Card Games Tips
Blackjack: Drawing Strategy
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The banker's plays are compulsory, but your strategy isn't. In fact, the values of the banker's first and subsequent cards lead to some fairly complex analysis.
Seeing one of the banker's cards makes a huge difference. Think about it this way: if the banker has a high card showing - say, a 9, 10, jack, queen, king, or ace - his chance of having a good hand from his first two cards alone is pretty high, because any 8,9,10, court card, or ace as his face-down card (he has more than a 50-percent chance of having one of those cards as his second card) gives him at least 17. Conversely, if the banker turns over a 4, 5, or 6, he can't have a good hand off his first two cards unless he has another low card and gets a lucky drawing card.
The sight of the initial card may affect your decisions on marginal hands - hands ranging from 12 to 16 - when you aren't sure whether to stay or draw a card. If the banker has a 2 or 3, you're In fair shape as well because he's unlikely to have a great hand and may well have a poor one.
How To Evaluate A Blackjack Game (Part II)
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2. Where is the cut-card? Is it a half-deck from the end? Three-quarters of a deck? One deck or more? (Any more than one deck is generally not playable in a four deck game unless the rules are exceptionally good, that is, not worse than about - .5% off-the-top.) Does the dealer complete the round when the cutcard comes out, or does he stop right at the cutcard and re-shuffle before completing the round? You obviously prefer the former practice.
Be sure to watch more than one dealer in a given casino; cut-card placement can sometimes vary quite widely from dealer to dealer. If possible, check different shifts, too; shift managers can have different philosophies about the cutcard.
How To Evaluate A Blackjack Game (Part I)
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Generally speaking, foreign blackjack games have rules which are statistically less favorable to the player than the games in the United States. This often can be offset, however, by the use of a bigger bet spread, usually far greater than a player could get away with in this country. In evaluating a blackjack game, there are five primary factors to consider:
1. What are the rules? The player should evaluate the factors on the following check-list:
