As anyone who’s played Blackjack knows, it’s always intriguing, enjoyable and potentially very rewarding. Unlike Keno, slots or many other casino games, the results are not only determined by chance.
You can apply probability theory to decide what move to make, based on your knowledge of your hand, the dealer’s hole card and the size of the shoe that’s being used. At the same time, of course, you have no influence over the cards that you are dealt.
This can make it feel like fate plays a big part in the outcome of a round, which can lead to some faulty logic when you’re sitting at a table and immersed in the action. Blackjack has a reputation for being a game governed by reason, but it doesn’t mean players are immune to superstition. Make sure you don’t fall for the common misconceptions listed below.
Lucky Dealers, Tables and Players
Even the most seasoned of gamblers can fall into the trap of thinking that fortune, for whatever reason, is not favouring them. There is no such thing as a hot or cold dealer, table or deck, but a lot of people fall prey to this idea. If individuals at a certain table have been winning a lot, it doesn’t make the next hand any more or less likely to be lucky for you.
The rules of chance and randomness mean that every hand is as unpredictable as Forrest Gump’s mother always said a box of chocolates was. In both scenarios, you never know what you’re going to get. Whether you win or lose comes down to you and your level of skill; there’s no reason to get up and find another game because you think a table, deck or even other players are unlucky.
Card Counting is Illegal
Casinos don’t like it when players count cards, because if they do it well they stand a good chance of winning. However, as much as operators might try to encourage the idea that the practice is illegal, it most certainly is not. Land-based establishments can make your life very uncomfortable if they catch you counting, however, so take the time to master this difficult art online in both random number generation and live dealer games.
Insurance Bets are a Good Idea
The following example illustrates why the insurance bet is a bad idea:
If you bet $10 on a round and the dealer gets an Ace, you can take the insurance bet for $5. Now you have odds of 9:4 that the dealer will get to play online blackjack. That means that of 130 rounds where the dealer’s hole card is an Ace, they’ll have a Blackjack hand 40 times.
The other 90 times, they won’t have Blackjack. Your insurance will pay you out for those 40 times, so if you bet $10 every time you’ll get $400 back. For the other 90 rounds, you’ll lose your $5 insurance. That’s a total loss of R450. This is the one time in life that it doesn’t pay to be insured!