Setting the blackjack table
Here’s a rule of thumb to ask about when choosing a table. Some casinos require the dealer to hit with a soft 17, while others require him to hold back. If you know a hit is coming, then you should double down. If the dealer should stand, then the player should hit in the usual way. Any blackjack expert will tell you this – if you have a choice – always go to the table where the dealer has to hold on soft 17. Your chances as a player will be slightly better.
The decision to not draw a soft 18 when the dealer shows a 9 or 10.
Holding 18 is a decent hand. It is a good total, and the chances of improving such a hand are not very high. However, it has been proven that you lose more money in the long run if you decide to hold back than to hit. You should always consider the possibility that the dealer may take a card that would make his hand better than yours and you would lose, as is the case with 9 or 10.
It has been calculated that if the dealer has a 9, there is about a 38% chance that the hidden card will be either an ace or a ten. The same works the other way around. No matter how nice 18 may be, don’t risk your game by holding back. Take the risk, decide on a good hand and avoid making one of the biggest mistakes in blackjack
Deciding to draw on a pair of 4 When the dealer shows 5 or 6
The basic blackjack strategy rulebook dictates that you should never split 4, 5 and 10. As you may have noticed, there is an exception here as well. It has to do with the dealer’s hand. If he is holding a 5 or 6, one of the major blackjack mistakes would be not splitting a 4. People think it would be best to hit because the chances of a mesh flush are non-existent, no matter what card would follow.
However, with a 5 or 6 in your hand against you, the dealer is more likely to lose. In these scenarios, you would want to play as many hands as possible before him, as this will increase your chances of making a profit and winning more money throughout the game.
You decided not to split aces
This is one mistake in online blackjack that can cost you a lot. If you have a pair of aces, it can be a pretty weak hand. What could you do with a two or a twelve? It’s pretty useless. However, if you split it into two separate hands, you could potentially have some powerful hands at your disposal that could bring the dealer to his knees.
Statistically speaking, there’s a 31% chance that you’ll get a 10 from the deck, which would instantly turn your hand into a blackjack. This is the best case scenario we’re talking about. There are plenty of other options that could turn your hand into a winner. Don’t dismiss the possibility of hitting the dealer and the casino where it hurts the most.
Deciding to split a 10
The last of the mistakes we’ve outlined here when playing eye/blackjack is a common one and quite serious – when you get a pair of 10’s. As with splitting aces, many blackjack players believe that splitting 10’s, especially when the dealer has a hole card in the 2 to 6 range, would give them a better chance of winning because of the larger number of hands in play. However, this is a small difference.
A pair of 10 already constitutes 20 of the 21 needed for blackjack. This is already quite a difficult hand to beat, and the statistics support this claim. The small difference between these two scenarios is huge in favour of not splitting and shows that if a player splits them, he is looking at an estimated loss of 53 dollars for every 100 bet.
These are just some of the biggest blackjack mistakes a player can make in their strategy. The truth is that it is an absolute must for any novice player to take the time and learn the basic rules of the game. We recommend that even more experienced players never stop reading and learning, because you never know what small changes in strategy can result in a loss for you or a bigger win.