Learn the basics of blackjack now that Florida features the game at many casinos.

Let’s begin with the basic rules of how the game is played.

The objective of blackjack is to beat the dealer’s hand and you can do so in one of two ways:
1. When the total of your hand exceeds the dealer’s total, or
2. By having 21 or less when the dealer’s hand goes over 21 (known as “busting”).

Blackjack is played on a table with up to 6 players. Every player is playing against the dealer (i.e., you are not playing against your fellow table players). Every table has minimum and maximum betting limits and this information is usually posted on the table (or you can ask the dealer or a floor supervisor).

It’s no secret that the casino has the mathematical advantage, or edge, over players. But do you know how the casinos get their edge? It arises from this simple rule of the game: Players always must act on their hand before the dealer and if a player busts, he will automatically lose even if the dealer subsequently busts. Later I’ll show you how you can take advantage of this rule to play your hand in a manner that improves your chances of winning.

It doesn’t matter which seat you take when you play blackjack. Historically, some of the betting or seat positions have names. The seat position to the right of the dealer is known as “first base,” and this player is the first to act on his hand. On the other side of the table, the last seat position is known as “third base” and the player seated there is the “last player” to act on his hand before the dealer acts on his hand. Some blackjack players mistakenly believe that the third base player can “control” what cards the dealer will get by how the third base player plays his hand. But this is nonsense and in a future column I’ll explain why. For now just take any seat and don’t worry which one it is.

All cards count their face value in blackjack. Picture cards count as 10 and the ace can count as either a 1 or 11. Card suits have no meaning in blackjack. The total of any hand is the sum of the card values in the hand. A hand containing a 4-5-8 totals 17. Another containing a queen-5 totals 15. It is always assumed that the ace counts 11 unless your hand exceeds 21 in which case the ace reverts to a value of 1. Generally hands which contain an ace that counts as 11 are known as soft hands (i.e. ace, 7 is a soft 18 hand and ace-3-3 is soft 17). A hard hand is any hand that either does not contain an ace, or if it does, it counts as 1 (i.e. 10-8 and 5-ace-10-2 are hard 18 hands).

Fortunately for players, the playing rules that they must follow are not the same as the dealer’s rules. In fact the dealer has to follow the house rule which says he must hit if his hand totals 16 or less and stand if it totals from 17 through 21. So if your hand totals 15 and you stood, and the dealer’s hand totals 16 and is beating you, the dealer must still hit his hand since it’s less than 17.

Players have several options available to them when it comes to acting on their hand. These include the following:

Hit. This means you want the dealer to give you another card to your hand. In shoe games, indicate to the dealer that you want a hit by making a beckoning motion with your finger or tapping the table behind your cards with your finger. In hand held games, scratch the edges of the cards in your hand lightly on the felt.

Stand. This means you are satisfied with the total of the hand and want to stand with the cards you have. In shoe games, indicate that you want to stand by waving your hand over the cards. In hand held games, tuck your cards under the chips that you have in the betting box.

Pair Split. If you have two like cards (e.g. a pair of 6’s or aces), you could exercise the option to split. When you split you must make another bet equal to your original bet. By pair splitting you play each card as a separate hand and you can draw as many cards as you like to each hand (except split aces-most casinos will only allow one draw card to each ace). For example, if you were dealt a pair of 8’s (16) and split, you would have two separate hands containing an 8. You would be required to play out one of the split hands first before the other. In shoe games you indicate that you want to split by placing another chip next to the original chip. For hand-held games toss your cards on the table and then make the secondary wager. Most casinos will also allow players to split all ten-value cards such as a jack-ten or queen-king (although this is not a recommended playing strategy).

Double down. This playing option allows you to double your bet in return for receiving one and only one draw card. In most casinos you can only double down after you receive your first two cards and before drawing another card. To signal the dealer that you want to double down just place your chip next to the original chip bet on the hand (shoe games) or toss your cards on the table face-up in hand held games and then make the secondary bet.

Insurance. When the dealer’s upcard is an ace, the dealer will ask players if they want to make the insurance wager. It is a side bet in which players are betting that the dealer’s hole card will be a ten-value card. Players can make an insurance bet equal to one half of the initial bet made on the hand. To make the insurance bet you simply place your chips on the insurance line, which is located right above the player betting box. You win your insurance bet if the dealer has a ten-value card in the hole. A winning insurance bet pays off at 2 to 1 odds.

Even Money. When the player has a blackjack hand and the dealer has an ace showing the dealer will ask the player if he wants “even money”. Even money means the dealer will automatically give you a 1 to 1 (or even money) payoff on your bet before he checks his downcard for a potential blackjack. Taking even money yields the same result as making an insurance bet on your blackjack hand.

Now that you know the basics of how to play, next issue I’ll explain some table etiquette so you feel comfortable playing, and then begin to review some playing strategies that will help you win.

Zues from WMS Gaming

This new technology also brings with it many myths and misconceptions as players try to unravel the mysteries of the modern computerized slot machine. Here are a few of the myths surrounding the slot machines that have been passed on from player to player over the years. Even though today most players are well informed about casino gambling, many of these myths still persist.

Someone hit a jackpot on the machine you just left; you would have gotten that jackpot if you kept playing.
False. Slot machines have a computer chip inside them that runs the Random Number Generator (RNG) which selects the winning or losing combinations of symbols. The RNG is continuously cycling through numbers even when the machine is not being played. These numbers correspond to the stops on the wheel that display the winning or losing symbols that you see when the reels stop. When you hit the spin button or pull the handle, the RNG picks the combination at that given instant. If you had stayed at the machine, it is highly unlikely that you would have stopped the RNG at the exact nano-second to display that same combination of numbers. In the time it takes to talk with a friend or sip your drink the RNG has cycled through thousands of combinations.

You can tell the odds of winning by counting the symbols on each wheel.
False. The RNG generates a set of numbers for each spin. The numbers corresponds to the symbols on the reel. Many numbers generated by the RNG can correspond to the same symbol. This is known as a virtual stop. There can be hundreds of virtual stops on each wheel even though there are only a few symbols on each reel. For example you may see 20 symbols on each reel of a three-reel machine. You figure 20 x 20 x 20 = 8,000 combinations and your chance of hitting the jackpot is 1 in 8000. In reality the computer chip may program 256 stops for each wheel which makes the odds 256 x 256 x 256 =16,777,216 combinations. Being able to generate millions of combinations is the reason why the new slots can offer such large Jackpots.

Casinos can loosen or tighten the slot machines with the flip of a switch.
False. The slot machines have a computer chip in them that determines the pay back percentage. These are preset at the factory. In order for a casino to change the pay back, they would have to change the chip. In most jurisdictions there is paper work that has to be filed and submitted to the Casino Control Commission for each machine if the chip is changed. It is time consuming and the chips are very expensive. For this reason, it is more economical to decide on the pay back percentages before purchasing the machines and having the factory ship them with the proper chip.

A machine that has not been paying is due to hit.
False. Many players have gone broke because they believe this myth. There is no way to determine if a machine is due to hit. Each spin is a random occurrence and has no bearing on what has happened previously. Don’t ever gamble more than you can afford to lose because you believe the machine is getting ready to pay out. It will be devastating to your bankroll if you do.

The slot machine can tell the difference between playing maximum and minimum.
False. The number of coins played has no effect on whether or not the winning symbols will line up. It only determines how much you will win or lose. Many players will vary the number of coins they play per spin because they believe there is a pattern that can make them winners. Some players will even cash out during their playing sessions so the machine will “Think” a new player has started playing. Slot machines are computers and there is no way they “know” when a new player starts playing. The RNG used to select winning combinations is not linked to the to the coin receptor so varying your coins or cashing out and starting again will not help you win.

After hitting a jackpot you should change machines because the machine will stop paying out.
False. The odds of hitting another jackpot on your next spin are the same as they were before you hit the jackpot. The payback percentages are programmed over the long run, anything can happen in the short run. Whether you chose to play the same machine or move on to another, you should make sure that you lock up some of your winnings to take home with you. Don’t be one of those players who lose back all of their winnings.

If you use your Player’s Club card the machine will pay back less.
False. This is a myth that can cost you money. There is no link between the card reader and the RNG. By not using you player’s card you are denying yourself valuable comps and sometimes even cash back from the casino. The player’s clubs were formed to reward players for their business and to give them a form of rebate on their losses. When you don’t join the players club and use your card you are essentially throwing away free money. I will discuss player’s club benefits in a future article.

Until next time, remember: “Luck comes and goes…Knowledge stays forever.”

Now there is proof that starting with the best statistical hand does not mean you will win.

The beginnings of an important movement in poker are detectable;  scientific studies examining the statistical nature of the game as it is actually played are appearing. Not just the mathematics of the game (e.g., Chen & Ankenman’s The Mathematics of Poker) or applications of game theory (e.g., Ferguson & Ferguson’s paper), but research that approaches the game from a practical point of view based on statistical analyses of the outcomes of actual poker games.

Until the advent of online poker this data could not easily be collected. Few players keep accurate records of their play and those that do are not anxious to share them with researchers.

Two reports appeared recently that have attracted a good deal of attention. The first was the large-scale examination of over 100 million hands carried out by the Cigital group, a consulting firm in Washington, DC.

The two main findings, both of which fit nicely with the intuitions of most experienced poker players, were:
1.    Three-quarters of all hands never go to showdown.
2.    Only about twelve percent of hands are actually won by the best hand.

These results, many maintained, showed that poker is a game of skill, for the chance element (the cards actually dealt) played a vanishingly small role in the typical hand.

While this is certainly one conclusion that can be drawn from this data, it is, unfortunately, not a logically necessary one.

What is needed is more than an analysis of hands, for that statistical base will always be contaminated by uncontrolled factors, but an analysis of players.

The first, solid start in this direction was a recent analysis in Gaming Law Review and Economics by Ingo Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock at the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Law and Economics.

They examined the records of over 50,000 individual online players. They began with the assumption that poker is a game of skill but pointed out that no matter what the poker community may believe, this is still a hypothesis subject to test.

Importantly, they note that no specific statistical feature of the game has been identified that could be used in this kind of analysis.

Their candidate for this measure is the Critical Repetition Frequency (CRF) or the number of hands needed before a player can be confident that their results reflect skill level, and that a scientist evaluating the data can be confident that these numbers are reliable.

In short, the CRF for an individual player is the point in their playing career where the impact of skill crosses that of the random turn of a card.

By the way, the word “confident” in these analyses means “95% certain.” There is always room for error in statistical analysis.

They crunched the numbers from the play of nearly 55,000 online poker players over several millions of hands of hold ‘em from mid-level games and the answers they found may surprise you.

First, a large proportion of the individuals whose data they had access to were winners, fully one-third!

This number flies in the face of standard wisdom, which has it as around 5% to 7%. The difference lies in the games being analyzed. The ’standard wisdom’ estimates are based on live play and individual intuitions.

The Fiedler and Rock data are from the online game where the vast majority of players in their sample played fewer than 100 hands, went broke and never logged on again.

As Fiedler put it, “No serious player can win as fast as a highly unskilled player can lose.”

The impact of this infusion of “dead money” is to make many players winners, although most of them don’t win much and the ’standard wisdom’ is undoubtedly far closer to the truth.

Second, they discovered that determining who the winners actually are in these games is a complex problem, but to make an exceedingly long story ridiculously short, their data pointed to an answer: a CRF of 1000 hands — or only some 30 or 35 hours on live play or perhaps 12 – 14 online.

This, of course, is silly. But it is the number that pops out of their analysis. However, there is a good reason it is so low.

Their sample contained that vast sea of horrible players who drifted in and then quickly back out of the games. If you eliminate these from the analysis, things change and they move toward more sensible estimates.

However, even the sensible estimates only make sense when the relative skills of the participants are factored in. Here’s what they found:

An exceedingly skilled player, one averaging 100BB/100hands, has a CRF = 300. That is, if they can keep this up for a mere 300 hands they can feel confident in their results.

However, basically no one can sustain this win rate so this number has little to do with reality.

For skilled players with more modest (and realistic) win rates, the number changes dramatically. A (still unrealistic) win rate of 30BB/100h has a CRF = 3,300; one of 5BB/100h is 118,000 and 1BB/100h = 295,000.

If you’re averaging +1BB per 100 hands don’t trust your results and even if you’re averaging 5BB/100h you probably shouldn’t either, unless you’re multi-tabling and doing it for many hours.

The Fiedler and Rock approach is important. It provides strong support that poker is a game of skill.

The CRF statistic emphasizes what many of us have been harping on forever, the need to take a temporal element into the analysis.

Combined with the Cigital study, it presents converging lines of evidence for the skill-based argument, one from the “hands” perspective and one from the “players.”

Of course, the impact of these lines of research on judges, juries and legislators has yet to be seen. Those of us who take an objective, scientific view would like to believe that these groups will concur.

However, we can’t lose sight of the fact that many who object to poker do so on moral and social grounds and will fight the fight, not in pages of scientific journals, but in the political arena.
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Arthur Reber has been a poker player and serious handicapper of thoroughbred horses for four decades. He is the author of The New Gambler’s Bible and coauthor of Gambling for Dummies.

Avoiding these 21 blackjack table faux pas may increase your odds of winning.

The casino game of blackjack has its procedures, codes of conduct, and playing strategies. The procedures are essential to ensure the security and integrity of the game. The codes of conduct encompass the playing etiquette so you don’t attract the ire of your fellow players, or the delaer. The playing strategies help you win. When you don’t follow any of the above, you are not going to play your best game. So avoid making these 21 faux pas.
1.    Handing money directly to the dealer. All cash transactions must be visible to the security cameras, so always place your cash on the layout outside of your betting spot, and then tell the dealer what denomination chips you want.
2.    Touching the cards when they are dealt face up. When four or more decks of cards are used, they are dealt face up to each player from a dealing shoe. The reason the cards are dealt face up is two-fold. First, it eliminates the potential for player cheating (by either marking or switching the cards), and secondly, it speeds up the game, because the dealer can quickly announce the total of each player’s hand. There is no reason to touch the cards, so don’t do it.
3.    Holding the cards with two hands. In games where the cards are dealt face down (usually single- and two-deck games), pick the cards up with one hand please, not two.
4.    Removing the cards from the table. Your cards must always be in full view of the dealer and the security cameras. Therefore, you should never, for example, hold them in your lap.
5.    Placing objects on the table. Purses, wallets, bags, and other items should be placed on your person or next to you (except ladies’ purses, which should be held in the lap). It’s OK to have a drink on the table, but use the drink holders provided by the casino to avoid spilling anything on the layout.
6.    Telling the dealer that you want a “hit.” Saying, “Hit me” might be OK when you play blackjack with friends back home, but in the casinos, it won’t fly. For security reasons, you must always use hand signals to signify whether you want to hit or stand.
7.    Touching your chips after you’ve made your bet and the cards are dealt. Your original bet must stay on the layout untouched until it either wins, loses, or ties. Once the dealer starts dealing the cards, that’s your cue to not touch your wager.
8.    Placing a higher denomination chip on top of a lower denomination chip in your betting spot. If you are wagering two or more different denomination chips, always place the higher denomination chip on the bottom of the stack.
9.    Not betting double the table minimum if you decide to play two (or more) spots. If it’s a $5 minimum table and you decide to spread to two hands, most casinos require that you wager $10 on each spot. If you are not sure, ask the dealer. Also, if the cards are dealt face-down, do not look at the second hand until after you have completed playing your first hand.
10.    Taking your bad luck out on the dealer or fellow players. They are not the reason why you are losing; most likely it’s just a bad run of cards, which happens to all blackjack players.
11.    Telling your fellow players how to play their hands. It’s their money and they have the right to play their hand any way they want to. However, if a fellow player asks you for advice, then it’s OK to offer it.
12.    Inserting the cut card a few cards from either end of the shuffled deck(s) of cards. On six-deck games, most casinos require that players place the cut card at least a half-deck from either end of the stack (some require a full-deck). If you place it less than that, you’ll get a rebuke from the dealer and a request to cut again.
13.    Sitting down and making a bet in the middle of a shoe. In some casinos, this is forbidden and there will be a “No Mid-Shoe Entry” sign posted on the table. If you are not sure, ask the dealer.
14.    Not using the basic playing strategy. The basic playing strategy is the mathematically correct way to play every hand dealt to you. This playing strategy is readily available in books, on the Internet, and on strategy cards, which you can take with you when you play (they are legal to use in a casino). Even if you are a regular player, there really is no reason to guess how to play a hand when you can have the answers at your fingertips by using a strategy card.
15.    Playing a 6 to 5 game. Some blackjack tables will pay only 6 to 5 when you get an untied blackjack, rather than the traditional 3 to 2 payoff. Getting paid 6 to 5 is bad. How bad? The house edge in a single-deck, 6 to 5 game is increased as much as seven-fold! Usually there will be a sign on the table stating that blackjacks pay 6 to 5. Some casinos have it imprinted on the layout. If you are not sure, ask the dealer. By avoiding these awful 6 to 5 games, you’ll take a big step to improving your bottom line.
16.    Playing on a table that uses a Continuous Shuffling Machine (CSM). Don’t confuse a CSM with a traditional automatic shuffling machine. A CSM is a device that randomly shuffles the discards after every round has been played. The net result is the game plays faster (no downtime for reshuffling) and you will play about 20% more hands per hour. Since the house has the edge on every hand, playing more hands dealt per hour will increase your theoretical loss by 20%. For average players, playing on a table that uses a CSM is bad news and should be avoided.
17.    Never getting rated when you play. The casinos give away a lot of comps to players in the hopes that they become loyal players. You won’t get your fair share of these comps unless you ask to be rated when you play blackjack. If you don’t know how to go about this, get the details at the Player’s Club or ask a casino host (VIP or Marketing Department).
18.    Asking arrogantly for a comp. While playing recently, I overheard a fellow player, after less than 30 minutes of play, say to the floor supervisor, “Can you gimme a comp for four to the buffet.” This isn’t the way to ask for a comp. First off, comps are not a God-given right to players. You must earn a comp by meeting a casino’s play requirements (average bet and time of play). Check with a casino host or the Marketing Department to obtain this information, and then only after you’ve met their play requirements, ask the floor supervisor, “Have I played enough for a dinner comp?” You’ll be surprised how often you’ll receive a no-hassle comp when you politely ask for one.
19.    Using a progressive betting system. I know, I know, many players use them and swear they work. But trust me, they don’t. Never have, and never will, because your chance of winning the next hand is completely independent of whether or not you won (or lost) the previous hand. The secret to winning at blackjack (actually the secret has been known for 45 or so years) is to bet more money only when the unplayed cards are rich in tens and aces. So if you want to increase your bet, you’d be wise to watch the cards as they are played and bet more only after you’ve seen a fair number of small vs. high cards played in previous rounds. Better yet, learn a simple card counting system, like Speed Count, which will tell you when it’s the right time to increase your bet.
20.    Never using a casino host. This is a big mistake if you are a regular player. Casino hosts can do a lot for you and you don’t necessarily have to be a high roller to use one. Read Jean Scott’s book, More Frugal Gambling, for the low-down.
21.    Never tipping the dealer. You tip a waiter or waitress for good service, don’t you? You should consider doing the same for a blackjack dealer. It’s not mandatory to tip a dealer; however, if the dealer has been pleasant and helpful, it’s customary to tip to show your appreciation for a job well done. Of course, tipping won’t miraculously change the cards in your favor, but think of this – it might put you in a favorable light with the floor supervisor, who is the person that has some leeway in approving your comp and the amount (get the picture?).
If you avoid making these 21 mistakes, you’ll find that you will enjoy the game better, play better, get more comps, and wind up with fewer losses and more wins. Now, aren’t those the reasons that you play blackjack?
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Henry Tamburin has been one of America’s most popular casino gaming writers for over a quarter of a century with over 600 published articles to his credit. He is a skilled blackjack player, author of the best-selling book, Blackjack: Take The Money & Run, and featured in the instructional video Blackjack-Deal Me In.

Did you leave a winning machine?

A number of years ago, I was playing video poker at the Stardust in Las Vegas. A gentleman next to me was having a tough time, going through three $20 bills on a quarter game in nothing flat.

He decided to see if he could change his luck, so he moved down one machine to try again. A woman took his place. On her first hand, she drew a royal flush — about a 1 in 40,000 shot, but if you play enough, you see a lot of strange things happen.

Her excitement was balanced by her predecessor’s disappointment. He groaned and said, “I should have stayed where I was.”

Would he have drawn the royal had he stayed put? Probably not. His timing would have been just a little different than hers was, and that most likely have yielded different results.

Over the years, countless readers have asked about another player hitting “their” jackpot. Would the result have been the same if they’d just stayed put?

The latest to touch on the issue is Larry, a Colorado reader, who e-mailed that in a recent column, “you seemed to indicate that I could be sitting at a machine and leave when another player sits down and hits a good return. It seemed you were saying that that machine did not pay off, that it was based on play at all machines. I think you indicated that if I stayed, I would not have necessarily hit. Is this right, or did I misunderstand?”

Larry didn’t quite have it right. Other machines have no effect on the reel combinations you see on a slot machine or the cards you’re dealt on a video poker game. On the Class III electronic games we see in commercial casinos, each machine has its own random number generator, and it’s the RNG that determines what you see on the reels. Play on other machines does not affect the outcome on yours.

The random number generator runs continuously, even when the machine is not in use. It runs through dozens of random numbers per second, each corresponding to a reel combination.

Every split second difference in your timing in starting the reels spinning takes the RNG to a different point, giving you a different result. The combination you see on the reels will be different if you hit the button … now … as opposed to … now. If you stop to tip the cocktail waitress, or glance at your neighbor’s machine, or count to “1″ before hitting the button, you’ll get a different result.

It’s the same thing when another player takes a machine you just left. In the minutes or seconds between your stopping play and another player beginning, the random number generator keeps running. The numbers that correspond to the combinations you would have hit on the next few plays pass without ever seeing the light of screen. The new player has different timing, and different results.

Those results won’t necessarily be better than yours, nor worse. Just different.

The odds are as long against the new player hitting the top jackpot as they were against you before you left. You’re probably not going to see a successor win the big bucks. But if the outside chance of that happening bothers you, there’s one sure way to avoid the sight: Leave that section of the casino when you change games. Don’t even look. What happens after you’re gone has no relationship to what happened while you were there.

** ** ** **

After I e-mailed Larry an answer to his question, he responded by writing, “This really says what gambling is. … Luck!”

With respect to slot machines, that’s certainly true. There’s nothing you can do to change the outcome on a slot game. The same goes for many table games, notably roulette. Past results on the wheel have no bearing on future outcomes, and whether you win or lose all comes down to chance.

Some casino games incorporate elements of skill. On electronic games, video poker is a game where strategy makes a difference. Elements of chance are very strong, and you can’t control which cards are dealt. But in the long run, a player who knows when to hold ‘em will do better than a player who doesn’t.

On the tables, blackjack has several levels of skill. A player who knows basic strategy for hitting, standing, doubling down and splitting pairs will win more often than a player who doesn’t. And a player who can count cards, raising and lowering wagers in accordance with the count, can actually get a mathematical edge over the house.

Skill makes a lesser difference in card games such as Caribbean Stud, Three Card Poker and Let It Ride. You’ll do better if you learn basic strategies for those games, but skill doesn’t make as large a difference as it does in blackjack.

Every casino game involves chance. Luck, if you will. But at certain games, a little skill and knowledge can help keep your bankroll intact.

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John Grochowski is the best-selling author of The Craps Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book and The Video Poker Answer Book.