Blackjack is often referred to simply as 21. This is because getting your cards to total 21 is the basic premise of the game. Your ultimate goal is to have a hand value that is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21.

You are only playing against the hand of the dealer not against any of the other players at your table. The dealer has certain rules of play, which he or she must abide by so there no problem with the dealer or the other players seeing the cards in your hand. If you’re playing at a game where six or eight decks are being used all players cards will be dealt face up, the dealer’s first card will not.

Games with fewer decks are usually dealt face down. Whether your cards are dealt face up or not, don’t be afraid to show the dealer or other players your cards in order to ask questions.

In blackjack only the value of your cards are important the suits of the cards have no meaning. The cards from 2 through 9 are the value indicated. If you have a 6 and an 8 then your hand is worth 6 + 8 = 14. The 10, Jack, Queen and King each have the value of 10. If you have a 10 and a King then your hand is worth 10 + 10 = 20.

If you have a 5 and a Jack then your hand is worth 5 + 10 = 15. An Ace may be counted as either 1 or 11 depending on the other cards in your hand. If you have a 6 and an Ace then your hand is worth either 7 or 17. If you stop at this point then your hand will be worth 17. Let’s say you draw another card and it is an 8. Your hand is now a 6, an 8 and an Ace. This hand has the value 6 + 8 + 1 = 15. In this case the Ace must be worth 1 otherwise the hand would be 6 + 8 + 11 = 25, which is over 21 and a losing hand regardless of what the dealer has. Going over 21 is called “busting” in blackjack.

If you bust then you lose the hand even if the dealer also busts. In the case mentioned earlier (6 + Ace = 17) this is referred to as a “soft” 17. A soft total occurs when you have a hand with an Ace that can be either a 1 or 11 without busting. If you added a 10 to the previous hand (6 + 10 + Ace = 17) you would have a “hard” 17. In this case the Ace can only be counted as 1 in order to avoiding busting. With a soft total you can always draw another card with no risk of busting.

All the best blackjack at UK Betting Central

If you like blackjack then you will really appreciate bet365’s Blackjack Strategy Guide which can obtain through UK Betting Centrals links.

The guide is pretty comprehensive and includes a brilliant table of hand values with advice on whether you should hit or sit. An example of the information you will find in the guide includes:

A “hard number” is one which is made up of two cards not containing an Ace. A “soft number” is one which contains an Ace and has two potential values. For example, if you have A-5 then you have either 6 or 16, giving you more options than if you have 10-6 to make 16.

The advice is well written and easy to follow. If you want to try your hand at blackjack then check out bet 365’s matching deposit bonus for new player.

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games around at present particulalry online. With bet 365’s guide you may well improve you chances of winning and winning well.

Every casino player knows that instinct plays a big part in playing and so, ultimately, guide or no guide, you’re going to have to make the big decisions yourself!

There are many betting systems going around these days and one of them is progressive betting and in particular, progressive betting in blackjack.

Progressive betting can work well if you are betting on outcomes that provide a reasonable chance of winning once every four or five bets. If your chances of winning fall outside those probabilities, then progressive betting can send you to the poorhouse very quickly. Blackjack is a game of skill and luck. You can still suffer long losing sequences.

Let’s look at a blackjack example where you are sitting at a £10 table. These tables may have a maximum bet of £200.

Bet one: £10 – losses – -£10
Bet two: £20 – losses – -£30
Bet three £40 – wins – +£10

That is a £10 profit from £70 worth of bets. That is not too bad if you can repeat that all day. What happens when you receive a run of poor hands – or the blackjack dealer gets a run of good hands.

Bet one: £10 – losses – -£10
Bet two: £20 – losses – -£30
Bet three £40 – losses – -£70
Bet four £80 – losses – -£150
Bet five £160 – losses – -£310

You can see that in 5 bets you have lost £310. The big problem is that your next bet should be £320. You are however sitting at a blackjack table with a £200 maximum bet. You can the £200 and hope you win. If you lose you are now down £510. If you win, you bank roll will still be down £110.

The question then is what do you do – do you bet £110 – a win will see you even – but that is seven bets to come out square! A big risk for no gain. Of course that is assuming you win and with blackjack, anything can happen.

Most blackjack players would expect to win at least one hand in five. However, at only £10 per winning sequences, you would need around 50 winning bets to cover a potential losing streak. Ask any gambler if they have had losing runs. I am sure they will admit to having had the occasional bad streak.

If you can find a blackjack system that improves your chances of winning each hand, then perhaps you may find a progressive betting system profitable. Otherwise, you may as well just give your money to the casino.

For more information on blackjack and other casino games, visit UK Betting Central.

Casinos love novices when it comes to playing at the tables and none better than the novice blackjack player. You see the house gets a reasonable return on all blackjack tables but throw a novice in and their return climbs to 20-30%. Lets face it, how would you like to make a consistent 20-30% all day everyday – I know I would. Are you are novice and if so, what areas do you need to brush up on?

Novices are scared to play aggressively.
Novices play in a conservative manner often standing when they ought to hit and doubling or splitting pairs at the wrong times. When the right opportunity arrives, they either miss it or count their coins and decide against the risk.

Novices don’t learn the game.
Novices think they understand the game or foolishly think they know it all and it is so easy. It is never that easy unless you do have thorough knowledge of the game and some of the odds associated with each hand.

Novices try to learn while playing.
That should probably be = novices learn to play while losing money. And because they are losing money they are constantly looking back, never actually learning the game. The only way to really learn is to watch others at play and to sit at home and practice, watch and practice until you feel you can win more than you lose.

Blackjack is a lot of fun, but not if you are losing regularly. You can win regularly if you learn the game and learn how and when to bet. If your one of those novices, learn how to play take the advantage back from the casinos.

For more tips and links to blackjack and other games, visit UK Betting Central today.

Do you like the idea of winning? Do you like the idea of making money? If you sign up and deposit £100 at Ladbrokes casino, then play £400 worth of bets (automatically), you can claim a £100 bonus. Once you have claimed your bonus you will need to wager another £400 worth of bets to meet the wagering requirement.

Ladbrokes have a low rollover compared to other casinos and the beauty of this bonus is that you can use their Auto-Play facility. This lets you play automatically using a perfect blackjack strategy. You can go shopping or watch the football and come back to see the results.

Nothing is risk free of course, however by using the perfect blackjack system you reduce the houses edge to just 3%. In theory, you should return £97 for every £100 invested. Invest £400 to receive your £100 bonus. You may have lost £12 (£3 per £100) but you are gaining £100.

Once you have received your £100 bonus, you need to invest a further £400 worth of bets. Again, you may lose £12 but the end result is that from your initial deposit of £100, you have lost £24 (2 x £12) but gained £100 leaving a neat £176 in your account. Where else can you make 76% profit in a couple of hours.

There are terms and conditions to meet so I suggest you read them before jumping in. I have however mentioned most of them. One other condition you must meet is for your initial deposit. In the initial round of betting, you must bet 10% of your opening deposit. For £100, this would mean a bet of £10. Once you have completed that first round of £400, you can drop back to playing whichever value suits you, even £1.

UK Betting Central has all the good oil on Ladbrokes and most of the other top online casinos.

Blackjack, one of the most popular games in any casino be it online or off. Not only is blackjack one of the most popular games, it is one of the easiest to learn – it is the strategies that are often hard to come to grips with.

The principle of blackjack is simple. Beat the dealer without going over 21. You don’t have to beat any other player, just the dealer. That doesn’t mean you ignore the other players. You need to follow their cards in an attempt to determine which cards are left. Clever card counters can often predict what is left in the deck with fairly good accuracy.

Some casinos make life easier for you by having a predetermine number that the dealer must sit or draw on – it is often set at 17. In reality you always need to play to either beat that 17 or play for the dealer to bust. It is all about odds – if the dealer is sitting on 15 or 16 with preset sit on 17, the odds are in your favor that they will bust on a draw. The problem is you only get to see one of their cards.

This is where game strategy comes in. There many different game strategies that you can employ. Once you settle on a game play you need to follow it through. We have written several articles here on the Gambling Tips Blog about blackjack and they are well worth a read.

UK Betting Central also have an interesting article on blackjack along with links to some of the top online casinos that feature blackjack.

Blackjack – its fun, its easy and it can be profitable.

Everywhere you go there are tips on when and why you should or should not split pairs when playing Blackjack. Do you have a strategy and if so, what is it based on? I hear advice such as always split sevens, or only split sevens if the dealer has a two, three or four. The advice is endless. Rather than advising what you what to do, let’s have a look at the simple maths when it comes to pairs. From there, you can determine your own strategy.

Splitting the Sevens. A pair of sevens is like being in no-mans-land. 14 is a fairly weak hand and unless the dealer busts has little chance of winning. If you decide to split your sevens you have a better chance of gaining a winable hand. Draw an eight or better and you have improved your hand. Draw a 4 or less and you can hit again. The cards you probably don’t want to see are the five, six or seven. The game will now be determined on your strategy for holding a twelve, thirteen or fourteen. The reality is if you split sevens you have a very good chance of improving your hand.

Splitting Two through Six. The chances of improving your hand decrease with all other pairings except perhaps the pair of six’s. Twelve is a no-mans-land in Blackjack. Splitting your six’s may improve your hand. However drawing a seven through face will only give you a max of sixteen. Draw two through five and you can hit again. Draw another six and your back to square one. With pairs in the two through five range the chances of improving your hand are fairly problematic. If you hod a pair of five’s and split, the best you can achieve on singe draw is 15 with a ten or face card. If you are holding a pair of five’s then the ten or face card would have been perfect for a 20. The situation is true for the other pairs under five.

Splitting Eight and Above. The pairs eight and above are already in winable positions. The question should be, can you improve your position. If you split these pairs and draw the same card or higher then you will improve your position. The higher the card value the less chance there is to draw a higher card. Of course with face cards the only higher value is an ace. When splitting face cards you are more likely to reduce your hand than increase it. There are 36 cards lower than ten and only 20 cards ten and above. If you hold two of these then you are hoping to draw one of four aces or one of 18 ten and above carsds.

Splitting Aces. You can improve your hand when splitting aces. With split ace pair, draw a ten plus and your laughing. Draw seven, eight or nine and your happy. Draw two through six and your sweeting on the dealer.

Splitting in Blackjack is often a matter of thinking about the maths and probability. The dealer’s card can be important, but this is generally after the split and when determining whether to sit or hit. What is your strategy?

OK, this story may not be quite true, but it’s fascinating, nevertheless:

Just before starting a game of blackjack, a player is discussing with the dealer whether or not the dealer should get a tip.

The player puts forward his argument, which goes like this: “When I get dealt bad cards, I know it’s not your fault. By the same taken, when I get dealt good cards, I know you had no way of knowing that I would get that cards. So I reckon that since you have no control over what kind of cards I get, I should not have to tip you!”

The dealer considers this, then replies: “When you go out to a restaurant, do you tip the waiter?

“Well, of course I do,” replies the player.

“Aha!” exclaims the dealer triumphantly. “The waiter serves you food – I serve you cards. There’s really no difference, so we should be treated the same. I should get a tip!”

“Treated the same, you say,” the player says thoughtfully.

“Yes!” replies the dealer emphatically.

“In that case,” says the player, “I’ll have a jack and an ace dealt to me. You see, I always tell the waiter what to serve me, and his tip depends on the quality of the service. So if you are to be treated in the same way as the waiter, I’ll have my jack and ace now please!”

Tipping blackjack dealers can have its problems. Better just to play and enjoy the game. UK Betting Central has lots of good advice about online casinos.

Playing blackjack may sound simple compared to other casino card games. However, you also have to know to take chances in blackjack. Ideally, the first two dealt cards will provide you with a total. In some cases, these can be good or bad. Good meaning you get a low or high total. It may be bad in the sense that you are left with little room to breathe in. Imagine a 16 or 17 card total. Where do you go?

Some say it would be best to check out your only opponent, the dealer. Check out his hand and do probabilities based on card counting and what is actually shown. A Face card or an Ace will really get on your nerves. But you are still at a loss for words on whether to hit or stand. Some would stand and let the dealer play on if his card total is lower than yours. You can also hit and try to gamble on getting a 5 or 6 card to be safe at 21. These are only possibilities. Either way you have to make a move.

You can play it high risk or conservative. While the latter seems to be more ideal, it still stands that you have to decide sooner or later. Just be practical and attentive during blackjack games, especially when cards are dealt. It may come in handy in penultimate stages of your blackjack session.

Blackjack is known to be a game of 21 but the chances of getting the exact total is hard to come by. Ideally, the whole goal of the game is to try and get as close to the said total or if you are lucky, a Blackjack to simplify things as much as possible.

There will be instances when blackjack players will have to make crucial decisions. This surfaces when they find themselves nearing the borders of 21. A card hand that shows a total of 16 or 17 is risky and for conservative blackjack players, standing on that total against the dealer is the safest route to take.

It should be remembered that the card totals should not exceed 21 or they will be considered a bust. Once this happens, the dealer doesn’t even need to show his hand nor hit his since technically, that hand is over.

Usually, the shown card of the dealer can more or less help in making a player decide on whether to take a risk or not. High card equivalents such as face cards and Aces will surely rattle most players because probabilities and stakes become higher. However, until the second card is revealed, nothing is definite. The decision on whether to hit or stand depends entirely on the player.

Tricky as it may seem, that is the main summary of gambling… taking risks. Some may be good at it and some not. Whichever category blackjack players find themselves into, they are sure to know what they are doing since they are playing according to the bets that they have placed.