In order to maximise your odds of winning a Blackjack you need to give yourself an edge. Some people thank that you should modify the way in which you play your cards depending on you are doing, on your instinctive feelings, or on how hot you might think the shoe is. Please forget this. You should never modify they way you play Blackjack and in fact you should always play according to the best strategy possible. The best strategy possible has been worked out statistically be many players. Luckily you don’t need to work it out yourself as it has been published many times. It appears in several books on blackjack and can be readily downloaded from the web. You just need to learn it. It is quite complicated but it can all be reduced to a single page. If you can learn a single page of print then you can learn the perfect Blackjack playing strategy. The best advice is to never divert from this strategy.

So if every card you play is played in the optimum manner what else can you do to improve your bankroll? The secret is to modify your bet. When your chances of winning are high and you have an edge you should bet higher. When your chances of winning are lower you should reduce your bet. All you need to do is to determine when your chances of winning are high.

This can be achieved using the simplest of all card counting techniques, the speed count. In this you assign a value of +1 to cards with numbers 2 to 6 and -1 to ten, jack, queen, king and ace. Cards numbers 6, 8 and 9 are ignored. After the deck is shuffled for every -1 card subtract 1 from the running count and for cards valued at +1 add 1 to the running count. Divide the running count by the number of decks remaining to get the true count.

If the true count has a value of +2 or more then increase your bet. If it is negative place the minimum bet. That is all there is to it. You might need a little practice to increase your speed but if you can add and subtract one, then that is all you need.

By Chris Holdsworth
With blackjack it is a perhaps more of a matter of intelligence then other casino games such as poker, etc. Therefore if you feel that you are not up to the blackjack strategy then fortunately there is a gaming supermarket believe it or not to try something abit easier perhaps.