101 Ways to Win Blackjack: Includes Tips to Win at the Casino and Online

101 WAYS

to Win at

Blackjack

TOM HAGEN, former Table Games Manager at Gold Dust Gaming, and SONIA WEISS

Copyright © 2009 Simon and Schuster

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Contains material adapted and abridged from The Everything® Blackjack Strategy Book, by Tom Hagen and Sonia Weiss, copyright © 2005 Simon and Schuster, ISBN 10: 1-59337-306-6, ISBN 13: 978-1-59337-306-1.

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Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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ISBN 10: 1-4405-0005-3

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-0005-3

eISBN: 978-1-4405-1327-5

Printed in the United States of America.

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CONTENTS

Introduction: Get in the Game

Part I: BLACKJACK BASICS

Chapter 1: The History of Blackjack

1. Learn the History

2. Get Scientific

3. Recognize the Mathematics

4. Practice Critical Thinking

5. Consider the House Advantage

Chapter 2: How to Play

6. Learn the Ropes

7. Take a Seat

8. Play the Game

9. Know Your Options

Chapter 3: Probability and Odds

10. Become a Probability Expert

11. Do the Math

12. Keep in Mind the House Advantage

13. Try a Different Perspective

Chapter 4: All about Strategy

14. Even the Score

15. Learn Simple Basic Strategy

16. Learn More Complex Basic Strategy

17. Recognize the Disadvantages of Basic Strategy

Part II: THE NEXT LEVEL

Chapter 5: Surrendering

18. Learn When to Surrender

19. Distinguish Early Surrender from Late Surrender

20. Know When to Surrender

Chapter 6: Doubling Down

21. Learn When to Double Down

22. Take a Closer Look at Double Down

23. Learn the Rules of Double Down

24. Make the Decision to Double Down

25. Multiple-Deck Versus Single-Deck Doubling

Chapter 7: Splitting

26. Have Fun with Splitting

27. Break Up a Bad Hand

28. Know the House Rules

29. Learn Basic Strategy for Splitting

30. Look at Splitting Another Way

Chapter 8: Insurance

31. Understand Insurance

32. Check Out Some Scenarios

33. Forgo Insurance When You Have Blackjack

34. ForgoInsurance When You Don’t Have Blackjack

35. What Is Even Money?

Part III: COUNTING CARDS

Chapter 9: How Card Counting Works

36. Uncover the Mysteries of Card Counting

37. Skip the Ten Count

38. Recognize the Ups and Downs of Card Counting

39. Choose a System for Card Counting

40. Try the Point Count System

41. Practice the System amid Chaos

Chapter 10: Advanced Card-Counting Strategies

42. Learn Counting Strategies

43. Learn Counting Levels

44. Explore the Systems

45. Rank the Counting Systems

Part IV: THE GAMBLING COMPONENT

Chapter 11: Managing Your Money

46. Determine What Kind of Player You Are

47. Set a Gambling Budget

48. Establish Some Limits

49. Know When to Quit

50. Don’t Forget about Taxes

51. Keep a Record

52. Set Up a Record-keeping System

Chapter 12: Betting on Blackjack

53. Get to Know Betting’s Complexities

54. Recognize Basic Betting Strategies

55. Understand Negative Progression Betting Systems

56. Consider Positive Progression Betting Systems

57. Learn the Tom Hagen Betting System

Chapter 13: Being a Good Gambler

58. Practice Your Table Manners

59. Don’t Let Food and Drinks Cloud Your Focus

60. Handle Your Cash Correctly

61. Be a Good Tipper

62. Avoid Addiction

Part V: THE BIG TIME

Chapter 14: Honing Your Skills

63. Practice, Practice, Practice

64. Assess Your Skills

65. Build Your Own Quiz

66. Deal Yourself In

67. Get Online

Chapter 15: Welcome to the Casino

68. Learn the Lay of the Land

69. Discover the Different Types of Casinos

70. Enjoy Gaming Las Vegas Style

71. Enjoy Gaming Atlantic City Style

72. Get Out on the Water

73. Enjoy Native American Gaming Establishments

Chapter 16: Playing Blackjack in a Casino

74. Enter the Blackjack Pit

75. Step Outside the Blackjack Pit

76. Recognize Different Rules and Different Expectations

77. Use This Quick Guide to Blackjack Rules

78. Choose a Table

79. Buy Some Chips

80. Start to Play!

Part VI: TEAM PLAY AND TOURNAMENTS

Chapter 17: Teaming Up

81. Learn the Story Behind Team Play

82. Consider the Advantages of Team Play

83. Recognize the Disadvantages of Team Play

84. See if You Have What It Takes

85. Do the Team Thing

Chapter 18: Tournament Play

86. Consider Tournament Play

87. Learn Tournament Basics

88. Pick the Right Tournament for You

89. Consider Your Options for Tournament Play

90. Master Strategies for Tournament Blackjack

Part VII: BLACKJACK ON THE INTERNET

Chapter 19: Advantages to Playing Online

91. Log on to Win Big

92. Take a Look at the Legal Side

93. Enjoy the Pluses of Online Blackjack

94. Find a Site

95. Get Familiar with Site Components

96. Establish Your Account

97. Learn How to Cash In

Chapter 20: Things to Be Aware Of

98. Acknowledge the Drawbacks of Online Blackjack

99. Be Smart about Playing Online

100. Ensure Your Safety Online

101. Know What to Do if Something Goes Wrong

INTRODUCTION

GET IN THE GAME

Welcome to the world of blackjack! There’s probably a reason—or several—why you’ve chosen to get in on this great game. Blackjack is one of the most popular card games around, mainly because it’s so accessible. All you have to do is hold a hand of cards that comes as close to or equal to 21 as possible without going over and without the dealer holding a better hand than you do. Easy, right? However, this is not a game you’re simply going to master and get bored with in no time. There are numerous variations and methods of play to explore, as well as a multitude of places to play—from the biggest casinos in Vegas to the comfort of your home computer room.

This book will take you through the whole story of blackjack. In Part I you’ll learn the basics, from the history of the game and basic game play to indispensable information about probability, odds, and strategy. After the first few chapters, you’ll already be able to play the game! Keep reading, though, because there is a lot more to learn. Part II gets into such details as surrender, doubling down, splitting, and insurance, and Part III covers the fascinating topic of counting cards. In Parts IV and V, you’ll move to the casino and learn all about smart gambling and ways to win big instead of losing large. Part VI will guide you as you investigate the options of team and tournament play, and Part VII will take you to the Internet—a whole other world of blackjack possibilities.

Whether you’re a novice card player or someone who’s already fallen in love with other card games, this book is for you. Blackjack makes a great hobby, if you want to keep it light, or a great passion, if you really want to dive in. So what are you waiting for? You might be the next big winner!

PART I

BLACKJACK BASICS

CHAPTER 1

THE HISTORY OF BLACKJACK

Every year, millions of players sit down at blackjack tables in casinos and on riverboats, as well as at virtual tables in cyberspace. They all have one purpose in mind: to see how close they can come to the magic number—21—without going over it or being beaten by a better hand held by the dealer. To really understand what blackjack is all about, it’s helpful to know something about the game’s history and how it was developed.

1. Learn the History

The first record of blackjack comes from early eighteenth-century France, where it was a popular casino game. Called vingt-et-un, which is French for twenty and one, it paid out a special award to any player who got a jack of spades and an ace of spades as the first two cards. This hand came to be known as a blackjack—black, of course, being the color of the spades suit. Over time, blackjack became an alternative name for vingt-et-un.

It took another hundred years for blackjack to come to the United States. When it did, in the early 1800s, it was welcomed in the wild frontier lands of the West, where legal gambling was an important revenue source. Some areas even licensed gambling parlors to raise money for civic and infrastructure construction and improvements— a practice that still goes on today in some parts of the country.

As the western states joined the union, however, they were eager to shed their frontier-spirit personas and adopt more respectable images to reflect their new status. Since gambling was often blamed for promoting vice, dishonesty, and other social ills, cities and states began enacting laws against gamblers and gambling. By 1910, there wasn’t a legal game of blackjack to be found in the United States. When blackjack was played, it most often occurred as a private game at home.

BLACKJACK FACT Making gambling illegal merely drove card games and other forms of betting behind closed doors. Numerous gaming houses operated outside of the law in many parts of the United States. Some catered to specific clientele. In California, for example, certain gaming establishments were open to Chinese gamblers only.

In 1931, the state of Nevada decided to make gambling legal again. While blackjack wasn’t a hugely popular game for men, who tended to prefer games like craps and poker, the casinos did put a few blackjack tables in for the wives and girlfriends of their male customers.

In blackjack’s early days, some games had limits as low as a quarter. Even at a payout of 3 to 2 when a player hit blackjack, it wasn’t enough to keep big players interested. So the casinos increased their betting limits as well as their payouts. Today, if you want to play for big money, you won’t have a problem finding a casino to accommodate you.

2. Get Scientific

In the early 1960s, blackjack got a big boost in popularity when players began hearing about a new way to play blackjack. Noted gambler, gaming expert, and games book author John Scarne takes the credit for what came to be known as the scientific approach (as well as for a great deal of blackjack’s popularity). According to Scarne, the first scientific analysis of blackjack appeared in the first edition of his book