If you are only considering the simple principle of getting a sum of 21, you will be confused. First, a player can't bust from the first hand. A bust means to have a sum greater than 21. The Royal cards (10 to K) are considered to have a value of 10, and the Ace can be considered 1 or 11. Therefore, you can't get over 21 from the first two cards. In fact, the perfect combination is to have a royal card and an Ace from the first hand. In this case, you have a Blackjack and you are a winner automatically.
The rest of the cards would keep their respective values; therefore, they are easy to calculate. Considering the first two cards and the card of the dealer (the card that is placed faced up), the player can apply some winning strategies. However, those strategies are developed by players individually, as they can't be learned from books and guides.
Blackjack probabilities
Blackjack is maybe the most suited game for statistics. Think about it: you will have the cards 2 to 9, 4 royal cards and an Ace that can be 1 or 11. This means that you can only get 11 x 11 values from the first two cards (121). Of course, the dealer will also get one of those 121 combinations. That is surely lesser than the number of combinations available of poker (more than 300 000 from the first hand). Therefore, the smart blackjack players could predict the wined of the game even from the beginning.
As you would gain experience in this game, you will discover that the combinations are not so hard to guess. If you have a royal card and a 6, let's say from your first hand, and the dealer has an Ace faced up, you can quickly predict that your winning chances are close to 0. If you are the kind of player that likes to risk, you will surely want to play the hand (you can also get insurance in this case, and this is a good prevention method). A preventive player would fold, even if this means losing the initial table entrance fee.
The blackjack game is preferred by many players because of these considerations. It is easy to play, easy to foreseen, and the chances are calculable. If you also have blackjack software to help you, the chances are increased. Take care with those programs, as the casino could cancel your winnings if the administrators would find out about this little helper. |
