Learning the game of blackjack does not take a rocket scientist to get a hang of it. At the expert level, it is quite complex and might take years to actually master the skill. Experience hones your strategies—knowing how to play your hand, when to increase your bet and even developing the eye to spot the bad blackjack player. Blackjack can be as simple as it is complex. Advanced techniques including card counting, can give you the advantage over the house edge. However, as mentioned, perfecting this takes time.
Bad Blackjack Player Traits
As you continue to play blackjack, be it in land-based or online casinos, you will be able to tell those who are good at the game from the bad ones. The latter usually exhibit one or more of these traits:
Trait #1. Don’t Know the Basic Playing Strategy
In blackjack, knowing the basic strategy statistically enhances one’s chances of winning. To become a skillful player, this is the first step to take. The basic playing strategy refers to a set of rules that guides players in choosing the best way to play his hand. As simple as it may sound, it would still take some time and consistent practice to fully grasp it. Basic strategy in other words, is the mathematically correct way to play your hand and increases your chances of winning.
Even so, there are some experienced players who assert that they know the basic strategy but end up losing their bets. Knowing part of the strategy and leaving the rest to gut feeling is never enough. This kind of attitude usually tends to veer off the right play and before they know it, they encounter one loss after another.
The goal here is to give the player the optimal possible return for his/her money. As much as there are different winning strategies, the best one highly depends on the type of bettor you are.
Trait #2. Trying To Beat The House with a Betting Progression
This is commonly seen in many casinos. For those who are unfamiliar, betting progressive systems are betting systems that require increasing one’s bets following a win or a loss. This strategy attempts to take advantage of streaks that occur in the game.
There are two kinds of betting systems in blackjack: positive progressions and negative progressions. The first one pertains to raising the bet after a series of wins, somewhat giving the blackjack player a secure feeling that a string of losses might not wipe out his bankroll as quickly. On the other hand, the opposite occurs in negative progressions wherein bets are increased after some losses. Several players attempt to follow these strategies in a belief that they might reclaim what they have lost in previous games and improve their chances of winning.
This is not always the case. When it comes to gaining the advantage over the house edge, using betting progression is not the answer. The odds of obtaining a winning hand do not depend on your previous plays and no betting system will overcome the house edge any time sooner. It is designed that way.
Although betting progressions might temporarily win you big bets and give you momentary bursts of adrenaline rush, in the end the player usually suffers tremendous losses. To put things worse, you might even lose more if you keep using this technique.
Trait #3. Betting More Because You Are Due to Win
This is one of the many mistakes some blackjack player make. This attitude is somewhat similar to betting progression. A wager of $5 is made for a hand and the player loses four or five hands consecutively. Because of that, he is compelled to raise his bet twice as the first one as he comes to believe that he is “due to win”. As mentioned before, your previous plays do not determine your luck in the future hands to be dealt. Always remember not to place bets more because you think you are due to win.
Trait #4. Not Knowing When to Quit
Winners know when to quit. If you get ahead by $100 or so, learn how to stop before the table starts turning. Before you settle on a blackjack table, decide how much money you will be spending, careful not to exceed that amount. You must also decide how much time you are going to spare for gambling. Keep in mind that in the world of gambling, the chances of losing is always greater than that of winning. No form of system or strategy can guarantee you to keep on winning. If you win, quit the game and do not try to chase losses. Life does not merely revolve around gambling.
Trait #5. Believing that the Game of Blackjack Is All Luck
Blackjack is more than just pure luck. Why then do systems and strategies exist? It would not be wise to compare them to slot machines or roulettes. It is a game of skill and it involves a lot of practice to perfect it. So, if you want to change the course of the odds, improve your strategies and approach through experience.
