Live Dealer Black Jack - Is it beatable?

[tbag1983]

As we know the only way to get an edge on the house in blackjack is to card count. Are the live dealer games actually beatable or are the multiple decks and cuts etc too unfair?

Which is the best live dealer casino?

James

[KasinoKing]

In the live dealer games I have seen they appear to use 6 or 8 decks and make the cut very deep - probably only about half way through the pile.
I don't know how anyone has the patience or trust in the system to card-count - sounds incredibly dull to me!
(But then, I'm mostly a slots player!)

Which is best? Well the one that gives the best bonus I would say - that is a much easier way of beating the house IMHO.
Mind you, having said that, the best Live Dealer bonus I list on my site has a WR of (Deposit+Bonus) x 110 on Blackjack = ridiculously high!
Another reason I prefer slots - some welcome bonuses are as low as Deposit x 10 on them!

KK

[Johnny's Amusements]

Re. Card counting. I know roughly how this works. Each card dealt which is not a 10 or picture adds one to count. Tens & picture cards count as minus one. The idea is to play larger stakes when the count is running high as that is supposed to mean tens & picture cards are due out. BUT, if these high cards are due out, the dealer has every chance of getting one which puts all players with less than 20 in a very dodgy position! I can not really see the point. Anyone else with views on this?

[scepticus]

Hi Johnny
I think it's the reverse of what you think.
If there are more lower cards left in the pack then the bettor ups his stake bcause he has less chance of going bust.
Not being a card player , though, I wouldn't bet on it !
At least in roulette I can pick my own numbers !

[Johnny's Amusements]

Hi Johnny
I think it's the reverse of what you think.
If there are more lower cards left in the pack then the bettor ups his stake bcause he has less chance of going bust.
Not being a card player , though, I wouldn't bet on it !
At least in roulette I can pick my own numbers !

Are you sure? I was always led to believe it was done the way I suggested, but not 100% sure. Does anyone else know for sure how card counting works?

[scepticus]

Hi Johnny
On second thoughts you are right.
The bettor is trying to guess how the dealer's hand will work out
so the more High cards there are in proportion to small cards the more chance the deaer will burst.
All gambling is guesswork we just tend to bet the more likely outcome
rather than the less likely.
I can't count cards. Apparently it needs literally hours and hours of practice.

[tbag1983]

Kasino King.

Do you do well at the slots i.e to make a regular income or is it more a bit of fun?

[KasinoKing]

Kasino King.

Do you do well at the slots i.e to make a regular income or is it more a bit of fun?

Well I did make money every single year from online casinos since 2001.
The first 4 years I was mostly playing card games like BlackJack and PaiGow Poker - but in those days those games counted at 100% in the WR at the places I played!
(And the WRs were much lower than they are now)

It wasn't until 2005 that I started taking an interest in online slots, when the WRs for other games got a LOT higher. I had been a fruity addict for more years than I care to mention (20+ years) and so I was sort of expecting online ones to be the same sort of rigged shite - but then I found they are not like that - they are truly random!
My best year was 2008, when I made over $12,000!

You can view ALL my monthly results up to Jan last year starting from this page: KK's personal online casino results
I haven't updated the rest of 2011 yet because, to be honest, it was pretty dire. I became a father for the second time at the end of 2010, and with my wife going back to work, having to look after 2 kids and everything else, I simply did not have enough free-time to play like I did before.
I did still do quite well at Ladbrokes in 2011 - and I will update that page soon.

KK

[jakky11]

I felt a bit intimidated playing blackjack for the first time in a real live casino.

[davidpom]

I'm an international VIP casino player (check my blogs) with 15 years + experience playing in land based and online casinos.

Card counting works as follows: each card 2 to 6 is a +1, each card 10 to Ace is a -1, cards in the middle (7,8,9) are neutral. Let's say the following cards are dealt from a shoe: 2,6,10, Ace, 5, 4, Jack, 3, 7,9. There are 5 low cards there, so that's +5. There are 3 high cards there, so that's -3. There are 2 neutral cards. So our running count is +5 -3 = +2. At +2 this means that statistically more low cards have come out of the deck than high cards - so there are statistically 2 more high cards in the deck at this point then there should be.

The higher the + value, the more a bettor should bet. The more high cards there are left to play, the better this is for the player. It allows a player to get higher hands (e.g. 18, 19, 20, blackjack). It makes it easier for the dealer to bust, as the dealer MUST draw until they get 17.

I like to start increasing my bet from about +4 onwards. Gradually. Any big swings (e.g. from $5 to $200 a hand) will be noticed by both land based and online casinos, and neither respond favourably. Land based casinos can bar you (some have barred me), online casinos may warn you or block your account.

The online casino games are hard to beat because they set the cut card about 60% into the decks, and always play with 8 decks or so. It's not a beatable game apart from through sheer luck. Land based casinos make it harder to count by using continuous shuffle machines - these don't act like a true dealer shoe as far as card counting goes. Some VIP rooms I play in still have manually dealt shuffle shoes - these CAN potentially be beaten by card counting (and I've done that numerous times), but caution over betting swings / limits must be exercised to avoid detection.

Hopefully this post helps! Numerous articles on my "H.T.B.The.Casinos" blog (see signature) about blackjack (just search for it), if you're keen to read more.