Blackjack is one of the few casino games where skill and knowledge can help you beat the house. The game requires the player to be able to analyze, think quickly and remain calm. Unlike roulette or craps where the odds are fixed, blackjack’s odds are constantly changing with the number of cards remaining in play. This can be taken advantage of by counting cards, an approach known as card counting.
The goal of blackjack is to get a higher total card value than the dealer without going over 21. Counting cards is done by tracking the concentration of 10s and aces in the deck, with players increasing their bets when these concentrations are favorable and decreasing them when they are not. This can be done with a simple system such as plus-and-minus, or with more complex card-counting systems suggested in many blackjack books.
Each hand is played against the dealer, and ties are considered a push (your bet stays on the table). The dealer must have at least an ace to qualify for insurance, which can be taken for half your original wager and pays 2-1 if the dealer has blackjack. Players may also choose to take even money, which results in a 1:1 payout on their blackjack hand. This is not recommended for players who intend to count cards.
Novice blackjack players will often play their hands too conservatively, missing opportunities to win big hands. For example, they will hesitate to hit a 16 against the dealer’s 7, or split pairs of 2s against a 10. In contrast, expert players will double and split more frequently when the odds are in their favor. While they will bust more often, they will also make more big wins.
A recent study compared the performance of experienced and novice blackjack players using a computer-generated version of the game with and without hints. During the experiment, players placed bets of between $1 and $100 on their blackjack hand, and made decisions according to their own strategy. The hints were available for the players to view at any time during their turn, but they were not required to use them. The results of the study showed that experienced players who used the hints lost less than 1% of their bankroll on average, which is significantly lower than the 5% that the novices were losing.
The underlying hypothesis for the experiment was that if the hints were used properly, they would result in a more accurate understanding of blackjack’s rules and strategy. This in turn would lead to better decision making and, ultimately, a better chance of winning. The research team found that the hints did improve the players’ performance, but only to a small degree. The more the player relied on hints, the less he or she searched for information or considered alternatives. The hints also led to more confidence in the player’s abilities and resulted in more risk taking behavior. These factors combined to reduce the players’ expected profits from the game.
