Posts tagged Getting
Blackjack Strategy – Some Tips on Getting an Advantage
Apr 20th
They call it gambling for a reason. It’s because it’s NOT a sure thing, unlike what many gamblers seem to think. So let me make this perfectly clear before you read one more word of this article. Over the long haul, you CAN’T beat the casino. I don’t care if you’re a magician. They have the odds in their favor for each game. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t, on any given day, go there and come home a winner. These few tips will help you get an edge at blackjack. You might want to make note of them.
At the top of the list, and this is a must…you have to learn to card count. I don’t care if you use a simple system like assigning minus 2 for each ten value card and plus 1 for each non ten value card (ace through 9). While it’s not the most accurate system in the world, it can give you a good enough idea of when a shoe is rich enough to jump into…which leads us to my next tip.
You don’t want to sit down at a blackjack table where the shoe has just come out. It is neither rich or poor and you will have absolutely no edge at all. You want to go to a table, preferably with at least 4 people playing, wait until a new shoe comes out, and then start charting the table. The reason you want at least 4 people is because that way, more cards come out and you have a better chance of reaching a rich shoe count. This is where you have more ten value cards in the shoe than other cards. The reason this gives you an advantage is because you have more of a chance of hitting blackjack and the dealer has more of a chance of busting on bad hands (up cards of 3, 4, 5 or 6) Once the shoe is rich (I prefer a count of 27 for an 8 deck shoe) then you sit down at the table and play.
My last tip, and this is something that so few people do, is to tip your dealer. Now I know you’re probably thinking that I’ve lost my marbles because after all, you’re there to win money…not give it away. But hear me out. Your dealer, believe it or not, is human. He appreciates you throwing him a couple of $5 chips once in a while. What will this do? Let me put it this way. Some dealers have been known to display pretty telling tells to patrons who tip well. Read in between the lines and you’ll know what I’m talking about. This can give the player an enormous advantage if he knows what the dealer’s down card is. Okay, got it? Tip your dealer.
I can’t stress the fact enough that gambling is hard. More people walk away from the casinos broke or at the very least down a ton of money than they do up. The reason is simple. The games are made so that the house has the edge. Believe what you want. If this wasn’t true, casinos wouldn’t be in business. However, if you take these few simple tips and use them when playing blackjack, you give yourself a decent chance of going home with more money in your pocket than what you started with.
To YOUR Gambling Success,
Steven Wagenheim
Tired of getting whacked at the blackjack tables? Want to turn yourself into a blackjack master? Read my review of Blackjack Secrets at http://blackjacksecretsreview.blogspot.com/ and start winning at blackjack TODAY!
Sit and Go Poker Strategy – Getting It All In Ahead
Apr 1st
The phrase “getting it all in ahead” has been used by many pros in their articles and comments which are meant to be used as valuable lessons to players learning the game or building their bankroll. However, getting it all in ahead is used far too often as a strategy in tournaments when given certain circumstances, it actually should be avoided.
Let’s clarify the phrase first. If you put all chips in the pot pre-flop with AA and your opponent calls you holding QQ, well you for sure got it all in ahead. In fact that’s about the best scenario you can hope for as you are better than a 4:1 favorite, and hey I am all up for plays like that.
Similar situations would be your pocket JJ versus a caller with 99. With a pair over pair your hand will do much better than say your AA showing up against suited connectors. But at 4:1 your +ev is so impressive that you should take that risk even during early stage, low blind levels of a sit and go tournament.
Now how about if you had pocket JJ and your opponent had the AcQc and you both went all in pre-flop? Sure you are likely to be ahead and you guessed right but your JJ is only a marginal favorite against AQs. It will win approximately 54% of the time. You got it all in ahead all right, but is it worth it?
Well in a cash game scenario if you did this all the days long, you will come out ahead, but not without some trials to your psyche. In a spot like this, playing sit and go poker tournaments with either hand, I want to see a flop and make sure it’s a flop that either helps my hand, or doesn’t help my opponent’s hand.
Because both are quality hands there is good reason to invest in them pre-flop, but not your whole stack!
In fact, your first concern should be to preserve your stack in early in the early going when blinds are low. Part of the reason for this is that low-entry, online tournament players often over play their hands enough that they create huge pots with marginal situations and although they may be right, there are usually victims in these hands too! But a fair amount of low limit players don’t really care about this either, they just want to play bravado style and show you they were right, even if they get sucked out on. Speaking of suck-outs, in the low limits going in ahead full charge, you better learn to deal with suck-outs in a big way.
The other major point about going all in early is that you often lose the chance to make the money later in that same tournament because you were willing to let it ride. If you really want to play like that, go play in the micro limits or free games because that’s where you can really push marginal edges and not really bother with the outcome. Suffice to say, while building your bankroll pushing 55/45 hands is not going to build your bankroll online.
Marty Smith is webmaster and player that has been playing poker for nearly 3 years now using money won from opponents. He teaches the basics of sit and go poker with a free videos series. He also rates and reviews all the online poker calculator software allowing you to see a product in use before you buy it.