Raising Your Blackjack Bets - Blackjack Bet Raising |
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| How to Play Blackjack |
When to Raise Your Bet in Blackjack
Most everyone that plays Blackjack, has some sort of an opinion on how one should bet while playing. Some players, the ones that count cards, claim it is best to bet big when the count is a very high, positive number. This means, that more ten valued cards are on their way out of the shoe, than smaller cards. They base this theory on the fact that they have seen more non ten valued cards come out of the shoe already. There are some flaws in that theory. First flaw, is that just because there are more ten valued cards left in the shoe, than small cards left in the shoe, does not mean that they are all going to be dealt, because remember, the house instructs the dealer to cut off up to a deck and a half or more cards, off of a six deck shoe. This means, when the dealer has dealt out four and a half decks of cards from the shoe, to stop dealing the cards and shuffle the cards, and you will never see the seventy plus cards that were left in the shoe, which could very easily include all of the big cards you were so anxious to see, and hopefully receive. The second flaw in this simple theory is, just because there are more ten valued cards remaining, than small cards remaining in the shoe, and to even take it a step further and assume that they are not all stuck behind the cut card, and that they are dealt, does not mean you, the player will be the one to receive those ten valued cards. In fact, those big cards could just as easily be dealt to the dealer, or the house, rather than any player at the table, much less of a chance that if they are dealt to a player, that player could be you. Keep in mind, the count is the same for every person at the table, all the players, and the dealer all have the same count, regardless of where you are sitting. The third flaw in this type of thinking is, just because you do receive the ten valued cards, does not mean you automatically win, the dealer could receive all of the remaining fives and sixes and only a few of the ten valued cards, but remember what five added to six equals, eleven, which pretty often can be turned in to a twenty one, which all of the ten valued cards in the world, is not going to beat. An other system of betting that a lot of Blackjack players like to use, is streak betting. Streak betting is simply betting big when you are winning and betting small when you are losing. This is not a very sophisticated system of betting. There are some flaws in this type of thinking as well. The only way to know you are winning, is to have won a few hands in a row, since you can not go back in time and place larger bets on the hands you already won, you are actually just basing your future bets, on the results of previous hands played. A lot of players forget, that the more hands in a row you win, the lower and lower the odds are that you will win the next hand. So, some players might say that a better way to bet would be, the more hands in a row you lose, the better chance you have of winning the next hand, so after losing a bunch of hands in a row, bet really big, in hopes that your bad luck streak has ended. The problem with that way of playing is, you can never be sure of just how many hands you can lose in a row. Some Blackjack players like to be superstitious about the way they bet. One example would be, some players like to bet big after getting a blackjack, or if the dealer breaks for the first time in a while, they might bet extremely big the next hand, in hopes that the dealer is starting down a path of losing a lot of hands in a row. A lot of Blackjack players like to parlay their bets, meaning to increase their bet, after each time of winning. The first thing that comes to mind when I see a player using this strategy is, you will always lose your biggest bet. To make things worse, you never know just how bad you are going to lose that big bet. When a player places their biggest bet, they assume the worst that can happen is, that you will lose to the dealer's better hand. Well, it can be much worse and much more expensive than that. Say you put out the biggest bet of the day, well, who is to say you will not be dealt a pair of aces, and the dealer has a ten valued card as an up card, basic strategy says to split those aces, how do you feel about that big bet now? Okay, if that sounds bad, try this one on for size, what if you are dealt a pair of eights, and the dealer is showing a six as an up card, looks good, right? What if you happen to have the chips in front of you to split those eights, but wait, one of those eights, gets a three put on it, for a total of eleven, now the basic strategy card says to double down on that eleven. What if on that double down, you score a deuce, but on that second eight, you get a third eight, and split again, only to get an other eight, and more twos or threes for double downs? Now, your biggest bet of the day, turns in to maybe eight biggest bets of the day, all in one hand. This is one of the times where parlaying your bet, when winning can make or break your bankroll in the game. In the end, it seems all Blackjack players have some sort of system of betting they claim to be their own, weather it be based on math, luck, gut instinct, or the alignment of the planets. It's good to tailor a strategy that best fits your personality, and the best advice I can offer, is to stick to your system, there is nothing more aggravating than to regret not playing the way you always have played, or promised yourself you would play. The decisions you make in consideration of how you play a specific hand, should not be dictated, or influenced by the amount of money you wagered on that hand. In other words, if you can not afford to split a pair of eights dealt to you, because you placed too big of bet, than you should not have put such a large bet out there. When basic strategy advises you to split your eights, it is because the math has calculated that move to be the best chance of winning that hand. Why ruin your chance of winning that hand, by being afraid of losing more money, and not putting your chips where you guts once were? It is also best to remember, when betting big, is that a lot of casinos will not stop the game, to allow you to go hit the cash machine, or to go write a check, or get a cash advance on your credit card, to split your eights. It is best to be prepared for such scenarios, before deciding how much to place for a bet on the next hand. |
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