Others believe that the French were responsible for Blackjack and it originated in French casinos around the year 1700. The French games Chemin de Fer and French Ferme were both hugely popular at the time and both of these games bear a resemblance to Blackjack. It is thought that the card game Vingt-et-Un was derived from these two games and Vingt-et-Un literally translates as twenty-one. Although this explanation is logical, the first written reference to Blackjack actually predates this period by approximately a century. Between 1601 and 1602, a Spanish author named Miguel de Cervantes wrote a story called Rinconete y Cortadillo. The main characters in this story play a card game called ventiuna which is Spanish for twenty-one. They even state that the object of the game is to reach the value of twenty-one without going bust and that the ace card is equal to either the number one or number eleven and these exact rules still hold true today in Blackjack as we know it.

Whoever invented the game, it is clear that Blackjack reached a new level of popularity after it moved out of Europe and was introduced to America. When the game was initially introduced gambling houses offered bonuses to entice players. An example of this which is particularly relevant is a bonus where there was a 10:1 payout if the player’s hand had either a jack of spades or a jack of clubs, i.e. a Black Jack. This is where the name came from that we use today even though the rules nowadays are different. If you play the game now the Black Jack hand is regardless of suit or colour. Thanks to the internet and the massive growth of online casinos, Blackjack continues to evolve with different variations of the game continually emerging.

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Blackjack welcome bonus (or match bonus): These are given following your first deposit; the casino gives you either 100 or 200% of what you deposited. The casino doubles or quadruples your money. Always make sure the casino you wish to register has the best bonus offer available.

Blackjack Reload Bonus: These types of bonuses are given if you deposit money for a second time at the casino. They may not be as generous as the initial welcome bonus, but you’ll also find casinos still offering a 100% match bonus for your second deposit. More than this, the best online blackjack casinos commonly even give out free money for your third, fourth and fifth deposit as well. Some casinos call these welcome packages. Ensure you search the internet for the best bonus.

Special Payment Bonus: You’ll receive this bonus if you use one of the site’s preferred payment options. Usually casinos increase your deposit with an additional 10%-20% in these cases. They do this because some forms of payments might be disadvantageous for them. So in order to avoid large operator fees, they encourage users to use alternative methods.

The best blackjack bonuses are ones with low play though requirements. Some online casinos will try to make it hard for you to earn a bonus by requiring you to wager your bonus money more than 50 times the original amount. The best blackjack bonus is one where the play though rate is 30 or below.

Not all casinos allow you to use blackjack play to count towards the bonus wagering requirements, so obviously the best blackjack bonus is one where blackjack play counts towards they wagering requirements of the casino bonus.

Another great thing about getting bonus money for playing blackjack is that you don’t have to only spend it at the blackjack table. Once the bonus money is in your online casino account you can go to the craps table, play slots, or roulette.

When searching for the best blackjack bonus ensure that the casino allows any blackjack play to count towards the wagering requirements whether it be the welcome bonus, the reload bonus or the special payment bonus. Also ensure that play through rate is as low as possible.

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Cards are valued as follows:

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - worth that number of points.

Ten, Jack, Queen, King - all worth ten points.

Are worth 1 OR 11, whichever is better for your hand at that time (aces can and do change from 11 to 1 to avoid busting.

A hand including an ace counted as 11 is known as a soft total (because you can hit without any risk of busting).

Play starts by you making a bet and then receiving two cards. If these are an ace and a ten-point card (ten, jack, queen, king) then be smile, you have a Blackjack and will be paid out at 1.5 - 1 (3 to 2) unless the dealer also has a blackjack, in which case the hand is a “push” (tie) and your bet is returned.

You’ll get a blackjack about 1/21 times. The rest of the time you have to decide what to do with your hand based on its value and the dealer’s upcard (one of the dealer’s cards is dealt face up).

If the dealer’s face up card is an Ace then you will be offered “Insurance”. This is a 2:1 bet that the dealer has blackjack (his face-down card is a ten pointer). This is a sucker bet unless you are counting cards, so just decline it and we can move on.

The dealer also checks for blackjack if he has a ten showing, but insurance is not usually offered (since he would have to have an ace as his other card to make the blackjack).

If the dealer has a blackjack (whether or not you took insurance) and you do not have a blackjack, then you lose. If you both have blackjack then you tie.

But most of the time, the dealer will not have blackjack and you will get to play your hand.

The first decision to make (if the casino offers it) is “Surrender”. Like the name suggests, this choice allows you to escape the hand by forfeiting half your bet. It is only a good idea to surrender hands which have a less than 25% chance of winning. Our basic strategy table includes advice on which hands to surrender.

If you have been dealt a pair, then you have the option of splitting the pair. You match your original bet and then create two new hands, each with one card of the original pair and one new card. This is a way of escaping bad totals (16 and 14) and getting more money on the table against unfavourable dealer cards (especially a 6). There are slight variations about how many times you are allowed to split and whether you are allowed to double after splitting but the basic idea is the same. Although you are allowed to split any two ten value cards, this is a bad idea - 20 is too good a total to give up. Our basic strategy table will tell you which pairs to split.

If you don’t want to surrender or split, you have the option of doubling down. This play allows you to double your initial bet but you must take one (and only one) more card. Our basic strategy table tells you when the double down is the right play.

Assuming none of these special options appeal to you, you are left with the basic choice of blackjack - Hit or Stand.

Hitting means drawing one more card to try and improve the total of your hand. If you hit and go over a total of 21, then you bust and lose regardless of what the dealer holds.

Standing means that you are happy with your total, and want to see what happens when the dealer plays.

So, now that you are done with your hand / hands, it’s the dealer’s turn. The dealer will look at his hand and follow the house rules. Generally these are “dealer hits on 16 [or less] and stands on 17 [or more]”. Some casinos allow the dealer to hit a soft 17 (a soft total is one that includes an ace that counts as 11) but either way, the dealer has strict rules to follow.

This guide has used the term “basic strategy” a few times. Basic strategy is a set of rules designed so you can make the best possible play on every decision you make. It has been perfected over dozens of years, and minimizes the house advantage.

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The Sting (1973)
The movie the Sting is one of the best gambling related movies ever made. Robert Redford partners up with Paul Newman as the con men Johnny and Henry. Together, they pull a con on a mobster, who has a history of cheating, betraying and murdering. Anyhow, its a great movie and probably deserved an Oscar.

California Split (1974)
This is a forgotten masterpiece where we get to watch two degenerate gamblers played by Elliott Gould and George Segal. The meet in random gambling places in the state of California and become friends who go on a gambling mission that will change their lives as they know it. This film is majorly set in card rooms and casinos and features real life gambling pros like Amarillo Preston.

Casino (1995)
Starring big stars like Robert De Niro, and Sharon Stone. The movie portrays the two faces of Las Vegas. On one side we have the fancy and glamour side with its high rollers, sexy waitresses and business men in top of the line suits. But then there is also a scary, violent and criminal side, which is run by power and money hungry mobsters who won’t hesitate to use a gun.

Rounders (1998)
Rounders is a popular classic for all those who started playing Texas Hold’em in the late 90’s. In this film, law-student Mike, played by Matt
Damon, loses thousands of dollars in what is supposed to be the last poker game in his life. But then Worm who is played by Edward Norton, comes along. Together they decide to win the money back and pay Mike’s debts, but this becomes a quite an impossible mission.

The Cooler (2003)
Bernie Lootz is a born and raised looser. Bad luck always follows him like a shadow. Gambling is not one of his strongest sides and that is just an understatement. When he comes to a blackjack table he and everyone around him looses. Bernie’s constant bad luck gets him the perfect job! He gets employed as a “cooler” which is someone who walks up to any table in a casino, and instantly, all the players start to lose. Bernie’s boss gets upset when a beautiful girl comes along and turns Bernie’s world upside down.

Blackjack, when played with basic strategy, only offers the house about a 1% advantage - less if played well. This makes it the game to play for the best chance of winning. Most casinos will use multiple decks (usually 4-8) called a shoe. This will up the house advantage closer to the 1% mark.

What is the basic strategy? Basic strategy is the complete set of optimal decisions on a hand of Blackjack. In English, this means that, depending on your card total, whether it is a hard or soft total or doubles, you play a certain way depending on the dealer’s face-up card. And if you play that way every time, the house will only have about a 1% advantage over you. Where you actually make money is knowing when to bet more and when to bet the minimum. I will get to that below. For example, if you have cards totalling a 12 that are not pairs, then you should only hit if the dealer is showing a 2,3,7-A and stand on 4,5,6. Basic strategy tables are available on my blog.

Like I said above, you make money knowing when to bet more and when to bet only the table minimums. This is achieved in several different ways, the most notorious of which is card counting. Card counting, when done in your head and without the help of any device, is legal and not considered cheating. However, if you are caught counting, casinos take a dim view of it and have the right to ban you from their facility. So, if you want to count cards, be sure to only do it mentally.

Card counting is not difficult. If you can add 1 and subtract 1, you are good to go. The trick is to do it quickly and accurately. There are several counting systems out there, but the typical system applies a point score for each card rank. Start out with 0 for a freshly shuffled shoe. For each face-up card from 2-6, add 1; for each 7-9 don’t add anything; for each 10-A, subtract 1. The higher your count, the more tens and aces are left in the shoe and the better your chance of drawing a ten or ace. A player may even double down on a high count because the chances of drawing a ten card are much greater. Basic strategy reduces the house advantage to less than 1% while counting, if done correctly, can give the player an advantage over the house up to 2% being typical.

Learning to count cards quickly and accurately is to take a couple of decks, shuffle them together, and as quickly as you can, turn them over and count them. If you get to the end, your count should be 0. If you know someone who plays Blackjack successfully, ask them to teach you their secrets. Above all, practice.

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Maggie Hines has not only been playing (and winning) lotteries, she is also developed strategies for winning at slots and Blackjack. She wants to share these strategies with you so that you may also enjoy the financial freedom she does.

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Next to some slots and craps I usually play blackjack only. A friend of mine directed me to Noble Casino. This is a fairly new casino, I think they became operational in 2009, but they are very professional. Because my friend referred me to Noble Casino we both received a special referral bonus I could use at the Blackjack tables right away.

My first blackjack games at Noble Casino did not go as planned, I was not adjusted to the Noble Casino interface and therefore clicked wrong a few times which cost me a couple of dollars. But within 10 minutes I got really used to Noble Casino and I started to appreciate to software very much. The interface is quick and clear and the important buttons are presented larger than less important buttons. As soon as I was really acquainted with the software I decided to try my luck and I moved to the higher limit blackjack tables.

From the lobby it was very easy to browse through the different limits and I soon arrived at the $10 blackjack tables. In the meantime my computer was giving me messages I needed to make a backup which I decided to postpone for 1 hour. Back in Noble Casino I had to make my first bets before the dealer could start dealing the cards. My first hand started out with an eight and a three, a perfect start! With the dealer also hitting an ace I was determined to hitting blackjack right away. With a nine as my third card I celebrated a bit inside but I was not safe yet. The dealer slowly turned over his card, it was a five, he therefore decided (automatically) to hit another card, this time it was an eight and dealer was bust! I made $10 profit in my first hand at these limits, and I started to like it!

I ended up playing for three straight hours at the blackjack tables of Noble Casino, it was really exciting and even though I had some ups and downs I ended up with a small profit (just over $500) which I kept in my account for the next day.

Playing blackjack at Noble Casino was really giving me the excitement a casino should provide. It was a clear and nicely designed interface which definitely met up to all my expectations. A few weeks later I suddenly received an email from Noble Casino giving me a reload bonus if I decided to come back to the blackjack tables, what a very nice way to treat your customers!

Looking back Noble Casino is definitely a great casino to play games and especially blackjack.

This article is written by Tom. Tom has been a casino blackjack player for over 10 years and enjoys the possibilities of online casino’s and especially casino bonuses. An estimated guess would bring his total bonus winnings at about $6,000.

Aside from the knowledge and skills that you need to utilized in this card game, there are also four unique aspects that you need to consider in order to become successful in playing blackjack and among these things are the knowledge or information, bankroll, money management and especially the discipline.
When it comes to the knowledge that you have, it is

The next feature that you should consider when playing the game is the bankroll, since it is as imperative as knowledge. You cannot completely take pleasure in and play the amusement if you do not have this quantity of money in your pocket. It is predictable that you should have sufficient budget when you decided to play the game, and as much as possible you must look forward to the possible sum that you are going to use up in the table of cards, in order to go on playing especially when the game is getting hotter.

Add on to your list also the money management. It is chief for you to know on when and what time you are going to pay out your money chiefly. You must have those strategies which will give you the best advantage of handling your money well while the game is still ongoing. Playing blackjack fundamentally involves money, thus, make use of it well.

In conclusion, the discipline should come at last. The word “discipline” covers all features in playing the game. A lot of gamblers require this aspect, and which is the cause why the majority of them failed in winning, and most often they got lost in the game. Identify on when to stop the game when you are playing the card game. If you really wanted to win blackjack in casinos, then follow these things and you will get your victory after all.

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Don’t go down to the casinos unarmed. It’s literal suicide

First, the player should keep track of all the cards which were already played to be able to gauge how rich or how lacking the deck of cards is. The player then assigns a value of point to every card played. He or she needs to do some computation. A card counter does this. The main point is that a plus point is given to a card if it is favorable, and a minus point to a less favorable one. Thus, high cards are assigned minus one (-1) point while low cards are given plus one (+1). Those in cards in between are given zero (0). The card counter then keeps track of all cards played and designates either adding or subtracting points to each and updates the total from time to time. The total process is called ‘running count’.

Another term a player may encounter is the ‘true count’. This is obtained after the card counter divides the running count with the proportion of the card deck size remaining. This then determines the richness or lack in the deck of card.

Also, the counter should check the up card of the dealer. This is to weigh his options and determine if he will bet the maximum or not. The point is that a positive count is of course very good, and a high positive count is always the best. So, cards two to six is given a point value of plus one while cards ten to ace is given a point value of minus one; in between cards are assigned the value of zero. If your count is positive and high, then the deck of cards is in favor of you. With this, the dealer may hit and hit to reach 17 or may get busted. If you can determine that your count is high and the remaining cards are low, bet as high as you can.

Who is the card counter? Of course, it is you, the player. As a card counter, you need to have a very good memory bank and fast reaction so that you can count and compute while playing. This may seem hard but once you get used to it, you will get rewarded for sure.

You may practice with the computer. There are available computer simulators these days. With these simulators, you get corrected if you have made a mistake. These simulators may be programmed with popular systems. These also can keep track of long term wins which you may adopt and apply in your blackjack games. Also, there are many books about counting. Practice your running count with any number you see. For example, you saw a jersey with the number 17. Think quickly: Count is +1 because 1 equals +1 and 7 equals 0.

When playing, limit your money and time. Quit once you reached your limit. Do not waste all your money over a game.

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There are many card counting systems, but it is first necessary to learn the basics of the plus/minus point count system. This system is relatively easy and with a minimal amount of practice you will be ready to play for real. The more complex systems are variations of the plus/minus and can be easily adapted after learning the basics. There are also easier systems, such as the Ace Five count, but they are less accurate and require you to raise your wagers at a much greater rate. The way a casino can tell when you are counting cards is that you greatly increase your bets when the count is in your favor. The plus/minus system allows you to raise your bets at a more gradual and harder to detect rate.

In blackjack the player gains an advantage when the deck has a shortage of cards valued 2,3,4,5 and 6. The player is at a disadvantage when the deck has a shortage of tens, face cards and aces. By counting cards you will know when you have this advantage and be able to capitalize on it by increasing your bets. When the deck has a disproportionately low amount of face cards and Aces, you can alter your strategy by hitting on hands you normally would not. This will increase the overall number of hands that you win.

In the plus/minus point count a plus value is given to low cards, and a minus value is given to high cards. The higher the point count, the better the odds for the player. When the cards are being dealt simply keep a count in your head as you see each card. Start at zero and add one for each 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 dealt. Subtract one from your count for each 10, J, Q, K or Ace dealt. This will give you what is known as a running count. 7, 8, and 9 have a value of zero. This is because they have a very small statistical effect compared to the other cards. There are some variations, such as the Canfield Master, that use a value of -2 for the Ace instead of -1 or give a value of +1 to the seven instead of zero. A running count is the actual count and assumes you are playing with a single deck.

This system is balanced. There are 20 cards in a deck that are valued plus 1, and 20 cards that are valued minus 1. The remaining 12 cards (7, 8 and 9) have a value of zero. At the end of a deck the count will be zero. To practice this system, take a deck of cards and flip them one by one while keeping track of the count. At the end of the deck the count should be zero. Keep practicing by flipping the cards faster and faster and do this with distractions around. You should be able to count a full deck while having a conversation and watching TV.

Once you are confident that you can quickly and accurately count cards, it is time to look at your betting strategies. The higher the plus count, the more that you want to bet. If the running count is plus 1 or negative, bet one unit. The unit can be whatever you want it to be, but is generally the table minimum for beginners. When the running count is plus 2 or 3, bet 2 units, plus 4 or 5 bet 3 units, plus 6 or 7 bet 4 units and plus 8 or more bet 5 units.

It is rare that you will play in a single deck blackjack game. The next step is to calculate the “True Count.” The true count is calculated by dividing the running count by the total number of decks that have not yet been dealt. The most common, and easiest, way to determine how many decks are left is to look at the remaining cards in the shoe and make an estimate. A more accurate, and more complicated, way is to count the number of decks played based on the number of rounds played. If there are 6 players and each average 3 cards per hand, each round will use 1/3 of a deck. Most casinos use 6 decks. So, after the first round divide your running count by 6 to figure out your true count. After the second, third and fourth rounds divide by 5. The deeper into the shoe you get, the more accurate the running count is.

When the shoe is first shuffled the dealer holds about a 0.5% advantage. Each additional true count point increases the player’s advantage by 0.5%. So, when the true count is +1, you have even odds. When the true count is at +2 the players have a 0.5% advantage.

Dave “Tex” Daniels is the lead online editor for www.LayingOdds.com the Online Gambling reference website. For more information on card counting see Card Counting.

But, you are confused over how to address this need of yours. You can join forums to have a hang of gambling tricks and techniques online. Select a few forums where you can come across with many gamblers and gambling game lovers. You can have your queries solved through effective communication with them. The forums are an ideal destination to exchange your ideas and thought with them. You can participate in quiz contests on gambling games and gather knowledge of rare gambling aspects from such contents.

Blogging is a popular online activity nowadays. It is a craze with professional gambles and knowledgeable gambling buffs as well. Many of them own blog sites of their own. Blogs posted on these sites almost on regular basis are reliable sources of information on the game of blackjack. Make sure following the blog posts by expert and experienced gamblers to gather more and more useful tips on this field of your interest.

There is no limit to online resources of information on several winning strategies in this particular gambling game. Many websites offering online tutorial for novice players are there. Not only winning the game but also making money out of it is the purpose of many individuals. There are as many as hundreds of websites to provide tips and tactics on how to spin money by playing the game at both online casinos and casinos of brick and mortar.

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