Blackjack: Has the heat gone out of card counting?

Casinos have never welcomed card counters with open arms, but now it seems that they have introducing changes to the game of blackjack that have almost eliminated any edge that card counters who play basic strategy could once make.

Card counting is used to determine when a table is hot, which means when there as a larger proportion of high cards in the deck. Card counters always play the game according to a basic strategy, which is a formalised way of playing and is determined by probability statistics. When a deck is cold, card counters bet low. When the deck is hot, bets are raised. Casinos are always on the lookout for this kind of betting activity in order to identify the card counters who, if they are winning, will be asked to leave or they will be restricted to placing minimum bets. Also, by modifying some of the rules of the game, they also have lessened the benefit of playing basic strategy.

Given that counting and basic strategy are no longer the hottest techniques for winning at blackjack, the question is, are there any alternative ways to tilt the odds in our favour. In fact this is a question to which blackjack players have been paying some very serious attention over recent times, and they are coming up with some very interesting ideas. New ways of understanding the game are evolving, and completely different approaches are being developed.

Some of these aim at simplifying the game, and in particular develop an alternative betting strategy that takes account of runs of wins and losses in order to identify winning streaks and capitalise on them. Other approaches take a new look at blackjack statistics in order to determine the hotness of a deck. For instance, by monitoring the number of times the dealer busts it is claimed that it is possible to select the best tables to play and when to increase the size of the bet.

It will be interesting to see how these new ways of playing the game develop, and, if they prove to be successful, the countermeasures that the casinos will take to neutralise them.

Winning some casino games depends on chance whereas others such as poker there is a strategy. These strategies are used by both casino and online casino players in order to win.