The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (6 page)

TABLE 2   
Blackjack Strategy for One Deck

TABLE 3   
Blackjack Strategy for Multiple Decks

Another strategy that blackjack players use to help them on their road to victory (and hopefully a lot of money!) is counting cards. Having an idea of what cards are still left to come can help you make smarter bets. When there are many more high cards in the deck than low cards, there are more chances that the dealer will bust, since he is required to hit if his cards total less than seventeen. Likewise, if there are more low cards left in the deck than high cards, the dealer has a better chance of beating you. So if you can determine at least roughly what cards remain in the deck, you’ll know whether you should be betting more money or keeping your bets small.

When playing with one or two decks, you may find it easy to memorize the cards that have been played, furthering your chances of winning as the deck(s) are depleted, because you know what cards are left. With multiple decks and in casinos, there are variations on counting cards that help a player to maximize his earnings.

Casual card counting is a method that requires no mathematics and hardly any concentration. The object is just to observe the flow of cards coming from the deck. If you notice that a good number of face cards and aces have been played recently, it’s time to rein in your bet. If a lot of low cards have been played, it’s a good time to up your bet. Look for obvious extremes. If the cards are flowing out relatively evenly, you’ll want to employ some of the betting strategies listed later.

The high-low system of counting cards is a popular method for keeping track of what is going on with the decks. In this system, you apply a value of –1 to any high cards (aces, face cards, or tens). A value of +1 is applied to low cards (two, three, four, five, or six). A value of 0 is assigned to any middle cards (seven, eight, or nine). As each hand is dealt, keep a running tally of points, and make your wagering decisions based on what the total is. When the total is positive, the advantage is yours, and you should increase your wager. When the total is negative, the advantage is to the dealer and you should decrease your wager. As the game progresses through the decks, the accuracy of the running tally becomes greater, and the wagers can be increased or decreased accordingly.

Betting strategies are used in blackjack to help the player walk away with some money left in her pocket, or, even better yet, as a winner! You can choose to use the progressive betting method, where your bet will increase progressively as you win. Another option is the Martingale method, where you increase your bet as you lose.

This betting strategy is simple and can be very effective. You must first establish a low bet and a high bet that you will carry throughout your blackjack game. If you win a hand, you bet the high amount on the next hand. If you lose a hand, you bet the low amount on the next hand. If you win once and continue to win, you continue to bet the high amount until you lose again. As an example, let’s say you choose a low bet of $10 and a high bet of $25. If you win your first hand, you bet $25 for the next hand. If you lose that hand, you bet $10 for the next hand. You continue to bet $10 a hand until you win, and then bet $25 for that next hand. The theory here is that when you get on a winning streak you will win much more than you will lose on a losing streak.

This betting strategy is slightly more complex. You first establish a low bet. You then follow a 1–2–3–5–1 progression for successive hands, in which if you continue to win you start by betting your original bet, then two times that amount, three times, five times, and then back down to your original bet. As an example, let’s say you choose a low bet of $5. If you win the first hand, you bet $10 on the second hand. If you win the second hand, you bet $15 on the third hand. If you win the third hand, you bet $25 on the fourth hand. If you win that hand, you drop back down to a $5 bet. If at any point during the progression you lose a hand, you drop your bet back down to $5 until you win a hand again.

The assumption of this strategy is that you will have winning streaks and losing streaks as you play. The goal of the progressive betting is that as you win, you continue to bet more and win more, but when you hit the losing streak you bet even and don’t lose nearly as much as you’ve won.

This betting strategy has you doubling your bet every time you lose a hand. When you finally win a hand, your bet returns to your minimum and you recover your losses with one win. As an example, you bet $2 in one hand and lose. You bet $4 in the next hand and lose, $8 in the next hand and lose, $16 in the next hand and win that hand. You now have a profit of $2. Realizing a profit with the one winning hand only works if you are not doubling down or splitting in various hands. In those cases, if you lost both hands, you would not have a profit when you finally win. The biggest problem with this particular system is that you may quickly run out of money if you hit a very long losing streak! Or you may very well hit the maximum table bet and not be able to recover all your losses with one bet.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Three to eight

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
One hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Medium

Brag is a British card game that is similar to poker but with an unusual betting style and hand rankings. The objective of Brag is to win money from each hand by betting and playing your cards strategically. Brag requires three to eight players and uses a standard pack of fifty-two cards. All suits are equal in value. The hand rankings, each containing three cards, from best to worst, are as follows:

• Prial—three of a kind. The highest-ranking prial is all threes, followed by aces, then kings, down through twos.
  
• Running flush—a straight flush (a three-card sequence of cards within the same suit).
  
• Run—a straight. The highest-ranking running flush or run is 3 2 A, followed by the typical order of A K Q, K Q J, and so on.
  
• Flush—three cards within the same suit. In case of a tie, the flush with the highest-ranking card wins.
  
• Pair—two-of-a-kind and a single card. In comparing pairs, the higher-ranking pair wins.
  
• High card—three cards of different values.
  

Players begin by placing their antes in the pot. A dealer is selected and deals three cards face down to each player. A round of betting then takes place. Play starts with the player to the dealer’s left, who can either bet or fold his hand. If there was a previous bet, you must add at least that much money to the pot. Unlike poker betting, money that you added in previous bets to the pot is not taken into consideration. For instance, if you bet three chips and Player 2 then folded, then Player 3 bets three chips, and the remaining players (including you) must bet three chips to stay in the game.