Let's get back to blackjack basics

By Alan Vaughn

(First in a series covering blackjack basic strategy)

For the average, player proper basic strategy, coupled with money management techniques, can make the game of blackjack one of the best bets in the casino.

Unfortunately, most players only learn the most obvious parts of basic strategy and rely on their logic to guess at the remaining play decisions. For the most part these guesses are accurate, but I routinely hear players explain the faulty logic that they use to avoid correct basic strategy. In this segment I am going to explain why this reasoning falls short and explain why the appropriate basic strategy play is superior in the long run.

While most players will naturally hit hard hands of 8 or less, there are a growing number of players who take this opportunity to double down. Players have an advantage over the house on 7 vs. a dealer 6 and 8 vs. a dealer 3-7, so the thought is that if you have the advantage you might as well put twice the money to work. The problem is this approach does not consider the negative consequences of doubling.

When you double down on a hand, your chances of winning almost always decrease. This seems counterintuitive at first, since doubling down is one of the biggest advantages that players have, but when you see how a double down works it makes more sense.

Let’s look at an example. If you double on a 10 vs. a dealer 7 (which is a correct basic strategy play) any card 7 or higher will give you a made hand, but on a 2-6 you would be more likely to win if you drew additional cards. In this case the player’s advantage over the house goes down from 26% to 20% as a result of limiting yourself to one card. The 20% edge is then applied to twice the money so the total advantage increases to 40%, but this is a result of increased profits when you win, not an increased likelihood of winning.

On starting hands of 7 or 8 where your initial advantage is small (between 1% and 12%) and the chance that you will benefit from additional cards increases, the amount that you lose by limiting yourself to one card negates the advantage of doubling. In fact, doubling in many of these situations puts the player at a disadvantage. When you then put twice the money at risk, you are doubling the casino’s advantage over you.

So what is the overall impact of these plays? If you only double on 8 vs. a dealer 6 or 5, you will lose between an extra 3 and 6% of each bet. If you double on more exotic hands like 7 vs. 6 or 8 vs. 3, 4, or 7 you will lose an extra 10 to 26% of each bet that you place.

For a $10 level player, that’s between $1 and $2.6 that you are handing over to the casinos every time you make these plays. Often small mistakes like these seem innocent, but over time they can cost you a great deal of money. What other mistakes are commonly made at the tables? Find out in the next “Back to basics” article.

Alan Vaughn has played high stakes blackjack for several years in casinos all across the US. He recently moved to Denver where he teaches blackjack to players of all skill levels. For questions, comments, or information on lessons please email denver21school@yahoo.com.