Recent Trends in Blackjack

05.07.2007

The main trends in Blackjack played in casinos is to limit the benefit of Basic Strategy and card counting by introducing counter measures.

These days more and more players are employing basic strategy to try and give themselves an edge when playing Blackjack either at an online casino or in one of the many brick and mortar casinos. Some players are even teaching themselves some card coutning techniques to try and give themselves a further edge over the casinos. The casinos have however decided to retaliate to this alarming threat to their profit margins by employing various devious methods. The casinos are constantly coming out with new ways to frustrate and confound card counters and generally make it as hard as possible for them to count which cards are being dealt. They are in fact so good at this that I would say that if you are contemplating learning the art of card counting don't bother!

The other trick casinos are employing in both online and standard casinos is to introduce more and more blackjack variations. Whilst the majority of players think great, a new twist to Blackjack the reality is that each new version makes Basic Strategy a little bit less effective than before. This means that Basic Strategy needs to be modified slightly for each new Blackjack variant but many players don't realise this and are completely confused when they start loosing their money!


6:5 Blackjack gaining popularity in Las Vegas

Single deck 6:5 Blackjack is a new variation on standard Blackjack. Instead of getting paid 3:2 for a natural Blackjack (Ace + King, Queen, Jack or 10) you only get paid out at 6:5. This means that instead of winning $15 from a $10 bet you only win $12. Sounds like a bad game but the advantage is that it is only one deck which makes it easier to keep track of what has been dealt but for those of you who employ Basic Strategy I would urge you to stay well clear of 6:5 Blackjack. The reason is that apart form the smaller payout the overall odds are far more in the casinos favour. In standard 3:2 Blackjack the house edge is only 0.4-0.5% if you play Basic strategy but this edge rises to 2% in 6:5 Blackjack using the same strategy. In other words you have the same chance of winning as a complete newbie on a standard table!


Move over World Series of Poker there's a new boy in town.

The World Series of Blackjack is growing in popularity every year and it is now in its third year. These events are regularly screened on TV in America but isn't yet as popular over here but I expect this to change. If you've never played in an online Blackjack tournament then I recommend you check it out as lots of online casinos are starting to host this now and its great fun. It has all the excitement of a poker tournament but is slightly more relaxed as the skill levels aren't quite as demanding.


Patience is a virtue if you want to play some Blackjack!

More and more casinos are these days making you wait until you can sit down and play at a Blackjack table. The reason for this is to counter cheating and fraud which can happen if a player sits down "mid-shoe", half way through the deck. Very often the casino will make you wait until the cards are shuffled before you can play, this is actually no bad thing for you the player as it gives you time to figure out whether the dealer is being generous or mean!


The never-ending deck of cards

Another fiendish invention, but kind of cool is the never ending card deck. This is being installed at some of the bigger casinos in Las Vegas and is a machine which continually shuffles all the cards in the deck even the recently discarded ones. This in effect renders card counting obsolete as any card can come back in, even the ones from the last hand! Even if a Blackjack table doesn't have any of these machines yet you will frequently find multi-shoe tables, i.e instead of just having the one shoe (deck) they will take cards form multiple shoes. This also makes card counting much much harder.