Blackjack is well known as the only casino game in which a skilled player, under the right circumstances, can actually gain an edge over the "house." "Skilled," of course, is a euphemism for "card counting," but even without keeping track of the cards played, a player using the correct basic strategy can whittle the casino's advantage to almost nothing

Card Counting

The phrase is a misnomer, as only a "Rain Man" type could truly keep track of every card played. What card counters do is follow one of a countless (!) number of systems of keeping track of high cards, low cards or both. Some counters count only 10s. And the way a card counter uses his knowledge isn't so much a matter of changing strategy (though there is some of that) as of varying bets -- increasing them when lots of aces and 10s remain, decreasing them when few remain. That's the way casinos police card counting: They can and will throw you out if they see you varying your bet too much in an apparently systematic fashion. More commonly, dealers simply throw in an early shuffle to foil such a move -- and even the "normal" shuffle often comes far too early in the deck(s) for counting to really be effective. My only bow to the art of card counting is to occasionally toss in an extra dollar or two, betting $6 or $7 instead of $5, after seeing a hand in which the number of 4s, 5s and 6s played seemed to greatly exceed the number of 10s and aces played.

If the rote nature of memorizing basic strategy and following it bores you to death, here is where to entertain your sense of adventure. Feel free to follow hunches and bet a dollar or two more when you feel a blackjack coming, but don't follow that hunch that tells you to stand on 16 against an ace.

Or you could try a "playing with their money" strategy: If you win a double-down or split hand or a blackjack, raise your bet a little on the next hand.

An ill-conceived but popular betting strategy is to double your bet each time you lose a hand. That way, the theory goes, you eventually get your money back -- the worst you can do is break even. This is known as the "gambler's ruin" fallacy. The problem is that, even at a lowly $3 table, even a modest losing streak will quickly see you betting a rather large sum. Lose six hands in a row (and you will, just as you'll have six-hand winning streaks) and you're betting $192. Seven, $384. Eight, $768. Even if you have the bankroll and the stomach to handle this, keep in mind that the upper limit for bets at $3 tables will likely be less than $768.

Even some reputable, generally myth-debunking blackjack gurus will advise you to bet more during hot streaks and less during cold streaks. That would be brilliant advice, if you knew when these streaks began and when they ended. Trouble is, you don't. Do two winning hands in a row mean you're going to win the next hand? How about three? Four? Five? Streaks don't appear until AFTER THE FACT, and by then it's too late to alter your betting strategy to take advantage of them.

Cheat Sheet

When you play online blackjack you can use this to help guide you. The online casinos have no way of telling if you are using a "cheat sheet" or not. You will win more and play for much longer. When you play live Black Jack at a casino you can always ask the dealer for help, usually they will be nice enough to help you out because they do want your tip. Good Luck!