Gambling is a strange vice. Anyone with a brain in their head knows the games are rigged in the Casino’s favor, and anyone with a knowledge of Mathematics knows how thoroughly the odds are in the Casino’s favor. But that doesn’t stop people from dropping their paychecks in a few hours. I stopped by Atlantic City this weekend, and I played some blackjack. The swings are amazing. I only played for about an hour, but I am always fascinated by the others at the table and even my own reactions.
I don’t play to win, rather, I don’t expect to win, but I like to gamble. I like having a stack of chips in front of me, I like the sounds and the smells and the gaudy flashing lights (I like the deliberately structured chaos of the Casino). I allot myself a fixed budget for the night, and it usually adds up to approximately what I’d spend on a good night out. People watching isn’t really my thing, but its hard not to enjoy it at a Casino, and that’s something I spend a lot of time doing. Some people have the strangest superstitions and beliefs, and its fun to step back and observe them at work. Even though I know the statistical underpinnings of how gambling works at a Casino, I even find myself thinking the same superstitious stuff because its only natural.
For instance, a lot of people think that if a player sitting at their table makes incorrect playing actions, it decreases their advantage. Statistically, this is not true, but when that guy sat down at third-base and started hitting on his 16 when the dealer was showing a 5, you better believe a lot of people got upset. In reality, that moron’s actions have just as much a chance of helping other players as hurting them, but that’s no consolation to someone who lost a hundred bucks in the short time since that guy sat down. Similarly, many people have progressive betting strategies that are “guaranteed” to win. Except, you know, they don’t actually work (unless they’re based on counting, but that’s another story).
The odds in AC for Blackjack give the House an edge of about 0.44%. That doesn’t sound like much, but its plenty for the Casino, because they have an unfair advantage even if the odds were dead even. Don’t forget, the Casino has deep pockets, and you don’t. In order to take advantage of a prosperous swing in the game, you need to weather the House’s streaks. If you’re playing with $1000, you might be able to swing it, but don’t forget, the Casino is playing with millions of dollars. They will break your bank if you spend enough time there, even if they didn’t have the statistical advantage. That’s why you get comps when you win. They’re trying to keep you there so as to bring you closer to the statistical curve.
The only way you can really win at Blackjack is to have the luck of a quick streak and the willpower to stop while you’re up (as I noted before, if you’re up a lot, the Casino will do their best to keep you playing), but that’s a fragile system – you can’t count on that, though it will happen sometimes. The only way to consistently win at Blackjack is to count cards. That can give you the advantage of around 1% (more on certain hands, less on others) – depending on the House rules. This isn’t Rain Man – you aren’t keeping track of every card that comes out of the deck (rather, you’re keeping a relative score of high value cards to low cards), and you don’t get an automatic winning edge on every hand. Depending on the count, the dealer can still play consistently better than you – but the dealer can’t double down or split, and they only get even money for Blackjack. That’s where the advantage comes.
Of course, you have to have a pretty big bankroll to compensate for the Casino’s natural “deep pockets” advantage, and you’ll need to spend hundreds of hours practicing at home. Blackjack is fast and you need to be able to keep a running tab of the high/low card ratio (and you need to do some other calculations to get the true count), all the while you must appear to be playing normally, talking with the other players, dealing with the deliberately designed chaotic distractions of the Casino and generally trying not to come off as someone who is intensely concentrating. No small feat.
I’m not sure if that’d take all the fun out of it, not to mention draw the Casino’s attention on me (which can’t be fun), but it would be an interesting talent to have and its a must if you want to win. At the very least, it’s a good idea to get the basic strategy down. Do that and you’ll be better than most of the people out there (even if you just memorize the Hard Totals table, you’ll be in good shape).