Blackjack Tips that Improve Your Game

If you mimic the dealer, that is hitting all 16's, standing on 17's and never splitting or doubling, your expected loss will be 10 times worse than if you were more brave.

If you have a Pat 20, your best bet is to have the dealer showing an 8 because if she has an Ace, 10, or 9 in the hole, you automatically win.

When you get an Ace on your first card, your advantage over the house is an incredible 52%.

You should never get insurance. It is a bad bet.

Card counting and cluster counting contains it's own type of betting system. Increase your bet size two to three times your original bet when conditions favor the probability of receiving a winning hand.

Never split two '10' value cards
A hand with two 10 value cards is an excellent hand because of it's total (20). With such a hand there is only one hand that the dealer can beat you with and that is "21". So it's hard for the dealer to beat your "20".

Never split two five's
With a pair of 5's you have a total of 10. If you split the two 5's, and get two 10's, you made two bad hands out of a good hand. Instead if you would doubled and asked only for one card and received a ten, you would have had a total of 20, which is a good hand.

Always split two 8's or two Aces
In both situations you have a bigger chance to draw a card worth 10, so you have either a hand totaling 21(for the pair of aces) or 18 (for the pair of 8) and for the dealer is hard to beat these hands.

Always double down when you have...
- A count of 11, do not hesitate if the dealer has a 10 or Ace showing.
- A count of 10 and the dealer's card is anything but a 10.
- A count of 9 and the dealer's card is between 2 to 8.
- Soft 13, 14, 15, 16, (Ace and 2, 3, 4, 5) and the dealer has a 6 showing.

For hard hands, if the player's cards amount to 12 or higher...
- Hit if the player hand totals 12 through 16 and the dealer has a seven or higher.
- Stand on any hand totaling 17 or higher.
- Stand if the player cards total 12 through 16 and the dealer has two through six.

For soft hands...
- Always draw to soft 17 or less.
- Only draw on soft 18 if the dealer has an eight, nine or ten. Doubling down is the main method by which a player can eliminate the house edge so it is very important to remember when to utilize this option.

For hard hands...
- Double down when the player's cards total 11 and the dealer has a ten or less.
- Double down when the player's cards total 10 and the dealer has a nine or less.
- Double down when the player's cards total nine and the dealer has a four, five or six.

For soft hands...
- Double down with a soft 13 and soft 14 when the dealer has a five or six.
- Double down with a soft 15 and soft 16 when the dealer has a four, five or six.
- Double down with a soft 17 and soft 18 when the dealer has three through six.

Splitting Pairs depending on the dealers face up cards
- Split twos and threes only when the dealer has four through seven.
- Split sixes when the dealer has three through six.
- Split sevens when the dealer has three through seven.
- Split nines when the dealer has two through six, eight or nine.

Surrender (for a multi deck game) when
- the player has a hard 15 and the dealer is showing a 10
- the player has a hard 16 and the dealer is showing a 9, 10 or Ace.