If you want to be the best blackjack player you can be, you need to learn how to use strategy and all of the things listed on this page. But even if you don’t want to take the time to learn how to use blackjack strategy yet, you can start improving your results at the blackjack table by using the 7 tips listed below.
These 7 blackjack tips are going to help you lose less money when you play blackjack, which is often the same result as you get by winning more money. All but 1 of these tips is easy to learn, and even the more difficult trick can be learned by most blackjack players in a short amount of time.
1 – Don’t Fall for the 6 to 5 Trap
You need to be familiar with many different types of blackjack rules, but a single rule is far more important than all of the other rules. The most important rule is how much the casino pays for every natural blackjack that you receive.
This rule alone can cost you thousands of dollars every year playing blackjack.
Good blackjack tables always pay 3 to2 for blackjacks, and every table that pays 6 to 5 is a bad table. All you have to do to understand how much this single rule can cost you.
For Example:
Assume you play blackjack 250 hours a year and over the course of a year you receive 400 natural blackjacks. You bet, on average, $20 on every hand. This is a fairly low average wager amount for live blackjack players, so if you risk more these numbers are going to be even worse.
On the 400 blackjack hands, if the casino pays 6 to 5 you win $9,600. This is pretty good, but when you compare it to how much you’d get if the table paid 3 to 2 it’s going to make you sick.
If the table paid 3 to 2, you’re going to win $12,000 on the same 400 blackjack hands. I don’t know about you, but that extra $2,400 looks a lot better in my pocket than in the bank account of the casino.
You can quickly run the same number based on how much you play and how much you risk on each hand on average.
This single change in the way you play blackjack is going to instantly improve your results if you ever play on a 6 to 5 table.
2 – Read the Dealer
This is the hardest thing to do on this page, but in the right situation it can be quite valuable. This isn’t available in every casino, but when it’s available it’s something that you need to try to take advantage of.
In some casinos that offer blackjack, the dealer looks at his or her hidden card when they have an ace showing. You’re going to learn more about insurance in the next section, but when the dealer has an ace showing you get offered insurance.
When the dealer checks his or her hidden card, often they give a tell about if they have a 10 point card or not. If you can learn how to pick up on this tell it can help you save money.
If you learn that a dealer has a tell when he or she has a natural blackjack, you can accept the insurance offer and save some money. And if you can tell that the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack, you know you can decline the insurance offer.
3 – Pass on Insurance
Most of the time when the dealer has an ace you don’t have any way of knowing if they have a blackjack. Either you can’t read the dealer, or more likely the dealer doesn’t even check their hidden card until after offering insurance.
In both of these situations you need to decline the insurance offer. The casino makes the insurance offer sound like a good wager because they reason that you break even on the hand every time the dealer has a blackjack.
But the Truth Is That Insurance Isn’t a Good Risk
It simply makes you risk more on the hand and it makes the edge the casino has go up. Both of these are bad things, and in the long run you’re going to lose more by accepting insurance.
This means that you can reduce your losses in the long run by simply declining the insurance offer unless you’re sure that the dealer has a blackjack. And most of the time you don’t know for sure, so the safe play is to always decline insurance.
4 – Become a Rules Master
All of the available blackjack rules influence the edge the casino has at the table. This means that each rule either makes it better for you or the casino.
In order to have the best chance to win, you need to know which rules help you and which rules help the casino.
This isn’t too complicated, but if you don’t learn about the rules before you play, the odds are good that you’re going to play in some games with poor rules.
Start doing some research today, and become a blackjack rules master. This is an easy way to improve your blackjack results without changing the way you play.
5 – Low Limit Slow Play Blackjack
You can play blackjack in a live setting, or you can play in your mobile phone or tablet or on a computer. The basic blackjack game splays the same in every situation, but mobile and online play have a few benefits that you can’t get when you play in a live casino.
The 2 biggest advantages of real money online blackjack are the ability to control how fast you play and the low wager amounts.
You can play with a much lower minimum bet amount at online blackjack tables than when you play in live casinos. This can save you thousands of dollars every year.
You also can play fewer hands every hour when you play online if you take your time playing. Of course, if you’re not careful you’re going to play more hands online than when you play live, so you have to pay attention to what you’re doing.
6 – What Can You Get?
If you can get anything from a casino to offset your losses at the blackjack table it’s going to improve your long term results. This means if the casino will give you a free buffet ticket for playing blackjack, you don’t have to spend money on your next meal.
Or if you can get a bonus to play online or mobile blackjack, you don’t need as much of your money to play. Or if you can use a coupon for a free hand or free ace, it improves your chance to win.
You need to learn how to get everything from the casino that you can when you play blackjack. Every dollar helps.
7 – Pay Attention to Aces and 5’s
This section is treading dangerously close to strategy, but this can give you enough an edge that in some cases it’s going to completely eliminate the casino edge at the blackjack table. This makes it so important that I felt it had to be included.
Aces are the best card you can have in your hand. And 5’s are the worst card. A hand with an ace is a profitable hand on average, and a hand with a 5 is a losing hand on average.
When you’re playing blackjack pay attention to how many aces and 5’s show up. When more 5’s show up than aces, it means that there are more aces than 5’s remaining to be dealt. This improves you chances to win.
When more aces show up than 5’s, it means that there are more 5’s remaining to be dealt and it decreases your chance to win.
If you learn how to do this well enough, you can risk more when the remaining cards have more aces, and this can give you a small edge. This isn’t going to help you start winning thousands at the blackjack table, but you’re not winning thousands now.
Conclusion
None of the 7 ways to play better blackjack listed in this article require strategy. But each trick will help you play better. It’s really simple to improve your results by skipping the tables that only pay 6 to 5 and turning down insurance.
It takes a little practice to read the dealer, but it’s worth it if it saves you a few wagers every time you play. Learn all of the rules so you know a good game when you see it, and take advantage of everything the casinos are willing to give you.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …
