By Werbin Martin.
Poker is the favorite card game of 90% of New Zealanders, but blackjack is also popular. Blackjack is one of the few gambling entertainments where success depends on the player’s skill and strategy. Casinos determine the game’s outcome in no more than a couple of minutes. Blackjack develops analytical and mathematical skills, but there are also many myths about the game that aren’t always true. Below, every New Zealander can learn about the most common misconceptions about blackjack.
The goal of the game is to score 21 points
The most common misconception about blackjack is that a player needs to reach 21 points. This costs beginners the most money because they set it as their primary goal. However, the condition for winning is different: players need to beat the dealer, but they can do so with a lower hand total. Reaching 21 points and beating the dealer aren’t always the same.
Gamblers can win even with 13 points in their hand, but they need the dealer to bust in that case. Every extra card drawn to get closer to 21 increases the risk, which means an instant loss.
Blackjack basic strategy is based on the opposite logic, where decisions depend on the player’s cards and the dealer’s upcard. The probability of the dealer overdrawing increases if they have a weak upcard (2, 3, 4, 5, or 6).
Mathematicians advise standing even with an unfavorable total of 12–16 and stopping at that point. However, a passive strategy becomes pointless, and players will have to continue drawing when the dealer has a card ranging from a 7 to an ace.
Card counting is illegal
Counting the number of high and low cards that have already been dealt from the deck doesn’t break any laws. It isn’t cheating or fraud, because the player doesn’t interfere with the dealing process, swap cards, or use any devices. Gamblers should use their own memory and observe details. Swapping cards or colluding with the dealer is a crime, but mentally counting cards doesn’t result in any negative charges.
Stories from films, where police arrest people for card counting, almost always involve the use of mobile tips, collusion with accomplices, or a confrontation with security. Card counting is legal, and no court punishes players for using this tactic, even when wagering a bonus at Immerion online casino.
However, casinos are private businesses that have the right to refuse service without explanation. A player suspected of card counting may be asked to leave, have their bets limited, be moved to another table, or be added to an internal blacklist.
Casinos have limited the ability to circumvent these restrictions through technical measures (using multiple decks instead of a single one, automatic shuffling machines, and reshuffling long before the deck runs out). In online casinos reviewed by the experts at Casinos Analyzer, this method doesn’t work at all because the deck is shuffled after every hand.
Insurance protects the player’s money
Online gambling clubs offer insurance when the dealer’s first card is an ace. However, this is a separate side bet that the dealer’s face-down card will be a 10, Jack, Queen, or King (blackjack). Insurance is placed in an amount equal to half the main bet and pays out 2:1, so the gambler breaks even if the dealer has blackjack.
There are 16 “10” cards out of 52 in a standard deck of cards, which is less than one-third. A 2:1 payout implies odds of 1 to 2, so the house edge on insurance is about 7%. This is fourteen times higher than in the main game when playing basic strategy. Main info about insurance:
- The dealer gets an ace about once every thirteen hands.
- The dealer has blackjack with an ace in their hand in less than one-third of cases.
- The dealer is required to announce the insurance offer aloud.
- You have 2–5 seconds to make a decision.
- This is the most expensive of the standard side bets in blackjack.
The main trap of insurance is its name. The word creates a sense of protection, but it doesn’t actually protect the original bet. These are two independent bets that simply play out at the same time.
Psychologically, it’s easy for a player to agree to this because it seems like they’re gaining peace of mind, but in reality, they’re throwing money at the worst bet on the table every single time. In the long run, regularly taking insurance doesn’t reduce sums of losses.
The dealer always wins
The statistics do not confirm that the dealer always wins, even though he wins approximately 28% of the hands. However, this figure ranges from 23% to 40–42%, depending on the upcard at the start. In nearly every third or fourth hand, the dealer busts without making any winning moves at all.
The house edge in blackjack using basic strategy is 0.5%, which is the lowest among all casino games. Roulette has a 2.7% house edge, while slot machines have a house edge of 5% or higher. This happens because the player acts first. The bet loses if the player goes over, even if the dealer also goes over a few seconds later.
However, the feeling that the house always wins has a very real basis, stemming from the sheer volume of play. Tiny half per cent margins add up to significant sums when hundreds of hands are played at the table every hour throughout the year.
In New Zealand, the scale is clearly evident from official data from the Department of Internal Affairs, where players lost $592 million at casinos during the 2023/24 fiscal year, but total spending on all forms of gambling reached 2.79 billion, according to the DIA. These figures also represent the profits of online casinos, which you can explore on the Casinos Analyzer website. The dealer loses often, but casinos don’t in the long run.
A bad player at the table ruins the others’ chances of winning
A single player’s decision can change the course of a particular hand, since after that player acts, the dealer or subsequent players receive different cards. This may lead to the belief that his choice caused someone else’s loss. However, these situations occur randomly, so there is no mathematical basis for blaming a specific person for poor results. Each hand has its own random combination of cards, so emotional grievances toward other players arise from a misperception of randomness.
- A gambler’s decisions may affect a single hand, but they don’t change the mathematical expectations of the other gamers.
- In the long run, unusual decisions are equally likely to lead to both favorable and unfavorable outcomes.
- The outcome of the previous hand does not determine the outcome of the next one.
- The feeling that someone “took the right card” does not mean that your odds have actually worsened.
The best way to avoid conflicts is to focus on the rules and mathematics of the game, rather than on emotions. A single choice can indeed influence which cards the players see at that exact moment. However, this does not mean that one player can systematically reduce the others’ chances of winning. Over the long run, random results even out, and the impact of specific decisions does not create a permanent advantage or disadvantage for anyone at the table.
IMAGE CREDIT: Public Domain