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Other than that (which is huge,) you can beat it if you play small stakes and by the book You're obviously terrible at math. When the dealer has a T showing, then it's 2:1 against him having a 20, after he's checked for blackjack. The plain and simple truth is that no betting system on its own can help you beat the house, but some can help you improve your odds even more when combined with other blackjack strategies. For example, when using card counting and basic strategy, you can allow yourself to increase the bet amount when the count is high, as then the strategy. Play more games & tournaments - you can play up to 20 tournaments (that's 20 tables) simultaneously; In-Client Blackjack - great if a game is going slowly, you can play some blackjack while you wait using your poker account balance. Visit Bovada Poker to download the software, or check out my page on Texas Hold 'em Poker.

Card counting is one of the most famous advantage-play methods in gambling. In fact, a number of Hollywood movies include card counting scenes or are based entirely on this technique.

Skilled counters can gain anywhere from a 0.5% to 1.5% edge over the house, which leads to good profits over time.

Given card counting’s fame, the mainstream population and even many blackjack players themselves think that this is the only way to gain an edge.

But the truth is that you don’t have to count cards to beat blackjack. Instead, you can use one of several other advantage-play techniques to win.

I’m going to discuss how hole carding, shuffle tracking, ace sequencing, and edge sorting can help you beat the game. I’ll also discuss if any of these advantage-play methods are better than card counting.

Hole Carding

Blackjack dealers at North American casinos deal themselves one face-up and one face-down card. The face-down card is referred to as the hole card because it’s not visible to players.

The dealer is the only person at the table who sees the hole card, because they check for a natural blackjack before players act.

Given that you don’t see the hole card, you’re basing blackjack decisions on incomplete information.

Basic strategy helps you narrow the gap between the house and yourself. But you’re still at a slight disadvantage when using perfect basic strategy.

Enter hole carding: an advantage-play technique that involves spotting the dealer’s hole card. If you see their hole card, you can gain up to a 13% advantage.

Any dealer who consistently offers players a chance to see this is called a “flasher.” These dealers, through one mistake or another, allow players to gain a big advantage by flashing their hole card.

The best way to spot these dealer flaws is by sitting in the right seat and paying close attention to every hand.

Most players don’t pay attention to when the dealer peeks for blackjack or deals themselves the hole card. But by doing so, this gives you a tremendous advantage at a flasher’s table.

Spotting the dealer’s face-down card when they peek for a blackjack is called “first-basing” or “third-basing.” Spotting the hole card when it’s slid under the up-card is called “front loading.”

Many hole-carders sit at first base, which is the first seat to the dealer’s left. This gives you the best chance at seeing a right-handed dealer’s hole card.

The other popular hole-carding seat is third base, which is to the dealer’s immediate right. This is the best spot to see a left-handed dealer’s face-down card.

It also helps if you can gain a vantage point closer to the table felt. The more level your eyes are with the table, the better chance you have of seeing the hole card.

Shorter players have an advantage in this regard because they’re naturally closer to the table felt. Taller players often lean back to improve their vantage point.

Of course, the key is to do so in a subtle manner. Being obvious about leaning back or slouching draws attention to your hole-carding efforts.

Another thing that you need to be careful of is over-using your advantage. Sometimes you should ignore the info you gain when using basic strategy because some plays look too suspicious.

Here’s an example.

• Your first two cards total a hard 8
• The dealer’s up-card is a 10
• You see that the dealer’s hole card is 2
• The optimal play is to double down against the dealer’s 12
• But no regular player is going to make this decision because they’re not supposed to have this info

The last thing that you want to do is continue taking advantage of plays like this, especially when your dealer is a consistent flasher.

If the casino finds out that a dealer is consistently flashing cards and helping a player(s) win, one of two things will happen.

• 1. The dealer will receive better training
• 2. The dealer will be fired if flashing becomes a consistent problem

In either case, the work you put into finding a flasher goes out the window. And this is hardly worth taking advantage of a few suspicious plays that you should let go.

Players need to think long term and realize what kind of profits they can make by continuing to play at the dealer’s table. Avoid decisions that are too far outside the bounds of regular strategy.

It’s hard to find a consistent flasher. Casinos train dealers on how to deal without giving players a chance to see their hole card.

Nevertheless, some dealers either don’t pick up enough skills in training or become lackadaisical over time.

The best place to start when looking for flashers is casino-heavy cities like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Reno. This enables you to bounce from casino to casino within a single shift.

Odds are that you’re not going to find a flasher within your first few hunts. But once you do find one, note what shift they work and make it a priority to play at their table.

Shuffle Tracking

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Las Vegas casinos began implementing shoe games. The idea was to hinder card counters by forcing them to count through multiple decks in each shoe.

Casinos thought that they solved their card counting problem with shoe blackjack tables. But card counters merely adjusted their strategy, and other techniques such as shuffle tracking were born as well.

Shuffle tracking refers to tracking specific cards, or a sequence of cards, through multiple shuffles. Shuffle trackers monitor where 10s and face cards (a.k.a. high cards) are throughout the coming rounds.

Much like card counting, the goal is to bet more when the shoe is abundant in high cards. When used properly, shuffle tracking is much more effective than counting.

But this technique is also very difficult to use, because you must know an advanced strategy on top of card counting.

The basic idea behind shuffle tracking is that shuffles aren’t random, and you can track certain cards after a shuffle.

You might think, “Can’t dealers just shuffle more to make decks more random and stop shuffle trackers?” But many casinos don’t like their dealers wasting too much time with shuffles, because this slows the game and lowers profits.

Blackjack dealers commonly use a “zero shuffle,” where cards are separated into piles, with the shuffling only being done between the piles (i.e., the dealer grabs two piles and riffles them). This means that the ace of hearts, for example, would have a high chance of only being in one or two sections of the shuffled shoe.

Card counting comes in because you want keep track of the count in different discard sections. I’ll start this explanation by looking at the point values assigned in the Hi-Lo counting method.

• 2 through 6 = +1
• 7 through 9 = 0
• 10 through ace = -1

You can use other card counting systems with shuffle tracking. But the Hi-Lo is a popular counting strategy that’s easy to use.

As you may know, high cards favor the player by improving their chances of getting a natural blackjack payout. This advantage comes from the fact that players get either a 3:2 or 6:5 bonus with a natural.

Meanwhile, low cards reduce the dealer’s chance of busting out while they try to reach a hard 17. Anything that increases the dealer’s odds of winning is bad for players.

The premise is to make higher bets when the shoe is rich in aces and 10-value cards (i.e., positive count) and bet the table minimum when the shoe contains more low cards (i.e., negative count).

The overall positive or negative count is referred to as a “running count.” But Hi-Lo system users convert this into a “true count,” which accounts for the number of unplayed decks in the shoe.

Here’s an example:

• Your running count is +8
• There are 4 decks remaining
• 8/4 = +2 true count

Card counting and shuffle tracking come together when players have a good idea of what card values are left in the shoe based on their count. If they can take this a step further by visually tracking high cards and finding them bunched together, they gain an even greater advantage.

One big benefit of shuffle tracking is that it’s harder to spot than card counting.

Sure, you’re still increasing bets during favorable situations. But your increased bets come in a shorter span once 10-value cards and aces emerge in clumps.

Another advantage is that you can gain up to a 50% advantage with perfect shuffle tracking.

No player will have this edge all of the time. But an expert shuffle tracker may gain between a 10% and 30% long-term edge, depending upon the dealer and shuffling style they’re using.

The downside is that shuffle tracking is extremely difficult to pull off. You not only need to keep a good count, but also follow the deck with your eyes and understand how high cards will disperse after shuffles.

Be prepared to practice for quite some time in order to become an expert shuffle tracker. Even then, you need to be good enough to pull this off with a high degree of certainty.

In other words, some players fool themselves into thinking that they’re gaining an edge, when they’re really not doing anything special.

Another drawback is that not every casino trains their blackjack dealers in a shuffle that can be exploited. Some casinos use a 2-pass shuffle, where they go through two rounds of riffling and restacking.

2-pass shuffles make it harder to track cards during a shuffle. Ideally, you want a one-pass shuffle to cut down on the randomness of the shoe.

One more point worth making is that you can’t shuffle track with a continuous shuffling machine (CSM). That said, look for hand-shuffled shoes with one-pass shuffles.

Ace Sequencing

Ace sequencing is a different type of card tracking, where you try to remember what cards are on top of the ace in the discard pile. You then make larger bets when you see these cards come out in hopes of being dealt an ace.

Like shuffle tracking, ace sequencing is a difficult pursuit. The best ace trackers can remember up to a dozen card sequences in each shoe, thus greatly improving their chances of catching aces.

If you know that you’re likely to be dealt an ace, you can gain up to a 50% advantage on the house. When you’re dealt an ace, you have a 31% chance of getting a 10-value card and completing a natural blackjack.

But becoming a great ace tracker is hard because there’s not many materials on the matter – unlike with card counting. Additionally, it takes a while to learn how to properly execute this concept.

Ace sequencing begins with watching discard segments so that you can guess what clumps might appear intact after a shuffle. You also want to watch where aces go into the discard tray, so that you have a good idea on when an ace will be dealt in a segment.

Finally, you want to remember 2-3 cards that are placed on top of the ace in the discard try. Dubbed “key cards,” these are what you watch for after the deck is shuffled.

You then increase your bet when you see the key cards and can anticipate an ace being dealt.

But keep in mind that ace sequencing is just like shuffle-tracking in that it doesn’t work when your table has a CSM.

Edge Sorting

Edge sorting is an advantage-play technique that was popularized by poker pro Phil Ivey. Along with his partner Cheung Yin Sun, Ivey won over $20 million collectively from Crockfords and the Borgata.

Lawsuits ensued, and the court sided with both casinos on the matter. But this was only after Ivey’s case was heavily scrutinized by casino security.

That said, it’s theoretically possible for blackjack and other card players to win money with edge sorting.
This technique involves spotting flaws on card backs and using this information to predict card values before they’re revealed.

But you can’t just walk into the casino and expect to find a flawed deck to take advantage of. Instead, you need to know about design flaws in specific manufactured decks and determine where these decks are used.

This is how Cheung was able to help Ivey win millions of dollars. She analyzed a purple Gemaco deck for hours and became good at spotting the design flaws.

These flaws often come in the following form.

• One side of certain card backs will feature half-diamonds on the edge
• Other cards may have full diamonds on the edges
• These flaws are easiest to spot when the flawed side is rotated towards you
• The goal is to figure out which values have an irregular diamond pattern on the back

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Edge sorting works best when cards are rotated 180 degrees because this makes it easier to see the diamond patterns. This is why Ivey specifically requested that cards be rotated 180 degrees under the guise of superstition.

But Ivey is a high-stakes gambler who can make these kinds of requests. The average player doesn’t have this sway and won’t have a chance with edge sorting.

Unless you’re a high-stakes blackjack player, then you can’t gain an advantage through this technique through special requests. Even when you can make these requests, casinos will be on guard due to the fame associated with Ivey’s case.

Do Any of These Advantage-Play Methods Beat Blackjack?

All of the blackjack advantage-play techniques covered above can give you a greater edge than card counting.

You can gain up to a 50% advantage in the case of both shuffle tracking and ace sequencing. Hole carding can also give you a nice edge worth up to 13%.

I can’t find exact figures on what advantage a player can gain with edge sorting. But based on how well Ivey did, I’m assuming that you can earn over a 20% advantage with it.

Compared to all of these techniques, card counting is a much tougher grind. The average skilled card counter only gains a 1% advantage.

This means that you’ll experience almost as many losing sessions as you do winning ones. Because of this, card counters need large bankrolls worth $30,000 or more to survive variance with any degree of certainty.

But the good thing about counting is that it’s easier to pull off than any of the methods I covered above. Furthermore, you can find more blackjack games that are susceptible to card counting.

Contrast this to hole carding, shuffle tracking, ace sequencing, and edge sorting, where you need much more specific conditions to win.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try these advanced strategies. This is especially the case with hole carding, shuffle tracking, and ace sequencing, which work with great success in the right games.

But be aware that you’ll need to put in more work with these techniques to properly use them.

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Conclusion

You’ve likely heard stories of card counters getting kicked out of casinos. In fact, the movie 21 dedicates multiple scenes to the casinos’ pursuit of the MIT Blackjack Team.

The same holds true of any other blackjack advantage-play method you use, whether it be hole carding, shuffle tracking, or edge sorting.

Casinos are private establishments that can refuse service to blackjack players. And if they determine that you’ve gained an advantage in any form, they’ll ask you to leave.

This makes it important to blend in and act like a normal player if you do gain an advantage. If your edge is large enough, you might even consider messing up a few plays just to look like an average recreational player.

Above all, make sure that you have an advantage first. Then you can concentrate on a persona to use to avoid casino detection.

But before you embark on a quest to become a pro, I recommend playing some low-stakes blackjack while you figure the game out.

You can use basic strategy while keeping an eye on the dealer’s hole card, flawed decks, or shuffle-tracking opportunities. This is a nice way to transition from being a regular player to getting an edge on casinos.

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Blackjack uses a standard deck of playing cards and a set of rules that allows for a manipulation of the house edge based on the cards that have been dealt and the ones left in the deck. Further manipulation of the house edge can be made based on how you play hands.

Card counters use these facts to raise and lower their bets in certain situations to overcome the house edge, and some of them are able to make a long-term profit. It’s not easy, but blackjack can be beaten.

The common belief is that the only way to beat blackjack is by counting cards. But if you know what you’re doing and can find the right situations, you can learn how to beat blackjack without counting cards.

To be honest, I’m convinced it’s easier to learn how to count cards than do some of the things on this page, but not everyone holds the belief that they can count cards. Keep reading to see if you have what it takes to win without counting.

1 – Play Perfect Strategy

If you want to have the best chance to beat blackjack without counting cards, you need to start by learning how to use basic strategy.

Each hand you receive in blackjack has one particular way it should be played, based on what the dealer shows as her up card.

Basic strategy plays are based on the odds of each card being dealt, and are designed to reduce the house edge.

You’re going to learn more about how the rules of the game change the house edge in the next section, but when you use perfect basic strategy combined with good rules, you can often play blackjack with less-than-a-half-percent house edge.

Basic strategy seems complicated at first, but when you practice, you can quickly learn how to make the correct plays. You can use a chart to help you, and even if you don’t want to memorize the plays, you can use the chart while playing.

Here’s a link to a basic blackjack strategy chart:

Blackjack Strategy Chart

Find your hand down the left-hand side of the chart, and find the dealer’s face-up card along the top. The chart tells you the best play for each situation. It might not seem like the play is the best for each hand, but the chart has been developed using computer programs, and each play has been carefully considered. Any time you don’t use the correct play, it costs you money in the long run.

Here’s an example using a strategy chart:

You receive a seven and a six, and the dealer has a six showing. You find your hand, a hard total of 13, on the left, and look under the dealer’s six. The proper play is to stand.

Here’s another example:

You receive a pair of eights, and the dealer has a nine. You find your hand under the section for splits. The correct play is to split.

When you have an ace that can be counted as a one or 11, you look under the soft hands section to find the best play.

The final thing you need to know about basic strategy is to never take insurance or even money. Insurance is a bad bet and costs you money.

2 – Find Games with Good Rules

The basic rules for blackjack are the same in all games, but many secondary rules variations change the house edge. The difference in house edge changes from rule to rule, but if you can find games with more good rules than bad, it lowers the house edge.

Let’s assume the following rules apply:

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• A game with the exact same rules, except it only uses two decks, has a house edge of .255%.
• An eight-deck game with the same rules, except the dealer hits on soft 17, has a house edge of .661%.

Here’s a list of rules that are good for you and lower the house edge. Try to find games that have as many of these rules as possible:

• It’s better if the dealer stands on a soft 17.
• The fewer the number of decks, the better.
• Surrender is better than no surrender.
• The more hands you can double down on, the better.
• The more split options you have, the better.

In addition to these rules, you should never play a blackjack game that pays less than three-to-two for a natural blackjack. Many tables have switched to six-to-five payouts, and this increases the house edge so much that it makes the games unplayable.

3 – Shuffle Tracking

Shuffle tracking is an advanced blackjack strategy. The idea is to identify a group of favorable cards and track them through the shuffle.

When they are going to be dealt back out, you raise your bets to take advantage of a greater chance to get a blackjack and win.

When you have a better chance than normal to receive high cards (mostly 10 value cards and aces), you have a better chance to get totals of 20 and natural blackjacks. Because blackjacks pay three-to-two instead of one-to-one, when your chance of receiving one goes up, it reduces the house edge.

If you can successfully identify slugs or groups of cards with a high percentage of aces, face cards, and tens, you can play with an edge over the house.

Shuffle tracking is hard, and in some games, it’s impossible. Games that use automatic shuffling machines or continuous shuffling machines can’t be tracked. But if you play where the discards are, you should try to start tracking parts of the deck through the shuffle.

When you see a group of high cards placed into the discard tray, remember where they are located and then try to watch what happens to them as they go through a shuffle. The first several times you try to do this, you’re probably going to struggle.

But with practice and experience, you might be able to learn how to do it with enough accuracy to get an edge.

The best way to practice is to do it at home. Get a few decks of cards, take a section of 10 to 12 cards, mark the edges of these cards with a marker so you can see them in the deck, and then see what happens to them as you shuffle.

Different casinos have different shuffling techniques, so watch how the dealers shuffle at the casino where you usually play and try to replicate the procedure.

As you practice, you can learn where the marked cards tend to end up after they get shuffled. Each dealer is a little bit different, so your results won’t be perfect, but they don’t have to be perfect for you to get an edge.

You can also track small groups of aces. Any hand that has an ace is more profitable than other hands, so if you can identify when an ace is coming, you can raise your bet.

You can try to track aces through the shuffle, or you can remember the order and suit of several aces as they get placed in the discard tray. After the shuffle, when you see the first ace come out, you can make a prediction on when the next will be dealt.

Here’s an example:

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If you’re playing a two-deck game and see the ace of clubs, ace of diamonds, ace of diamonds, and ace of clubs all go into the discard tray close together, when the first ace of clubs comes out after the shuffle, the two aces of diamonds should be soon to follow. These should be followed by the other ace of clubs.

Just like normal shuffle tracking, this isn’t an exact science. But with experience, you can improve your predictive abilities. You can practice ace tracking at home the same way you would practice shuffle tracking.

Mark the edge of all of the aces in the deck, put a few of them together, and see where they end up when shuffled.

4 – Hole Card Play

Just like shuffle tracking, hole card play is an advanced strategy, and only a few players are able to do it.

Even though casinos train their dealers to deal so that you can’t see their card, some dealers are sloppy and will slightly flash their hole card value, which can help you if you know where and when to look for it.

When choosing a seat at the table, the best ones for spotting hole cards will be the seats directly in front of the dealer or to the opposite side of the hand they deal with. The closer your eyes are to the surface of the table, the better the chance to see the cards.

Use discretion, however, because most casinos are aware that hole card players exist, and if they think you’re trying to do it, they can change dealers, correct the dealer’s procedure, or make you stop playing.

You should start watching how every dealer places their down card to identify the ones that flash the value. Some dealers flash every card, and some just flash one from time to time. The only way to find sloppy dealers is to watch them on every deal.

You can practice reading hole cards at home by having someone deal in a sloppy way. Make sure they deal at the same speed as the dealers in the casino. You need to train your eyes and brain to read the card in a split second.

Many hole carders simply catch if the card is a face card or not. Even with this little bit of extra information, you can improve your playing decisions to the point where you can turn a profit.

Hole card play isn’t easy, and not everyone can do it. But if you can find sloppy dealers and read some of the cards, it can push the small house edge over the line to where you have a small edge.

5 – Get Someone Else to Count

One of the best ways to beat blackjack without counting is to get someone else to count. You can even get a group of players to count different tables at the same time. If you don’t want to learn how to count or don’t think you can, you can build a team.

Find one or more people who can count cards or who can learn how to count, and have them start playing at the beginning of a shoe and making table minimum bets. When the shoe reaches a point where the count is positive enough to raise the bet, they secretly signal you to join the table.

Your counter or counters always stay with minimum bets, and you always sit down and make larger bets. This way the counter is never identified as a card counter by the casino, and you always make bets with a positive shoe. The counter also needs to secretly signal you when the count for the shoe goes bad, so you can stop playing.

You can set this up like a true team where everyone puts in an equal amount for the team bankroll and receives an equal share of the profits. The other option is to hire the counters, provide their bankroll, and pay them a flat fee to count.

Both options require a level of trust, so you want to find reliable people who you don’t have to worry about stealing or making mistakes.

You only need one counter to make this work, but if you have two or more, they can count at different tables. This increases the amount of time you get to play with a high count. With only one counter, they might need to play through three or four shoes before finding a good count.

If you have three or four counters, you might be able to jump from table to table and end up playing most of the time you’re in the casino.

When you form and work with a team, you should never be seen together at the casino. Never enter or leave together and never talk while anywhere on the casino property. Most casinos have surveillance cameras everywhere, and you don’t want the casino to be able to connect any team members.

And even if you plan everything carefully and never get caught, you still need to play in different casinos. The longer your team plays in the same place, the higher the likelihood that the casino will realize that something is going on.

Conclusion

You can learn how to beat blackjack without counting cards, but it’s challenging. You should start by doing things to make the house edge as low as possible. Using perfect basic strategy and finding games with favorable rules is where you begin.

Then you need to learn how to use one of the other strategies on this page. Shuffle tracking and hole card play are two ways you can get an edge, but neither works all of the time. Your final option is to find someone else to count cards for you.

Now that you know how to beat blackjack without counting, you’re ready to get started!

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