Black-jack Basic Strategy, bet perfectly in a game with favorable rules, will reduce the advantage against you to about 1 half of 1 per cent, the very best odds of any game in the casino.
But still – it is a negative edge. Whilst you can win in the short term on any provided day, in the prolonged phrase that 1/2 % advantage against you will eventually work you down should you bet on long adequate and frequently sufficient.
An advanced basic technique – or what we call Basic Technique Plus – is essential for you to step up from getting a casual player to getting a serious leisure gambler who has a far better chance of succeeding over the prolonged term.
To decrease the tiny advantage against you with Basic Strategy even further, and at times even turn it into a positive advantage in your favor, you merely must pay attention to the cards on the table and develop several sense of the proportion of superior cards vs lower cards remaining in the deck. This can be precisely what a card counter does.
But you don’t need to spend the 100s of hours it requires to become a proficient card counter. It is possible to obtain a general sense of the proportion of great versus reduced cards by doing something known as "counting the table".
Counting the table simply means that in any provided hand, you glance at the exposed cards for all hands about the table (including the croupier’s hand). Do a fast count of all the high cards (10, J, Q, K) and all of the low cards (two – 5). You’ll find an equal variety of these great and minimal cards.
If you’ll find a much larger number of reduced cards showing than high cards (at least 6 more minimal cards than great cards in a six deck casino game), chances are that the deck now is a little bit richer in great cards, which is positive for the gambler. Conversely, if there are many additional good cards showing than lower cards (again, at least 6 far more), odds are the deck is now slightly richer in low cards, which is bad for the gambler.
Armed with the details gained from this quick table count, you can now adjust your bet on accordingly and thus be playing a little far more like a professional.
For example, there are a few basic technique moves which are so close that they could go either way. If you’re doing a table count, you have additional data that may well indicate a change in what basic system says to do in certain of these close call situations.
To illustrate, let us take the illustration of one of the most dreaded hands in Twenty-one: your sixteen count vs the croupiers ten up card. Basic system says to hit your 16 towards a dealer’s ten, but this is an very close call. You quite badly need a 4 or five in order to tie or win if the dealer also has a 10 card down.
So, using the table count, here’s what you do. If the table count shows at least 6 additional lows than highs, then stand on your sixteen against a 10. A disproportionate amount of small cards have been dealt and this lowers your odds of obtaining a small card to point where you should now stand with your 16.
