In order to have a chance at taking an edge over the house in blackjack, you will have to understand how the game of how blackjack strategy works and what the odds are of your dealer in the hand. It is basically a case of knowing when to stand or knowing when to hit. Most blackjack players decide whether to hit, stand, or split based on emotion, and not strategy, and this is where they go wrong.
When you play with your heart and not by statistics, you are giving your opponent a major edge. Those that play by a gut feeling will ultimately be a losing player over a large sample of hands or sessions. There are multiple reasons why this is true. The first aspect to look at would be that the player is hitting too often when their hands are somewhat playable against the dealer’s hand. Even if your hand does not look good by itself, it can still hold a lot of showdown value against certain cards the dealer may hold.
Therefore, the idea of playing blackjack strategically is to play in a manner that will not cause you to bust too many hands, and to make sure you get the most value out of your hand. In order to have an edge over the house, you will have to analyze the dealer’s cards every hand to decide whether hitting or standing would hold weight.
Dealer up Card
The dealer’s showing card holds the most value towards what your action should be. For instance, if the dealer is showing an ace, he almost always has an edge over your hand. The possible hands for the dealer to have with an ace showing are generally a lot stronger than your possible hands. You will make your play depending on what the dealer has showing, in comparison to your two cards.
Dealer up Card: Weak or Strong?
The weakest card the dealer could have is a six, as busts are more common. This is followed by five, four, three, and two. However, seven to ten are fairly strong cards for a dealer to have showing, and an ace is a monstrous card to have up.
When considering the overall strength of the dealer’s card in addition to considering what your blackjack hand’s strength is, a blackjack player stands a far better chance of coming out ahead when making their decisions at the blackjack table.