Bootlegger's 200 Proof Blackjack: A Survival Guide for Playing the Tables
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Bootlegger's 200 Proof Blackjack: A Survival Guide for Playing the Tables
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Overview
Bootlegger’s 200 Proof Blackjack begins by explaining the basics of blackjack. It then analyzes the most effective strategies for increasing your odds of winning. Included are discussions of money management for strategic and advantage play, tips for avoiding common pitfalls, a unique section on using the casinos’ promotional money to play, and simple instructions on the best card-counting system for novice counters. Easy-to-follow tables and card hands illustrate strategies. And each book includes a pocket-sized “Quick-Reference Guide” that you can use at the tables.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780757000485 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Square One Publishers |
| Publication date: | 03/15/2005 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.62(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
BOOTLEGGER'S 200 PROOF BLACKJACK
By R. MICHAEL TURNER
Square One Publishing
Copyright © 2005
R. Michael Turner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7570-0048-5
Chapter One The Game of Blackjack
Walk into any modern casino, and you'll see a wide variety of gambling opportunities-baccarat, Big Six Wheel, blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, craps, keno, roulette, slot machines, video poker, Pai Gow poker, three-card poker, and even that old child's card game War. Many casinos offer poker rooms, where flesh-and-blood opponents can play against one another. And, if the casino offers sports-related betting, you can bet on just about any event that's happening in the sports world. On top of that, casinos are always trying out new games at the tables and on the machines.
With so many different games out there, why choose blackjack? Simply because blackjack offers the best chance to the average player who wants to get in on the comps (casino "freebies"), who wants to play the house as close to even as possible, and who might even want to make a little money in the process. The game of blackjack is easy to learn and fun to play, and just about any casino that offers table games offers blackjack.
Most important, blackjack is a good choice because it's also a game of skill. If early casinos had known that players had an advantage, they probably never would have offered the game to their patrons. But by the time a good computer analysis of the game could be performed, blackjack was already a casino fixture. Then, with the introduction of card counting in Edward O. Thorp's landmark book Beat the Dealer, blackjack quickly became America's most popular table game.
In this chapter, you'll learn the meaning of terms such as house advantage (or house edge), odds, and probabilities, and how this understanding can be used to make an informed decision about what sort of games you wish to play. This chapter also covers the basic rules of casino blackjack, as well as an outline of basic table etiquette in a casino setting. You will see phrases throughout this chapter (and this book) such as "almost always" or "usually." It is as sure as the fact that this book is printed on paper that you will encounter a casino blackjack rule or custom that either isn't covered here or is different from what you're about to read.
UNDERSTANDING HOUSE ADVANTAGE
Stanford Wong, a renowned gambling authority, once told me that casinos believe that as soon as you walk through the door, all the money you have on you belongs to them. It is just a matter of time before you make the transfer from your pocket to their vaults. All of the games casinos offer are designed to do just that-separate you from your money. In the process, the casinos wine and dine you, fawn over you, and make you feel like you are just about the most important person in the world. You will swear they love you. Depending on your level of betting, you will be showered with gifts, free meals, free rooms, free show tickets, and even free airfare to return for your next round of gambling. If you are a high-stakes bettor, you might even get tickets to the Super Bowl or a week's vacation in Aruba.
Do these people really love you? Not for a millisecond. They love your money and that's as far as it goes. That's why casino games are designed with a built-in house advantage, also called a house edge-a casino's advantage over a player on any given bet. Unless some method of advantage play is employed, the game of blackjack carries a house advantage. But even for the non-advantage player, this game offers the best overall odds in the house.
Odds and Probabilities
Odds is an expression of the likelihood that a certain event will occur out of all the possibilities that exist compared to the likelihood of that same event not occurring. Let's look at a coin toss as an example. When you toss a coin, it can land on either heads or tails. The odds of getting either heads or tails are expressed as the ratio 1:1, which is stated verbally as "one to one." If you add them together, you get "two," which is the total number of possible outcomes. There is one chance of getting heads, and one chance of getting tails. We can also say that there is one chance in two of getting heads, which can be expressed as the ratio 1:2. This ratio represents the probability-the likelihood that a certain event will occur-of the coin's landing on either heads or tails. This probability ratio can be converted to a percentage. In this case, the probability of getting heads would be 50 percent. Although probability can be expressed as a ratio, to avoid confusing it with the odds, it will be expressed as a percentage throughout this book.
So, let's suppose that you wagered $1 that the coin will land on heads. If you were betting with a friend, you would lose your dollar bet if the coin landed on tails. If the coin landed on heads, you would come away with $2-your original $1 bet and your friend's $1 bet. This type of payoff is known as even money. You won the same amount that you wagered. Neither you nor your friend had a house advantage on that bet.
If a casino were to offer coin tossing as a game, it would want a built-in house advantage on the game. One way to get a house advantage would be to offer less of a payoff than the true odds would dictate if the player wins, but continue to collect the full wager made by the bettor if he loses. The casino might pay ninety cents on the dollar, so that if the player won, he would get ninety cents in winnings. If a player made 100 bets, he could expect to lose fifty bets and win fifty bets. He would wager $100, but he would end up with only $95 if the results followed the 50 percent probability. He would lose $50 on the times the coin landed on the opposite side, and his winnings would only amount to $45-that is, ninety cents times fifty. In this case, the house advantage would be 5 percent of all the money wagered. At first blush, this doesn't seem fair. The casino really isn't offering the true payoff based on the odds of the game. However, casinos don't like to gamble. They save that for their patrons. After all, they are running a business. The house advantage is the price of admission. If there were no built-in house advantage, casinos wouldn't exist, and this book would have no purpose.
On the other hand, gamblers are hoping that on any given night, the odds will turn out to be in their favor. If they were tossing coins, they hope that lightning will strike and they will win more than 50 percent of the coin tosses. The fact is, there are thousands of gamblers in the casinos who do beat the odds for that moment every day. If that didn't happen, the casinos would quickly go out of business, because no one would play if they didn't have some kind of reasonable chance of beating the odds occasionally. The house is relying on the fact that it plays thousands and even millions of hands, and that in the long run, the true odds will tell, and the casino will come out ahead. Mathematicians call this the law of large numbers.
The law of large numbers dictates that with thousands or millions of trials, the games offered by casinos will be close enough to their true odds to allow the casino to make a profit with its artificially induced house advantage. It also means that the more times a player returns to play, the less likely he is to be ahead overall.
The House Advantage in Blackjack
The house advantage in blackjack is difficult to compute. This is because there are thousands of combinations of cards that can occur in blackjack, and players make individual playing decisions-right or wrong. Also, not all winning bets pay the same. For example, a blackjack, or a natural, which is an Ace and a 10-valued card, pays 3:2 in most casinos, which means it pays $3 for every $2 bet, for a total return of $5 on a $2 bet, counting the original wager. Some blackjack games, however, pay less than 3:2 on a blackjack. (These games will be discussed in detail later. For now, it's enough to know that such games should be avoided.)
When you cut through all the math of the game, the basic reason the house has an advantage in blackjack is because it immediately wins the bet when a player busts-that is, goes over a card total of 21. It doesn't matter if the dealer subsequently busts herself when completing her hand for any players remaining in the game.
Setting aside blackjack clones, such as Spanish 21 or Super-Fun 21, and double-exposure blackjack, the advantage in blackjack games found in North America runs from about 0.63 percent advantage for the house to 0.13 percent advantage for the player. To give you some idea how this compares to other common casino games, Table 1.1 below lists the house advantage for various games you may encounter when you venture into a casino.
THE BASICS OF CASINO BLACKJACK
Casino blackjack, also called twenty-one, is a card game that is played with one or more decks of regulation playing cards. Most casinos feature blackjack games with one, two, four, six, or eight decks. (Some continuous-shuffling machine games feature three- or five-deck games. These games are discussed more later. For now, it's enough to know that these games should be avoided.)
Blackjack is played at a semicircular table with up to seven playing spots. The dealer faces the players from the flat side of the table. Figure 1.1 shows the basic blackjack table layout.
In casino blackjack, the play is against the dealer, not against the other players at the table. The object of the game is to get a card total as close to, but not over, 21. If a player's hand is closer to 21 than the dealer's hand, the player wins. If the player busts-that is, goes over 21-he loses his wager, or bet as it is referred to throughout this book. If the dealer busts and the player's hand is still in play, the player wins the hand. If both the player and the dealer have the same card total, the hand is a tie, or a push, and no money changes hands. (There are some varieties of blackjack, particularly charity versions of the game, in which a player loses on a push. Don't play a game with this variation unless you want to donate your money to charity. The house advantage is horrendous.)
Card Values and Totals
The cards 2 through 10 are valued at their numerical value, while face cards have a value of 10. Aces have a value of either 1 or 11. For example, if a player has an Ace-7, the card total could be either 8 or 18. When an Ace can be counted as 11 without going over 21, the hand is called a soft hand. When an Ace can only be counted as a 1, the hand is called a hard hand. If a player chooses to hit the Ace-7, or soft 18, and he receives a 10-valued card, he now has a hard 18. Any hand that does not include an 11-valued Ace is considered a hard hand.
The total of an Ace and any 10-valued card is 21. This is called a blackjack or a natural. No other hand with a value of 21, such as 5-5-Ace, is considered a blackjack. In other words, a player who hits to a card total of 21 does not receive the blackjack payoff. By the same token, if the dealer hits her original hand to a multicard total of 21, it has no effect on a player's blackjack, which is still a winning hand for the player.
The values of the cards in a hand that doesn't include an Ace are simply added together to get the final hand total. For example, a Jack-9 would have a value of 19 and a 6-7-6 would have a value of 19. (Except for rare casino promotions, the suit of the cards has no value or bearing on the hand.)
Minimum/Maximum Bets
When you buy in, or purchase chips from the dealer, the denomination of the chips she'll give you depends on the table minimum and, of course, on the amount you purchase. There's usually a sign (but not always) on the left side of the table that clearly states the minimum and maximum bets permitted at that table. Table minimums and maximums can be different at each casino and even at different tables in the same casino. Table minimums may be as low as fifty cents and as high as $500 (sometimes they can even be higher if a player requests it). Table maximums can range from as low as $10 to as much as $10,000 or higher. Before joining a game, be sure you are clear on the minimum and maximum bets permitted at that table to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.
The Play
Before the cards are dealt, the players place their bets on the marked playing squares (or circles, as the case may be) directly in front of them on the table. Then, the dealer deals the cards, starting with the player to her left. On the initial deal, each player is dealt two cards, one at a time. Depending on whether the game being played is a shoe game or handheld game, the players' cards are dealt either face up or face down. (There's more on this later.) In both shoe games and hand-held games, the dealer deals herself one face-down card, known as the hole card, and one face-up card, known as the upcard.
If the dealer's upcard is an Ace, she'll offer the players insurance-the opportunity to make a side bet. (See page 47 for an explanation of insurance and its pitfalls.) In most American casinos, if the dealer has a 10-valued card showing, she'll check her hole card to see if she has blackjack but will not offer the players insurance. If the dealer has blackjack, the round is over and the dealer collects all bets or declares a push for players who also have blackjack.
If the dealer does not have blackjack, play on the round continues and each player can choose to stand on his hand (refuse an additional card) or he can choose to hit his hand (receive an additional card) until he is satisfied with the total he receives or until he busts. There are other possible plays, such as doubling down and splitting pairs, which will be discussed later.
At this point, the dealer collects the bets on busted hands and pays off the bets on any blackjacks. Blackjacks are traditionally paid off at a rate of 3:2, or one and a half times the player's bet. The 3:2 payoff is in addition to the player's original bet. In other words, if a player's bet was $5.00 and that player got blackjack, he would receive $7.50 from the dealer, for a total of $12.50 in his betting square. (Beware of games in which the payoff for blackjack is 6:5. We'll take a closer look at the negative effects of this variation later.)
After collecting the bets on busted hands and paying off blackjacks, the dealer reveals her hole card. In most casinos, the dealer reveals her hole card even if there are no active hands left in play. Assuming there are players with active hands remaining in the round, the dealer continues play on her hand until it is complete. (The dealer is bound by specific rules regarding hitting and standing, as explained under "Rules and Rule Variations" on page 17.)
If the dealer busts, she pays off all the active hands in the round. Even though the dealer has busted, players who also went over 21 still lose their bets (and, indeed, the dealer had already collected their bets by this time). If the dealer doesn't bust, players whose hands total more than the dealer's win their bets and are paid at this time. Winning hands that are not blackjacks are paid even money. In other words, the player receives a payoff equal to his original bet. A$5 bet would be paid $5, which is placed next to the player's original bet in the betting square, giving the player a total of $10 in his betting square. Players whose hands total less than the dealer's lose their bets, which are then collected by the dealer. Players whose hands total the same as the dealer's "push the hand" and no bet is paid or collected.
Once again, the players place their bets, and the next hand is dealt and played.
SHOE GAMES VERSUS HAND-HELD GAMES
Casinos offer a variety of blackjack games that may be dealt either from a card shoe (a rectangular box that holds multiple decks of cards) or by a dealer who holds the cards in her hands. In days of old, casinos offered nothing but hand-held single-deck games. While plenty of casinos still offer hand-held games and many offer a variety of both, shoe games are the most common games you'll encounter in American casinos.
Shoe Games
In a shoe game, the dealer pulls the cards from the card shoe and slides the cards across the table felt to the players' positions. The cards are almost always dealt face up. In face-up games, players are not permitted to touch the cards. Even if a player wants to split a pair, he cannot touch them. He simply places his additional bet in or next to the betting square and the dealer splits them for him.
All of the shoe games I have ever encountered were multiple-deck games, usually with four decks or more. There are some very rare instances of double-deck games being dealt from shoes, but these are exceptions to the rule.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from BOOTLEGGER'S 200 PROOF BLACKJACK by R. MICHAEL TURNER Copyright © 2005 by R. Michael Turner. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
ContentsIntroduction
Part One—The Basic Strategy Player
1. The Game of Blackjack
2. Basic Strategy
3. Comps Game Selection and Money Management
4. Mistakes Pitfalls and the Truth About Casino Cheating
5. Gaining the Advantage Without Counting
Part Two—The Card Counter
6. Card Counting
7. Basic Strategy Variations
8. Money Management
9. Game Selection
10. Backcounting and Exit Strategy (Wonging and Semi-Wonging)
11. Heat Barrings and Cover
Conclusion
Glossary
Other Books and Resources
References and Credits
Index
Preface
I’d never thought of myself as a gambler. I had no interest in joining my buddies’ Friday-night poker games, I never bet on sporting events, and I avoided the lottery. On rare occasions, I’d go to the horse races when invited and place a two-dollar bet just to be social. Gambling simply wasn’t in my blood. So, when I learned that I had to attend a work-related convention in Las Vegas many years ago, I vehemently complained about it. I told anyone who would listen that I’d gladly go anywhere but there. But the job said I had to go, and so I went.
My wife joined me for a weeklong stay at one of the finest casino hotels on the Vegas strip. As we made our way through the casino to our room that first day, we found the place very uninviting. A cacophony of assorted bells, buzzers, and beeps came at us from all directions. We witnessed the antics of a slot-machine jackpot winner and were assaulted by shouts from the rollers at the craps tables. Deeper into the casino, we sidled past a group of semicircular tables surrounded on one side by folk in deep concentration.
Although some of the casino patrons looked like they were having a good time, far too many others wore gloomy expressions. My wife and I were not tempted to join what seemed like a group of unpredictable inmates on a day trip from the nearest asylum.
However, as the week progressed, I made the trip through the casino many times and had sort of become accustomed to the sounds. Like Alice in Wonderland, I was becoming “curiouser and curiouser.” I noticed that people were actually winning money at the slot machines and that some of the folk at those semicircular tables had impressive stacks of chips in front of them. What I found most curious, though, were the money-laden electric carts, flanked by straight-faced security personnel, that would make their way from the tables and slots to the cashier’s booth periodically throughout the day.
Obviously, there was a huge amount of money going into the casinos, and I wanted to know if there was a way to get some of the money out. Although my wife and I didn’t gamble much on that trip (we played the nickel slots before we left just so we could say we did it), I felt something stirring inside me. When I got home, I began my quest to “beat the house.”
I read every book I could find on the subject of casinos and casino gambling. It was a difficult task to separate the wheat from the chaff, especially for a person who wasn’t particularly well schooled in the mathematics of gambling. After many false starts and some embarrassing and sometimes financially painful moments, I finally started to understand what was going on in the casinos and how to take advantage of it.
For reasons I’ll share later in this book, blackjack became my game of choice, and I attacked it with a vengeance. I learned what I could from the many excellent books available and had to unlearn a few things from the bad ones. I surfed the Internet, looking for more. I met with other blackjack players and learned as much as I could from them and their experiences. I even met up with several professional players whose advice was invaluable in my quest to become the best blackjack player I could be.
Over the years, I discovered that there are four types of blackjack players. The first is the clueless player. This player sits down at the table, puts the money in the betting square, takes the cards dealt, and then doesn’t have any notion of what to do next. To this player, each hand is a mystery. He would probably be far more comfortable at the slot machines and most likely spends a lot of time there.
Then there is the so-called experienced player. Although this player has been around for a while, he plays with only a semblance of basic strategy. He knows from experience what some of the correct plays are, but he doesn’t know enough of them. For example, he knows to stand on a 13 when the dealer is showing a 6, and he knows he should hit on a 15 when the dealer is showing a 9. He also knows that he should split certain hands. But he doesn’t know why he should do those things. While he isn’t exactly clueless, he is an ignorant player. The so-called experienced player is the player the house depends on. He thinks he knows enough to come out ahead and keeps coming back for more.
Next is the basic strategy player. This player has learned the proper strategy for each hand. He knows how to handle double-down opportunities and what to do with hands that should be split. He knows the rules and which ones will work to his advantage. He can play the house just about even. And, if he finds the right game, he can even play ahead of the house. But as good as the basic strategy player is, he is not the player feared by the house. In the long run, the house still makes money from this player.
The advantage player is the player the house fears. This player is a skilled card counter and knows the game inside and out. He has the advantage from the moment play starts. If he is playing for high stakes and it’s discovered that he’s a counter, a casino will stop him from playing in its house. However, there are many advantage players out there who manage to avoid being discovered and actually make a nice secondary income from playing blackjack.
What kind of player do you want to be? If you are willing to spend some time reading this book and using the methods explained here, you can become an accomplished blackjack player. You might be satisfied with being a basic strategy player. A good basic strategy player is welcome in most casinos and will be treated well. If such a player knows how to minimize his losses while maximizing his comps (casino “freebies”), he can do very well in the battle against the house.
Even if you have never stepped into a casino, this book can teach you to be a strong basic strategy player. It will demonstrate how to play the game properly, how to pick the right game conditions, how to figure out the proper betting levels for your bankroll (the money you have to spend on gambling), how to avoid going broke, and how to make the most out of a casino’s comping system.
Perhaps you want to be an advantage player. If that is your desire, this book will teach you the most basic advantage skill—card counting. It explains the most popular card-counting system in use today and how to use it in the casino environment. After reading this book and applying its concepts, you should know which blackjack games to play, how to play them, and how to manage your bankroll. You should know how to increase your longevity, what to do if you are barred from play, and how to keep coming back for more. Even an experienced card counter might pick up a trick or two from this book and perhaps discover a new way to approach the game.
This book is written in two parts. Part One is for the player who knows little or nothing about casinos or the game of blackjack. It is for the person who would like to be a strong basic strategy player. Part Two is for the person who wants to be an advantage player. For that person, this book should be considered a starting point. A true advantage player is always looking for ways to improve his game and sharpen his skills. The Resources section at the back of the book is useful for that purpose.
In short, Bootlegger’s 200-Proof Blackjack is for people who are as clueless as I was back when I started out on my quest to beat the casinos, as well as for players with some experience who need to know more. My goal was to produce a book like the one I wish I had when I started out. If, after reading this book, you can walk out of a casino with a smile on your face, this book will have accomplished its purpose.