West opened the bidding with a two, and North aggressively bid three. East contemplated a Nil, but the spade King and nine were deterrents, and the club suit was very suspect. As the cards lie, Nil can be made only by very poor defense. South stretched for a five bid, as the opportunity to close out the game with eighty points was just too difficult to resist.
West led the club deuce, followed by the Jack, King and South’s Ace. Now South led his singleton diamond, and West played the King, while North covered with the Ace. (East followed with his spot card.) North continued with the diamond three, as East very cleverly discarded a low HEART, and South ruffed with the trump three, as West disgustingly pitched the Jack. The three of clubs was placed on the table which North trumped with the deuce (West tossed a low diamond). Another low diamond followed, and East once again disdained trumping, as he unloaded another heart! South gurgled gleefully as he ruffed with his seven, and West followed with his seven. “Far out” proclaimed South, and he played another low club, as West discarded his lowest heart, and North trumped with the four. The diamond eight drew a small heart discard by East and a ruff with South’s eight, while West followed. A low club lead by South allowed West to unload another low heart and North now ruffed with he ten, as East played the ten.
Now the moment of truth had arrived. North/South had already scored seven tricks, and the lead of North’s last diamond threatened to let the spade Queen win “en passant’ (an extremely beautiful play!) Instead, East rose with the King of spades, and a dumfounded South discarded the heart Jack, as West released his last diamond. The spade six was now played, and the Queen was gobbled up by the Ace as North’s Jack also fell! Whoops! The spade five was trotted out, and it went to East’s nine — the Master trump. All of the remaining clubs were good, and down went the eight bid. This was a really wild defense, but there is a lot of analysis here.
Do you see where North/South went astray?
The hand clearly called for a cross-ruff, BUT one detail needed attention. This theme often is seen in the game of Bridge, but rarely in Spades. Basically, if you hold a side suit of three cards or less with two winners (e.g. the Ace-King), it is a wise idea to CASH THE SIDE SUIT WINNERS FIRST AND THEN PROCEED WITH THE CROSS-RUFE
East was very careful to discard his heart suit low cards on North’s diamond leads — which allowed him the opportunity to ruff hearts if this suit was led. Had South paused to cash the Ace-King of Hearts BEFORE proceeding with the cross-ruff, it would have given him two more vital tricks. Given the fact that he held only three hearts, the odds were favorable of scoring two tricks.
When this hand was first played (in Worldplay), the post-mortems were quite intense! I was kibitzing this hand, and was quite impressed with the analysis presented by the North player. then I spotted the line of defense which could have succeeded.
Had South taken his top hearts and then tried for a club ruff, West had an opportunity to resort to an alternative defense. The second club lead (by South) is ruffed with the Ace! North is now forced to discard a side suit. The spade five would be led, followed by a low spot by North, and the KING by East. The nine of spades would then deprive North/South of two more ruffs. Finally, the minor suit winners into he East/West hands set the contract. The repeated leads of trump have been the antidote for hands which have a distinct cross-ruffing pattern.
How many West players could find such a defense?
Sometimes the most interesting plays are those which are never made in the heat of battle!
There are serious professional gamblers and there are the "i just want to have fun" type of gamblers. Either way, the outcome of such endeavors are usually either you win or you lose. Playing in a land based casino is a nice experience when you are in a group, and just want to have fun. The gambling is less serious, and you are there to watch a show, or take advantage of the comps that the casino gives out. The food of course is fantastic, and for VIPs there is nothing better than to be served the best food around for free.
The annoying thing about playing in a land based casino is the noise and all the distractions that goes on around you. And for serious players, it takes more focus for you to play at the level you want. That is the reason why some people likes playing in online casinos. Some online casinos like 888, Casino Tropez, and the others have nice graphics that makes the whole experience of playing online pleasurable.
In online casinos, you play in the comfort of your own home. There are no distractions. You and your computer is all that is there. You can stop anytime you want. You can get up and get something to drink or eat and the game waits for you. There are no people bothering you or hitting you for some money. Why is this important you might ask? Because game play for serious players means no distractions.
Whether you're playing slots, poker, blackjack or baccarat or whatever game from the dozens of game available online, the benefit is being able to play in the comfort of your home. There are no distractions, and the number of hands being dealt per hour depends on you, unlike in a land based casino, where it may take forever especially if the players are winning.
I have been involved in casino games for
many years and believe me I am really having fun here I want to tell the newbie
how to learn Hi-Lo.
The best way to learn Hi-Lo is to take a standard deck and flip through the cards one at a time until the value of each denomination becomes automatic. Fortunately, this is not too difficult after a little bit of practice. Remember, you don't have to differentiate for any of the four suits-the 5 of spades counts exactly the same as the 5 of diamonds.
Once you feel comfortable with that task, you can start keeping a running count (hereafter called RC) of all cards in the deck. This is done by starting off with a count of zero. As you flip through the deck, add or subtract the respective values of each card to your overall tally, or RC. After polishing off all fifty-two cards, you should be back at zero.
Another trick pros use is to never call negative numbers "negative 1" or "minus 1." It is much quicker to refer to them as "mi I." Mi is short for minus. This may sound like a silly modification, but it really speeds up your counting. Another thing experts never do is refer to positive numbers as "positive 5." They would simply be 5.
This also streamlines and simplifies the counting process, although I will use the plus signs in this book to avoid any confusion while you're still learning the material.
Next, go through the deck two cards at a time. This may sound more difficult but is actually much easier. The reason is that many card combinations will cancel each other out in Hi- Lo. Here are several examples of cancellation at work.
All of the two-card combos shown above can essentially be ignored when counting since their total value is zero. Once you become acquainted with this fact, you often don't need to add or subtract each card, which is why many consider Hi-Lo such a breeze to learn.
For now, don't worry about your speed-the only thing important at this juncture is accuracy, which can be tested by removing one unseen card from the deck before you begin your count. When you're done, turn over the hidden card and see if it matches your count. For instance, if you ended up with a RC of minus 1, the last card (the one you had set aside) has to be a small card in order to bring the overall count back to zero. If it was any other card, then you made an error (or two) somewhere along the way.
Once you get to the point at which you can predict the last card correctly most of the time, it's safe to move on to your next assignment-speed. This drill is done exactly the same way-you flip over two cards at a time through a fifty-two-card deck, except now you're pushing yourself like a racehorse down the homestretch at Belmont, trying to coax out every ounce of speed.
Don't even bother timing your first efforts-it might be too discouraging. But before long, you should start feeling more in rhythm with the flow of the cards. At that point you're ready to dust off the old stopwatch from your track days and start recording your times. The ballpark goal most people shoot for is twenty-five seconds.
People play casino games in order to earn huge cash and in real quick time too in place of that they are willing to take any amount of risk against their hard earned cash as they know if only once their luck is on their side they can fulfill all their dreams. I’ve been playing casino games for almost two decades and I am really having a great time. Well let me tell you about some of the rare options that benefit players.
Surrender is one of those rare options that benefit players rather than the house. It is not all that common a rule, but is offered at many of the bigger casinos around the world. It allows players to throw in (or surrender) their first two cards (in exchange for losing half their bet). This helps immensely on those nights when it seems like every other hand is a stiff.
Though it is a good rule, it's often bungled by most of the goofballs who have no idea when to throw in their hand. The mathematics are actually quite simple-you surrender when you expect to win less than one out of four hands. It's possible some people misunderstand the principle of giving up 50 percent of your bet and think they need to apply it to any hand that has less than a 50 per cent chance of winning. This certainly is far from the case.
Here is the correct strategy for surrender in a six-deck shoe. The code for all basic strategy charts is as follows:
There are two options listed because surrender takes precedence. If the rules allow it, you would surrender first. If not, then you would hit. Also on some hands, the correct play might be to double or surrender on your original two cards, but the correct play becomes hit when you have a three-card (or more) hand since those other options are no longer available.
The actual gain from surrender is fairly small (about 0.06 percent), so it doesn't seem like adding this knowledge to your growing arsenal is very important. But surrender has other benefits. It can greatly reduce fluctuation, especially on those days when bust is your middle name. Also, it goes from being a marginal rule to a tremendous one when card counting is added to the equation. A skilled player who knows the rough composition of the remaining cards can utilize the full power of the surrender rule and add immensely to his bottom line.
HARD HANDS
Whether to hit or stand is the most common decision confronting blackjack players. The vast majority of hands fall into this category. Approximately 85 percent of the money you lose at the table comes from being dealt hard 12-17 as your starting hands. So it is critical that these frequently occurring combinations are played correctly. Yet some gamblers playas if they're in Disney's theme park ride Pirates of the Caribbean-every hand is an adventure. They pick up their cards, hesitate for a momeryt, then grit their teeth and hang on for the ride.
It doesn't have to be like this. Ignorance and incompetence don't need to go hand in hand with gambling. The chart on page 29 shows the exact way to play each and every blackjack hand you will ever receive, and most of it is not that different from the Microwave strategy.
For example, playing the hard hands is nearly identical. You still stand anytime your total is 1 7 or above and hit all your stiffs (12-16) whenever you find yourself facing 7-ace. The general the¬ory here is that the dealer is often pat (has a total of 17 or greater) when showing a big up card and the best course of action is to hit or surrender stiffs to reduce your losses.
However, remember to distinguish between hard
hands and pairs. For example, two 7s should be played differently than a hard
14, and the correct strategy for splitting will be explained shortly.
Here is a summary of the hard-hand strategy in chart form.
When the dealer is a little kinder and shows a 2-6 as her upcard, the philosophy is reversed. It's almost always best to tuck your sorry-looking stiff under your chips and hope the dealer busts out. The only difference here comes when you have a 12 and the dealer has a 2 or a 3 showing. The correct play is to hit on totals of hard 12 or less and stand on hard 13 or more, which is a minor change from the Microwave version.
Gamblers enjoys all the كازينو games that is offered in casino as they know if they want to earn some quick money they got to take risk and at the same time they got to understand the situation of the game. I devoted lot of my time in gambling and I feel affection for playing casino games. Lets come across at some of the blackjack moves.
Every time I went in there I thought back to the first time he showed me the blackjack move. Once in a while I took a handful of the Tropicana chips still in the rack and nostalgically practiced. I made Joe promise he'd leave me that table and chips in the event he ever died or retired. He said that in the event of his death the table and chips were going with him. However, in retirement he would consider it.
I had been gleaning the automobile section in the classifieds, looking for a second-hand Jaguar convertible. I had always loved the Jaguar's sleek looks, and was determined to own one despite its less than-par mechanical reputation. I couldn't find the cherry I wanted in Vegas, so I began searching the out-of-town classifieds at the library. In the Los Angeles Times a dozen Jags seemed interesting. I made a list, called the owners, and set up appointments. Joe and I drove out in his new Corvette and spent the weekend looking at Jaguars. On the way, he was bitching that my itinerary was not very well organized.
"Where's your map?" he was asking. "You have to document each appointment you make and mark the precise corresponding location on your map." To shut him up I bought a road map of Los Angeles when we stopped off at the halfway point in Barstow.
The 1974 XKE long-nosed convertible I bought in Pasadena for $12,000 was silver with red pinstriping, a real beauty. Driving it back to Vegas on the interstate, with the cool breeze whipping up my hair as I looked approvingly at myself in the rearview mirror, I thought how nice it was to finally have something courtesy of the casinos, and about how much things had changed since I'd first arrived in Las Vegas two years before. I had gone from sleeping underneath the interstate to cruising it in a convertible Jag.
FUNDAMENTALS OF PLAY
THE EQUIPMENT
The implements used for playing craps in a casino include a table with high sides and a layout showing the various craps wagers, a pair of dice, and a puck for identifying the established point. These items are described below.
The craps table: Unlike other table games, craps tables vary considerably in size. The typical craps table accommodates 16 to 20 stand- ing players, and is manned by a crew of four: a stickman, two inside dealers, and a boxman. The largest tables, which can handle up to 24 players, often have two boxmen. Occasionally, you may find a very small table that is run by a single dealer and accommodates 8 or 9 seated players.
Regardless of size, all craps tables have high sides to contain the action of the dice. At both ends, the inside surfaces of the sidcs are covered with diamond-embossed rubber. This is where the thrown dice are supposed to bounce to assure a fair roll. The central portion of the long side opposite the boxman is mirrored so that he can easily see the opposite faces of the dice to ascertain that someone didn’t switch in miss potted cubes.
The tops of the sides have rails with convenient grooves for holding the player’s chips. Lower down on the outside is a ledge for holding drinks and ashtrays.
The layout: The felt surface of the craps table carries the imprinted online betting tips layout, which has numerous boxes and spaces for placing wagers. To a newcomer, the layout may seem very complex, but as the nature and purpose of the various bets are explained, it will eventually become clear and logical. A typical double-ended craps layout is shown on the next page.
Almost all craps tables are double-ended, meaning that the layout is duplicated at both ends of the table to make the betting areas easier to reach by all the players. These end sections contain the most important and useful bets on the table. Between the two end sections is a large box containing the center bets, also known as the proposition bets, all of which are controlled by the stickman.
The dice: Modern casino dice are precision cubes made of cellulose acetate. Most dice have flush number spots. To maintain the correct weight and balance, each spot is slightly recessed and filled with a colored paint that is the same weight as the material that was removed. Casino dice have sharp edges rather than the rounded edges found on backgammon or home-game dice.
Standard casino dice in most of the world are 0.750-inch wide, but a few casinos may use slightly smaller dice. Each cube is usually embossed with the casino logo and a code number to make it difficult for cheats to switch in dishonest dice.
Each of the dice has six faces, and each one of the faces has one through six spots. The game of craps uses a pair of dice, so the possible numbers that can be rolled are 2 through 12.
The puck: A round plastic disk, black on one side and white on the other, is used to indicate when a point is established. This disk is called a puck, although in the past it has sometimes been called a buck. During a come-out roll the black side of the puck, which is marked with the word OFF, is lying face up. When a point number is rolled, the puck is turned over and placed at the appropriate numbered box to remind everyone which point was established. The white side of the puck (marked ON) is now facing up. The puck remains in this position until the point is made or the shooter sevens-out, whereupon it is removed from the number box and flipped to its black side.
PLAYER OPTIONS
Once you’ve examined your initial two cards and determined if the hand is hard, soft, stiff, oar pat, you are expected to take some action. A number of different player options are available, all of which are reviewed below. Some actions are communicated to the dealer with hand signals, while others are communicated by simply increasing the initial wager.
Hit: If you are not satisfied with the two card count, you may request additional cards, one by one. This is called taking a hit. Indicate your desire to take a hit by pointing at your cards with an index finger. Some players prefer to tap or scratch the felt directly behind the cards. Either way is acceptable. You may hit as many times as you want, so long as you don’t go over 21. If the card count exceeds 21, you have busted and your bet is lost.
Stand: When you are satisfied with the card count and don’t want any more hits, you may stand. Signal your intention to stand by waving your hand over the cards, palm down. You can stand at any time: after looking at your original hand, after taking one or more hits, or after splitting a pair. Standing is automatic if you double down (see below) because you are given just one card and are not allowed to take any hits.
Double down: You may double down on any hand by placing another wager up to the amount of your original bet. Do this by placing the new wager alongside your original bet. When you double down, you receive only one additional card from the dealer. Doubling is good strategy when your hand reaches a total of 10 or 11 and the dealer is showing a low card.
In Spanish 21, you may double down on your original two card hand, after you have taken one or more hits, or after a split. However, after doubling down, your hand does not qualify for a bonus.
Double down rescue: If, after getting a double down card you don’t like the resulting hand, you may take back (rescue) the doubled portion of your wager and forfeit your original bet. This can only be done if the hand did not go over 21. Assuming you used proper doubling strategy in the first place, this is not a recommended option.
THE EQUIPMENT
We always playing casino in UK and other countries most of us like to play the game of some other country and also want to know its strategy that’s why I like to tell you some thing about Spanish casinos.
The implements used for playing Spanish 21 include a half-moon table with stools for the players, several decks of cards, and a dealing shoe. These items are described below.
The playing table: Spanish 21 is played on a table that is essentially identical to a standard blackjack table and is located in the blackjack area. In most casinos it is easy to find because there is an elevated sign at the table identifying the game. The dealer stands at the flat side with a chip rack directly in front of her and a card-dealing shoe to her left.
At each player position there is one betting spot in the shape of a circle or a rectangle. The first player seat to the left of the dealer is called first base. This spot is the first hand dealt in a round of play. The last seat to the dealer’s right is called the anchor position, and is also referred to as third base. It is the last player hand dealt in a round.
The felt surface of the table has two game rules imprinted on it. The most common rule is: Dealer must hit soft 17. In Atlantic City and some other jurisdictions, this rule is modified to read: Dealer must draw to 16 and stand on all 17s, which is a more favorable rule for the player. The second imprinted rule is: Insurance pays 2 to 1.
The dealing shoe: Spanish 21 games use six or eight decks of cards, which are dealt from a dealing shoe. The shoe is an elongated plastic box into which the pre-shuffled cards are stacked, one end of which has a slot and a finger notch so that the dealer may easily slide out the cards, one at a time.
The shuffling machine: To speed up the game, many Spanish 21 tables are now equipped with an automatic shuffling machine.
The deck: The 48-card deck used in Spanish 21 is standard except that all four 10s have been removed. Removing the 10s effectively reduces the number of ten-value cards by 25%, giving the dealer a major mathematical advantage. Each face card (jack, queen, and king) has a numerical value of ten. In a standard blackjack deck, there are sixteen ten-value cards, while in a Spanish 21 deck (because of the missing tens) there are only twelve ten-value cards. As in blackjack, an ace may be valued one or eleven.
When the only legal casinos in the United States weicated in Nevada and New Jersey, the rules of casino blackjack were fairly well standardized. At that time, there were only a few minor rule variances between the two states. There were also some minor differences between the main venues in Nevada, namely: the Las Vegas Strip, downtown Las Vegas, and Northern Nevada.
Today, much of that has changed. With the proliferation of legal casinos in Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, and other states, along with the expansion of tribal casinos throughout the country, blackjack playing rules can no longer be easily defined by venue. The one exception is Atlantic City where the rules are controlled by legal statute rather than by the individual casinos.
STANDARD RULES
Before getting into the rule variations, it would be useful to establish a set of standard rules as a baseline. The problem is that there is no single set of blackjack rules used by the majority of casinos. In fact, within some casinos the rules can change from one blackjack table to the next.
The only uniform venue in the United States is Atlantic City. Since the multi-deck rules used in Atlantic City are reasonably good for the player, they are a logical choice to use as a standard baseline.
SIX- OR EIGHT-DECK GAME
A multi-deck game dealt from a shoe increases the house edge by 0.55% for six decks or 0.57% for eight decks over a single-deck game. The multi-deck game is part of our standard baseline rules because that is the primary aim of this chapter. All games in Atlantic City are six- or eight-deck —-mostly eight decks.
If you see a continuous shuffling machine (CSM), consider it the same as a multi-deck game. CSM have been disparaged by blackjack players, believing that casinos would not have made the investment if they didn’t derive some benefit—probably to the detriment of the players. The only detriment is to card counters, who are probably the biggest complainers. With a CSM, each new hand is effectively dealt from a freshly shuffled deck, making it impossible to maintain a count.
Use of a CSM does impart a financial benefit to the casinos. Since the delay caused by shuffling the cards and loading the shoe has been eliminated, about 20% more hands can be dealt every hour. Consequently, the net return from a table is increased by the same percentage.
For a non-counting basic strategy player (such as you), playing at a CSM-equipped table has no disadvantage. In fact, computer simulations have proved that a CSM reduces the house edge by 0.02% when compared to a hand-shuffled six-deck game. The mathematical reasoning for this gets a little complicated and has to do with something called the cut card effect. The insertion of a cut card (designed to make counting more difficult) instead of dealing out all the decks is also slightly detrimental to the non-counting player. Since there is no cut card in a CSM-dealt game, the house loses this mathematical advantage.
Dealer must stand on all 17s: As previously mentioned, this is the rule where the dealer must draw on all totals of 16 or less, and stand on all totals of 17 or more. It is easy to determine which games apply this rule because it is always imprinted on the felt tabletop. In Atlantic City this rule is required by statute.
Resplitting of pairs allowed: When you split a pair and one or both of the cards you get from the dealer are the same rank as the original pair, you may split again. Most casinos do not allow resplitting of aces.
Double down on any two cards: This rule has to be specified in the baseline because some casinos only allow doubling on certain totals. Outside of Atlantic City, you will have to ask the dealer about any doubling restrictions.
Double down after splitting allowed: After splitting a pair into two hands, some casinos allow you to double down on one or both of the hands. This is a standard rule in Atlantic City. Elsewhere you will have to ask the dealer or a floor supervisor if doubling after splitting is permitted.
Winning Strategies in Blackjack
At the beginning of this section we have observed that the player’s total gain is increased if he uses the main-count playing strategy, which is given in the next two sections. The expectation of the basic strategy player depends on the value of the running index. The same is true when one uses the main-count playing strategy. Moreover, the expectation of this player is higher than that of the player who uses the basic strategy, If one takes this into account, some of the indices in the betting tables can be decreased. This gives the player more opportunities to bet higher and increases his overall gain. Roughly speaking, one can proceed as follows: When the running index is between 11 and 15, one should increase it by 1 before comparing it with the indices in the betting table being used. When the running index is between 16 and 20, one should increase it by 2. When the running index is between 21 and 25, one should increase it by 4. Finally, when by 7.
THE PLAYING STRATEGY FOR MULTIPLE-DECK GAMES The strategy given in this section should be used for all multiple-deck games. Also, unless we say explicitly the contrary, the same strategy should be used whether the dealer stands or draws on soft 1 7. The playing strategy is given in Tables 5—11. Some of the blocks in these tables contain critical indices. The player makes the playing decisions by comparing the running index with the corresponding critical index. When a block contains two critical indices, separated by a slanted bar, the one on the left should be used when the dealer stands on soft Drawing and Standing (Hard Hands) With a hand of value 11 or less (that is 11, 10, 9,. . ), the player should draw, no matter what the dealer’s up card is. With a hand of value 18 or more (that is 18, 19,) the player should stand, no matter what the dealer’s up card is. With a hand of value 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17, the player should proceed as indicated in Table 5. This table is read as follows: We determine the block, located to the right of the number representing the value of the player’s hand and under the dealer’s up card. If the block is shaded, the player should stand. If the block is white, without any number on it, the player should draw. If the block is white and has a number on it, * the player should stand if the running index is greater than, or equal to, that number and draw otherwise.
Drands)
The player should follow the basic strategy, except in the case when the dealer has an ace up. Hence, when the dealer’s up card is
2,3,4, 5,6, 7, or 8
the player should draw to any soft hand of value 17 or less and stand otherwise. When the dealer’s up card is
9 or ten
the player should draw to any soft hand of value 18 or less and stand otherwise.
Now assume that the dealer has an ace up. The player should always stand on 19 or more and draw on 17 or less. When the dealer stands on soft 17, the player should stand on soft 18, if the running index is greater than, or equal to, 3 and draw otherwise. When the dealer draws on soft 17, the player should again follow the basic strategy. Therefore he should draw on soft 18.
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