You add counting knowledge on top of basic strategy knowledge, suddenly you have the edge on a few high value hands per shoe.

Playing 100 hand per hour at $5 with, say, .5% edge, that is like $2.50 per hour average loss. Cheap entertainment, doesn't even pay for the dealer, the casino is kinda losing already even if you are too. Plus you then learn card counting and come out ahead.

Basic can lower the house advantage to .26%, learn to count and you can get an advantage.

You lose more slowly..

Is this guy serious right now

If you want to have a positive expected result from your play you learn to count cards. Learning basic strategy is trivial in comparison. Card counting is not rocket science, but it's not simply memorizing a table. For most people basic strategy is the final stop on the blackjack journey.

Know your luck if your lucky or not or the dealer is good cheater or the player is like the dealer

Great to hear you're on a winning streak but basic strategy only minimizes the edge that the casino has on you as a player, it does not eliminate the edge completely.

To reverse the edge so you have the advantage you need to learn how to count cards. Some popular strategies include KO and Hi-Lo.

The correct chart depends on the exact rules of the game you're playing. Slight rule changes affect certain optimal decisions.

You can generate the correct chart for the game you're playing on wizard of odds

https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/strategy/calculator/

For the newbies there’s different basic strategy cards for the different rules in blackjack..so find out what rules your table has and search the BS card those particular rules.

These cards, especially the advanced ones are excellent

Rule differences, from most important to least:

1. Single or multiple decks - several differences.

2. Hit or Stand on Soft 17 - 6 differences.

3. Double after split, or not - tiny differences only for splitting pairs. Most important, don’t split fours if you can’t double after split.

Surrender, or not - your card should show surrender rules. If you can’t surrender, then just don’t.

Limited double down rules - just don’t double if you can’t.

Split limitations - just don’t split, if you can’t.

6:5. If blackjack only pays 6:5, instead of 3:2, do not play that game. Period. Go home.

https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/basics/#basic-strategy

print out the one you need for where you play. i laminate mine but it's not necessary. i use mine at the table. just make sure it's smaller that a playing card. just ask yourself, do i want to play perfect blackjack or imperfect blackjack? pretty simple.

In blackjack you can count the cards and play on variants giving you higher ev. For example I think on a true count of 4 you can split 10s and still have a high percentage of winning the hand

r/poker or r/blackjack would happily take your call.

Not really the right sub. There are plenty of blackjack, car games and gambling subs out there. This is more about collecting physical cards.

Try r/fiftytwocards.

This sub is just about physical playing cards, not card games.

This is a playing card collector forum. Probably not the right sub!

But mathematics over gut. "It was working" it a statistical outlier.

There are deviations from basic strategy, but that's another story.

The house still has the advantage if you use perfect basic strategy. It can be as small as around 0.5% depending on the exact rules, but it is still a house advantage. It's a good way to go to a casino and play for fun with an expected loss of only a small amount of money (roulette for example is ten times as high a house advantage) but it's not a way to make money in the long run. In order to make money at blackjack you need to count cards.

So the betting system you use really doesn't matter. Betting systems with basic strategy don't change the odds, they just redistribute your wins and losses - many small wins but a small but realistic chance of a large loss, or vice versa. You will still have an average loss of 0.5% the total amount bet.

If you aren't counting cards you can't win. Just flat bet the table minimum and rack up as many comps as you can.

As others have said flat bet the minimum. Depending on the market you can find $5 great rule games. But most importantly is learn the different rule variations (preferably double any 2, DAS, split 4x, S17 etc.) these drastically alter the house edge.

And of course, most importantly don’t play 6:5. ever.

You don’t have enough money at $500 to “beat the game” and you can’t beat the game with strictly basic strategy. That being said, go have fun, but expect to lose. Hopefully you get lucky, and that’s not the case, but ultimately, expect to lose

$25 per bet and cash out if you manage to get up by $50 - $75. Chances are that you'll lose (especially in the long run), but you might be able to get up by a bit in the short run.

Yes, the variance at blackjack is humongous, more than you can comprehend. Look, people playing with an advantage of 1% need a bankroll of $10,000 to spread from $10-100 with a 1% ROR depending on rules. You managing to win $400 from just basic strategy is totally within the realm of possibility.

But if you keep playing, you will eventually lose.

perfect basic strategy still leaves casino with around +0.5% edge

Sure, im profitable after 3 casino trips but that’s hardly enough of a sample size. You don’t even need perfect basic strategy to “make” money short term. But the math do be mathin and if you play long enough you will lose (and it probably won’t take all that long)

However that’s why gambling occasionally is still fun because on any given trip you have a reasonable chance of actually making some cash

The streaks you are describing is called variance and is quite high in this game. Akin to flipping a coin, if you get 10 heads in a row, that looks like a streak but you wouldn't be due for a tails, the odds still remain 50/50 on every flip. It's possible to get 10, 100, 1000 heads in a row but over time and through many simulations of heads or tails and blackjack (millions, billions, trillions), the odds still come out to the expected value. So if you bet $10 on every hand and play basic strategy (with a house edge of 0.5% let's say), you should expect to lose 0.5% of your bet every hand played. You might be up 650 or down 250 but this will average out over many hours and equal the expected value.

It is entirely possible to be profitable over the very short term. When it comes to the overwhelming majority of games out there the more hands you play the more you will lose.

Counting does not help much, it just points to those moments when you should bet more or less. Knowing that there are a few extra high cards remaining helps, and does increase your edge, but those same high cards could just as easily be delt to the dealer and not to you / the players. The edge is still very very small. Your days can and will be awful despite having good counts to play with. You will still loose more hands then you win even with good counts. Even with counting you can still loose more often then you win, and with greater magnitude, for hundreds of hours sometimes. Loosing streaks can and do last a long time. Winning streaks can do the same. Also break even streaks. This is a montononous game!!

Yes, I’ve been using perfect basic strategy for years. Many days I am extremely profitable. Unfortunately, unprofitable on more days.

Yes, playing perfect basic strategy in blackjack can lead to profitability over the long term. Individual results can vary significantly in the short term due to luck and variance. Even if you play perfect basic strategy, you may still experience winning and losing streaks. Basic strategy it's about over the long run and with enough hands played, following basic strategy can lead to profitability.
Do you not satisfied with results of your basic strategy? Perhps you should drop the number of bet or just try to play on free money firstly. When i was starting with BJ, i used free money firstly, and it provide me some income first. For example on Bitstarz and WILD io you can find no dep via registration to try, and also a lot of games that you can choose to spend time in.

Yep, but it also depends on the table rules. Some places won’t even let you double after a split. Always check first.

Solid breakdown. Most people just keep hitting on 11 instead of realizing doubling is the move.

Basic strategy charts literally saved my bankroll. Doubling on 10 vs a dealer 5 has made me more than a few sessions.

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This is the first time I’ve heard the BJA charts are “wrong”. That’s what I used (along with their software) to teach myself basic strategy. I can go throw the entire software (545 hands) and get 100%, so if it’s “wrong” I definitely feel some kind of way…

Hello, I am a Former Dealer/Pit Boss turned AP. There are “Basic Strategy Deviations” commonly used depending on the count and if you are trying to change up the flow of the cards or catch up when your down. A few examples are not hitting 16 vs dealer 10, 12-15 against dealer bust card, Splitting 10s. Etc. Once played at a joint to where the dealer always has a low card in the hole or a hand that bussed. Me and the guy I was playing with NEVER took a hit . It was strange and I didn’t like it every time we’d hit we would lose eventually we stopped and let the dealer bus.

The BJA charts are wrong, that's why. I think they tried to make a hybrid strategy to cover all USA games "pretty well".

It's a poor choice IMO, it's not hard to just use the proper strategy.

Here's a calculator from a reliable place:

https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/strategy/4-decks/

In the USA, you're probably playing H17.

reading a deviation chart

I put this together

How to Memorize Blackjack Basic Strategy

The biggest difference is if the dealer is showing a 2-6 or if the dealer is showing 7-A.

If the dealer is showing 2-6, your strategy should be to make the dealer bust and make sure you don't bust. If you have 14 and the dealer has 4, you don't Hit for fear you might bust.

If the dealer is showing 7-A, your strategy should be to make a score of 17.

With just those two rules, you have this modified Basic Strategy chart shown below. It's not the exactly correct Basic Strategy, but it's remarkably close.

From here, you build on the exceptions.

• 12 vs 2: This and 12 vs 3 are exceptions to the above rule. You want to Hit here.

• Doubling Down on 9: Double if the dealer is showing 3-6.

• Doubling Down on 10 or 11: Double if your score is higher than the dealer upcard. For example, if you have a score of 10 and the dealer is showing a 10, don't Double because it's a tie so far.

And with those three exceptions, you've pretty much got all of your hard totals memorized.

Now you gotta memorize your Soft Doubles and Splits. This takes a bit more work, but you can create your own mnemonic devices to help you remember. For example, I used the phrase "4-5? 4-5-6" as a trick to memorize Soft Doubles. This stands for "If I have A4 or A5, then I should Double against a dealer 4, 5, or 6."

Most of the decisions make sense when you think about them. Example, don't hit at 12 against a 6 because the dealer is likely to have 10 under and bust. Then just memorize the exceptions.

Anki flashcards.

I made my own spreadsheet based on the game that my local casino offers. (Just inputting the data manually helped me to memorize some of the chart.) I printed it out and kept next to me and practiced on a blackjack trainer. I used the one on Wizardofodds.com. Once you set the parameters for the game, the game knows the basic strategy and tells you when you are miss playing a hand. Keep practicing on that and pretty soon you won’t need the basic strategy chart.