In basic strategy blackjack betting, players can effectively decide when to increase or decrease their bet size while in the side games or during the shuffle. However, when it comes to many advanced strategies for blackjack such as those in card counting or with the power of the shuffle reverse implied odds, players are given the freedom to increase or decrease their bet size….while those in the side games are limited in their flexibility and are playing with calculative rather than intuitively influenced odds.
Moreover, in blackjack bettors are playing against the dealer and not each other. Consequently, bettors can effectively lower the casino’s overall edge when they are winning (i.e., the casino’s advantage over the player) when the odds are in their favor, and when they are effectively betting against the casino.
Blackjack bettors can effectively overcome the casino’s odd and even odds, which statistically always favors the dealer, by making a correct bet size bet. You can’t do this in the side games. You’re fighting the dealer and his lazy, smiling act, over the fact that you’re not allowed to count cards as part of a blackjack betting strategy, by beating the house even at its own game.
Blackjack even has odds during the initial stages and in the middle of a game, when the player actually can’t see the dealer’s card. These odds, incidentally, also are in the casino’s favor. This is yet another example of the house staying steady and losing small amounts of money while you consistently beat it, in what it terms an “even money” game.
Stay on the Chances
Statistically speaking, there is no reason that the dealer and the player will each of the time win the exact same amount of hands, or even win at all. Even if you and the dealer both have perfect hands, you’re not guaranteed to win. Other players at the blackjack table have the exact same chance of winning as the dealer, and this probability is called the house edge.
Even though the 7meter does keep a small edge over the player, however, by keeping a high payout on hands that are more likely to be a tie (what’s also known as a high payout), the casino can and will Sometimes make a profit even though the player loses by not making a high payout, or by paying out a high payout to a smaller number of hands.
Casinos do this precisely because they know that a player is more likely to break even when playing than lose, provided that the casino’s edge is brought down, netting the player a profit in the long-run. Effectively, the casino’s goal is to see players lose by paying them less than they win. It’s a win-lose situation, with the casino getting a small percentage of each bet.
Blackjack odds, on the other hand, can be positive, or negative. Or, in decimal odds, they can be negative. They can also be unknown as well as positive. A negative edge is when the sum of the cards is bigger than the dealer’s bet, whereas a positive edge is when the sum is smaller. Generally, a negative edge is always the casino’s favor.
Negative odds represent a situation where the player has a greater chance of winning than losing. Positive odds represent a situation where the player has a lesser chance of winning than losing. More specifically, the ratio of cards to say, a sixpack, is more favorable to the player.
Now, when applying basic strategy in blackjack, there is no reason whatsoever that you can’t convert the positive odds into the familiar, much smaller 1 to 1 odds that we know and expect. Any time you see a positive expectation, add 1 to it. For example, if you have a 20% chance of winning, add 1 to your odds. If you have a 60% chance, add 1 to your odds.
To make things even more simple, whenever you see a negative expectation, subtract from your odds the number of cards you expect to be dealt, which is 1. The cards that you don’t expect are the cards that will not be dealt. Let’s say that there are four cards dealt, but you have a 20% chance of winning, then you add 1 to your odds. If you have a 60% chance, add 1 to your odds.
In either case, you have a negative expectation, and the only way you can hope to win is if the dealer goes bust. A higher negative expectation means you have a greater chance of losing than winning. Let’s look at a high casino odds of busting with a 52.7% chance of winning: -160.7 to + 162.7.