Bad Blackjack Strategies

Developing a winning blackjack strategy takes time and energy. The best thing you can do is to keep practice using basic blackjack strategy with our free game as a proving ground and you'll have a good enough footing to start winning at blackjack. Below we've outlined some of what you should NOT do if you're really serious about your game play and about winning.

Strategies NOT to use if you want to win at blackjack

Playing as the dealer does

Lots of players think that they will get the same advantage as the house if they play as the dealer does. They forget that the dealer is forced by casino rules to stand on 17, and is not allowed to double or split. And the player's 21 will never beat the dealer's natural Blackjack.

Assuming a 10 value hole-card

This is a tempting mistake to make, since there are several 10 valued cards in the deck (10's, Jacks, Queens and Kings). In fact the statistical chance of the Hole card being a 10 valued one is below 50%. So you would be wrong in assuming the dealer's Hole card to be a 10 or a ten valued one.

"The No Bust Strategy"

Even this strategy may seem attractive you should know it actually is defective and we will explain you why. The idea of the strategy is that you will refuse to take a card whether or not you have a chance of busting. Usually though it means never hitting with a hard 12 or greater. It's not a good strategy simply because you give away too much if you never try to improve your hand when you have a chance of busting. Go the "no bust strategy" route means that your only hope is for the dealer to bust - basically wishing on a star and not making meaningful decisions that the mathematical odds say will quite likely help you to win.

Playing by intuition or guesswork

As we already said, blackjack is a game of skill, not pure luck. So, if you wish to win at blackjack the worst thing you can do is to follow your intuition or play on hunches. This way of playing may have a proper use when you play at lottery but in no case when you play blackjack. Choosing this way of playing you will make for sure the casino owners smile because ultimately you'll be fattening their pockets.

If you want to win at blackjack, make sure that you stay as far as possible away from the strategies detailed above, practice your own game-play using our free blackjack game and ensure that you at least use a basic blackjack strategy. That's about all it really should take to at least start you off on the winning track.