting Aces is that playing them as they give you a total of 12, which isn’t a good number to compete against the dealer. If you split them, there’s a chance of receiving a 10-value card, in which case you would get a total of 21 and win the round.
A pair of eights should also be split because this hand is worth a total of 16, one of the worst hands you can have in blackjack. If you look at any blackjack tips to win, everyone will tell you to split this hand because the chances of losing are very high. If you split this hand into two separate ones, the odds are you’ll get better hands and lower the risk of going bust.
3. Dealer Stands on ‘Soft 17’
Most blackjack variants have the same dealer rule: the dealer must stand on a soft 17. If you’re unfamiliar with ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ hands, soft refers to a hand with an Ace, while a hard hand doesn’t contain an Ace. This rule works to your advantage, bringing us to another one of our blackjack tips for beginners: always choose blackjack tables where the dealer must stand on soft 17.
If the dealer has a soft 17, they must stand, which means they can’t improve their hand. If they’re allowed to hit, they can do so without the risk of busting since an Ace can be counted as a one or an 11. For this reason, you should always choose a table with this rule to avoid giving the house an even higher edge.
4. Find the Best Table
Next in our casino blackjack tips is choosing the right table. You might have already read about this when looking for tips for playing blackjack because many players overlook this point and pick random tables.
Whether you’re playing at a land-based casino or online blackjack, keep the following blackjack tips and tricks for choosing the best table for you:
- Check the table limits to see if it fits within your budget. If you’re not an experienced blackjack player, go for a table with lower limits, where you can join the game with small stakes.
- Remember that different blackjack variants have different rules regarding doubling, splitting, and when the dealer must stand, for example. Some blackjack games allow you to surrender, if you’re dealt a bad hand, while others don’t, so checking the rules carefully before joining a table is highly recommended.
- One of the most important basic blackjack tips for choosing the right table is checking the number of decks used in this game. This applies mostly to live and online casino blackjack, where you can check, if the game is a single-deck or a multi-deck game.
- Always choose a table which pays 3:2 for a blackjack rather than 6:5 or even 7:6. The latter should be available because it significantly increases the house edge.
5. Don’t Believe You Are Yet to Win
A common mistake blackjack players make is relying on a ‘hunch’ or feelings when making betting decisions. This brings us to our next online and live blackjack tips: avoid letting your emotions or feelings determine what to do in the game and avoid believing in common betting myths.
You might feel that you’re about to hit a big win after a losing streak, for example, but there’s absolutely no way to know if this will be the case. Remember, blackjack isn’t just about skill, and chance plays a big part in the game too, so you’ll want to avoid believing in myths like ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ streaks. Also, you definitely should not increase your bet or make any move based on the feeling that a win is due to come.
6. Have a Betting Strategy
Some misconceptions exist about using a betting strategy, mostly because blackjack isn’t just a game of chance. Strategy is necessary to keep the house edge low in the game, but many players believe that the right blackjack betting strategy can beat the dealer every time. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case because there are important elements in the game that you won’t have control over, namely, what cards you’re dealt.
That said, a betting strategy is highly recommended and crucial to managing your bankroll. Without a strategy, you might find yourself randomly increasing or decreasing your stake or risking large amounts. If you play with the right betting strategy for your bankroll, you can structure your bets better.
The most common betting system is the Martingale Strategy, but there are several others which some players may prefer. These include the Reverse Martingale System, the Fibonacci Betting System, and the D’Alembert Strategy, among several others.
7. Understand House Edge
If you’re interested in using blackjack tips to increase the chances of beating the dealer, it’s necessary to understand what the house edge means. Many blackjack rules and tips are based on reducing the house edge, so it’s important to understand what these tips refer to.
The house edge simply refers to the advantage the house, or the casino, has over the player. The casino always has an advantage over you, but it’s not the same for every game, which is one of the factors that makes blackjack very popular.
Blackjack has the smallest house edge compared to other card and casino games at around 2%, but if you apply basic blackjack tips for when to hit, stand, etc., the house edge can be reduced to as low as 0.5%.
8. Use Card Counting
Alongside blackjack basic strategy, card counting is a blackjack system designed to give players an advantage over the dealer, but it’s rather tricky to master. In theory, card counting is simply a technique for keeping a count of how many low and high-value cards are dealt and how many are left in the deck. This doesn’t mean that you need to memorise every card dealt to keep a count, but you need to keep count of the value of those cards by assigning a value to each card dealt.
The most common card counting technique uses the following values to keep a running count:
| Cards | Value to Assign |
|---|---|
| Cards 2 to 6 | +1 |
| Cards 7 to 9 | 0 |
| Face cards and Ace | -1 |
Based on your count with these values, you should get a positive or a negative count. If it’s positive, this means that the advantage is on your side, while if the count is negative, it indicates that the dealer has the upper hand.
Many blackjack tips tell you to count cards to increase your chances of success in the game, but what they might not tell you is that card counting takes a lot of time to master. It’s straightforward in theory but requires plenty of practice to get right.
9. Don’t Play High Stakes at the Beginning
Beginners and players with little to no blackjack experience should start playing with smaller stakes to minimise the risk of huge losses. Of course, the size of your stake won’t affect your winning odds, but playing with high stakes is much riskier.
Low-stakes and high-stakes blackjack tables exist, so take your time reviewing the table limits and choosing a table where you can play with low stakes. Live dealer blackjack usually offers more flexibility regarding stakes, and you can find several tables where you can take a virtual seat with bets starting from £1 per game.
10. Know Your Limits
Finally, one of the blackjack dealer tips that applies to any player, regardless of experience level, is remembering your limits. Creating a budget before you start playing the game is one of our most important blackjack tips, and remember, your bankroll should be an amount you can afford to lose.
A time limit should also be implemented because it’s easy to get lost in the game and get carried away too. Even more importantly, it’s vital to know when to stop. If you’ve used up your bankroll, reached your time limit, or are frustrated over losses, quit the game, and take a break for some time. If you don’t control your spending and emotions when playing, you can easily make mistakes or take unnecessary risks.
FAQs About Blackjack Tips
1. What is the Best Strategy for Blackjack?
The best strategy is to use a blackjack tips chart based on basic blackjack strategy, which will tell you what to do with your hand for every combination of your cards and the dealer’s visible card. This is considered the optimal way to play blackjack and avoid making common mistakes, but it doesn’t guarantee success every time.
2. What is the Best Way to Learn the Blackjack Basic Strategy?
The only way to learn basic blackjack strategy is repeated practice and keeping a table with the most important blackjack tips strategies, in case you need some assistance. Whenever you’re playing online or live dealer blackjack, you can keep a basic strategy chart handy for easy reference throughout the game if you can’t memorise the whole strategy.
3. Are There Any Guaranteed Strategies for Winning at Blackjack?
Unfortunately, there are no guaranteed strategies that will give you a 100% success rate for winning at blackjack. After all, there’s no telling what cards you’ll be dealt by the dealer, so you can only control how you play those cards to your advantage.
4. How Can I Practice My Blackjack Skills?
Our blackjack professional tips for practising your blackjack skills are to play a demo version of blackjack so you can test your skills and learn from your mistakes during your practice. You can find several free blackjack games online where you won’t be able to win any real money, but you can practice your skills without any financial risk, either.
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