Blackjack is a game of strategy and quick thinking! But no matter how skilled (and lucky) a player is, he is still bound to lose if he makes the mistakes enumerated below.

Disregarding Basic Strategy

 

Blackjack is not a game of luck or a guessing game. There are basic blackjack strategies configured by brilliant mathematicians and all you have to do is study them and put them into practice. These strategies are mostly presented in charts and tables, showing all how to play every hand. It does not matter whether you play online blackjack or in land-based casinos in any part of the world. The strategies are the same. Apply them.

Disregarding Playing Rules

 

The fact is, not all blackjack games are the same. There are blackjack games that favor players with their rules, and there are blackjack games with rules that are not player-friendly. There are games wherein a dealer stands on soft 17, while there are terrible rules wherein doubling is set to 10 or 11, or a player pays 6-5. The idea is to know the rules of the table first before playing blackjack.

Beating the House with a Betting Progression

 

When a player bets based on the results of previous hands, that’s called betting progression. And this “strategy” is a losing one! There is no scientific study that concludes that a player’s chances of winning the next hand depend on the results of previous hands. The truth is a player will lose more money in betting progression compared to waging the same amount on each hand.

Continuous Shuffling Machine is a “NO”

 

Plenty of land-based casinos use continuous shuffling machines to deal cards to players. This practice speeds up the game and deters card counters. A continuous shuffling machine usually has 4 to 5 decks of cards and discards are put back into the machine to be shuffled after each round. This way more hands are dealt per hour which means a player’s bankroll is more exposed to the house edge which in turn increases a player’s theoretical loss per hour. Blackjack should be played at a slower rate.

No to Playing 6-5 Games

 

A casino that pays 6-5 for blackjack is not exactly player-friendly. The house edge is about 1.39% in a single deck game. The house edge increases to 2.3% if blackjack only pays on even money. Today, 6-5 payoffs are also done on double and multi-deck blackjack games. The best is to look for a game that pays 3-2 for blackjack.