Play Blackjack Step by Step

Starting out: If you are new to blackjack, play online, casinos offer a practice mode with autoplay to assist you. Play until you have the hang of it so that you don't lose money foolishly.

Bankroll: Always predetermine your Bankroll prior to playing so that you are not spending money you shouldn't be in the heat of the moment when you just feel like the next hand could be "lucky".

Choosing a Table: Choose a poker table where the maximum bet is not higher than 5% of your bankroll, that way you will lose less and be able to enjoy a great deal more game time, rather than playing one or two hands and being done.

Basic Strategy: Memorise it, apply it and stick to it no matter what … This is probably the most important blackjack tip we can give you, and if you will only pay attention to one of these, this is it!

Think 21: The aim of blackjack is to get as close to 21 as possible, don't try to copy or beat the dealer, you will bust more often than you win.

Insurance is for cars and card counters: You can't card count online, so just forget that the option of insurance even exists.

Split: pairs of Aces and 8's, but DO NOT do this on any face cards or 10's.

Know when to hit and stand: Hit hard until you reach 17 or more, stand on 17 or more and hit soft 18 if the dealer has 10.

Watch the values: If the dealer holds 7 or higher, play up until 17 or higher. Against dealers, 4, 5 or 6 double with 9 and play soft hands of 13-17. Double your 10 against dealer's 9 or lower and double with any hand of 11.

Variation is key: Vary your betting amounts according to your results, increase them if you are winning and decrease them if you are losing. This is common sense that is often forgotten in the excitement of this casino game.

France Endorses Internet Poker

French government just proposes to its congress a law amendement concerning the openning up of gambling market. If approved, this reform will come into force from Jan. 1st, 2010. Only those internet sites with a licence will be authorised.

During the last several decades, there are only two national companies that take legal control of online gaming industry in France, La Française des jeux and PMU. Things are changing. The government is forced to break up the monopoly for the head-on competition from Internet gaming.

The minister of Budget, Éric Woerth, explains that 5% of French frequent those "underground" gaming sites which are illegal according to current law, and it's potentially dangerous. These sites' number has passed 25,000 among which 20% are in French language. And the total revenu can reach 2 billion euro per year. While three quarters of this sum evades tax.

The opening of this market to free competition will concern horse gambling, sports gambling. While La Française des jeux will keep its monopoly in lottery. In terms of casino gaming, only internet poker are allowed. Meanwhile Blackjack, Roulette, and slot machines are still contraband.

Licences will be awarded to those qualified internet sites. And taxes are paid according to their revenue. Rate for sports gambling is set to be 8.5%. For horse gambling it's as high as 15.5%. While the tax rate for poker sites will be 2%, part of which will be used to finance cultural heritage programmes.

Top 10 Interesting Blackjack Facts

1. There is great dispute amongst the Italians and French as to who first invented the game of blackjack, although most think it to be the French.

2. The game was originally called vingt-et-un (French meaning 21).

3. It is well documented fact that Napoleon loved the game of 21 and played it when he had time to kill on his exile in Elba.

4. The name Blackjack came about due to a variation in the rules of the original game where payouts were given if a player held the black Jack of Spades.

5. Blackjack was banned in the US at the turn of the 19th century and went "underground" until 1939 when the state of Nevada removed its bans as it gave birth to Las Vegas.

6. In the early 60's Edward O. Thorp wrote a book entitled "Beat the dealer" detailing the mathematical workings of this casino game and is known as the father of card counting.

7. The publishing of Thorp's book lead to increased player attendance and winnings at casinos. The casinos then altered some of the standard rules, bringing about new variations of standard games.

8. Al Franesco was the inventor of blackjack team play, earning him and his team millions of dollars and resulting in the formation of many famous card counting teams over the years including the famous MIT card counting team document in the movie "21".

9. The seats positioned around a dealer at the poker table in blackjack are called "bases", and referred to as "first, second or third base", however these are the only baseball terms that appear in the game.

10. There is a Blackjack Hall of fame. It was launched in 2002 and honours blackjack experts, authors, and professional poker players who have made significant contributions to the game.

Useful Game Tips in BlackJack

Blackjack is a simple game—the closest to 21 without going over wins. In reflection, there are four steps to improving your online gaming experiences. They are based on the value of the dealer's up card.

1, if the dealer's up card is 7 or higher, continue to draw cards until you have a hard count of at least 17 or higher, or a soft count of 18 or higher. (A "soft" hand is one that has an Ace that is counted as 11. A poker hand that either contains no Aces or the Ace is counted as a 1 is called a "hard" hand.

2, if the dealer's up card is 6 or lower, draw cards until you have at least 12. Stop when you have 12 or higher.

3, double down when your first two cards total 10 or 11, If the dealer has a 9 or lower. To double down simply means you can double your original bet after you receive your first two cards. If you decide to double down you will then receive only one more card.

4, always split aces and eights. Do not split any other pairs. To split a pair simply means that when you receive any pair on your first two cards, you can split them into two separate hands. You can then play each hand as individual hands.

Let's start practicing what you've learned today at those online poker rooms.

My Big Plan

I am planning writing a book on poker and gambling!

The idea is simple.

First step is to look through some in-depth reviews about best-sellers. Keep the essence, and go the dregs.

I would make up a beautiful name for my works. For example, Zen and the Art of Poker would be a good choice, though it has been registered one step earlier by an anonymous poker player.

Anything you can imagine in the gaming world, you can find it in this to-be encyclopedia. Special sessions will be dedicated to poker strategy and tips. Ever-changing poker rules will take up little space due to their stubbornness?! And an extra chapter is for calculus—poker odds are always the pus-filled heel of we Achilles.

To make it attractive to both professionals and fishes, entertaining elements will score high here. Dumb Q&As will be tolerated. Amateur-type articles such as the list of differences between Baccarat and Blackjack will abound.

As for the catch, I will throw in pros and cons of cheating, the know-how of stacking poker chips (I can only offer links on Youtube due to paper's 2D limit). To be thrilled, my collections of freak poker news/stories will be the trump card.

Finally, I will contact with those slick print-on-demand publishers, like iUniverse or AuthorHouse. Of course I won't publish it, at least not with an ISBN. Current copyright law is lagging way behind in the trend of internationalization. For the time being, I will let it printed in limited edition, circulated first among my pals and relatives. It would be a superb birthday gift.

I won't tag price on it—money would be an insult to the art. To be honest, it won't surprise me it is worshiped as the bible of poker 2,000 years later.

Did You Know

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
This quote over the significant decline in the population of honeybees is attributed to Albert Einstein.

John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, was a man of doubtful integrity and a compulsive gambler who lived in the 1700s. He was so reluctant to leave a poker game even for a meal that he had a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so he could eat with one hand and play cards with the other poker players. The new invention was dubbed … a sandwich.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Dick Rowe said of the Beatles. The former was the executive of Decca Records (UK), the very company who rejected the Beatles. It happens in 1962.

In France, Blackjack call this land hometown. In French decks, the four suits represent the four classes: Spades represent nobility, hearts stand for the clergy, diamonds represent merchants, and clubs are peasants. Maybe here poker rules are different, too.

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels".
Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) said this. But 100 years before his quote, across the English Channel (or La Manche according to French), a big name had the exact opposite feelings:
"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
By Voltaire (1694-1778)

"All the evidence shows that God was actually quite a gambler, and the universe is a great casino, where dice are thrown, and roulette wheels spin on every occasion." Quoted from British scientist Stephen Hawking.

"Americans always try to do the right thing—after they've tried everything else."
—Winston Churchill

Top gun—Blackjack

Sometimes I love being in the crowd, enjoying the feeling of thinking while others are yelling. That's when I play in the pit, that's the charm of casino game, among which Blackjack is my favorite. The following is a simple-version of know-how about it.


Blackjack is partly based on luck, so don't expect to win every time. Compared with poker games (Texas Hold'em, Omaha, etc.), the way to play Blackjack is easy. All you need is a dealer (you can do that if it's played at home), some people, a deck of cards, and some poker chips (really optional and unnecessary when you play at online casinos). First of all, the dealer serves TWO cards to each person, face down. When people say HIT ME, you give them a card. If they pass the number 21, they lose. If you win with a black jack (it consist of an ace, a jack, queen, king, or the 10 card), you beat everyone, and the house wins. If you pass the 21 limit, you lose, and the players may win. If you play with poker chips, when you win, you take the chips (or if someone else won, they take the chips).

Quiz: I do not recall what it is called if two people have the same number (like you have 19, and someone else has 19).

P.S. My mind is like an open high way. Every thought can lead very far or nowhere.