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Poker is an equal opportunities game and while there may be more men at the felt than women, there?s certainly nothing stopping some women from profiting in the game. Indeed, some of the most talented players in the world are women which demonstrates that, unlike most sports, poker isn?t divided by gender.

Players such as Liv Boeree, Vanessa Selbst and Vanessa Rousso have not only proven themselves by winning million of dollars in the careers but by being students of the game; there is not one small detail they will not know about strategies and Texas holdem rules. All three are university graduates and have applied themselves to learning the art and skill of poker.

Above and beyond their capacity for playing cards, the trio have become ambassadors for the game and inspired women across the globe to learn poker.

While many women will feel intimidated at the felt by their male counterparts, the opposite is in fact true. Many male players now respect the women they face because they understand that it?s much tougher for a woman to break into the big time. Therefore, on that basis, they are much more likely to be strong player and someone to avoid playing against.

It?s true that women are a minority in the poker industry but that doesn?t mean they are the weaker sex. Indeed, some of the best players into the world are female and with more and more rising to the top it won?t be long before parity reigns in the world of bluffs, bets and bad beats.

The game of Blackjack has been available in online casinos since their conception. It is one of the few games where a decent knowledge of conventional blackjack strategy can reduce the house edge to a 50/50 split and one of the reasons why it is so popular. Whenever you have a game worth a flutter, perhaps at a Live Casino, someone will design a betting system for you to use, and Blackjack is no different.

One such betting system used at the Blackjack tables is called Let it Ride. Let it Ride is a positive progression betting system similar to the famous Martingale system. It’s one of the oldest forms of betting systems in operation and takes its form from the same concepts that banks use to compound interest. Let it Ride is often used in horse racing betting as well as Blackjack.

Here is the Let it Ride system in action?

You are a high roller and are playing at a $50-1000 limit table and you start by playing $1000 per hand. You are having a lucky night and start off by being dealt Blackjack immediately while playing for $1000 per hand. At odds of 3:2 you receive $1500 profit along with your original stake. You now have $2500 as a result of that bet and so you now: Let it Ride!

You could try to test your success at the system on the Live Dealer Blackjack, but you need to remember that this betting system is not for the faint-hearted and it will keep you on the edge of your seat all night long. In order to keep a modicum of control it is often prudent to select a stop-loss or profit target in advance of your session as this will make sure that you don?t get too carried away with all the excitement of Let it Ride!

If we were playing poker against Pete the Passive Poker Player then it wouldn?t really matter if we were holding pocket aces or seven-deuce off suit. So what are the factors that influence the value of our hand?

Card Rankings

We may seem a little contradictory here, but if you wasn?t playing against Pete the Passive Poker Player all of the time then card ranking is very important when determining the value of your hand. Quite simply you will never fold pocket aces pre flop but would rarely open with seven-deuce off suit.

How Good Are You?

If you are an excellent poker player then you can play more hands against your weaker opponents. If you are not very good at poker then you need to be playing fewer hands against better opponents. Therefore your hand values change dependent on your own personal skill level when compared to the skill levels of the players in your game.

Table Dynamics

There are a wide variety of different situations that may be present on the table that will affect your hand values. A good example is when you find yourself in a game against a short stack specialist. Against these types of players you have a pretty good understanding of what their shoving hand range will look like and therefore this will influence the value of the hands you choose to play against this type of opponent.

Where to Play Live Blackjack

Playing blackjack is always thrilling and exciting, but only live blackjack gives us the opportunity to feel that true atmosphere of risk and adventure, the atmosphere of real cards and the casino tables. Where to play live blackjack? Nowadays many of the online casinos provide players with a live dealer to play with. You are free to select download or no download version of blackjack. It is not required to install any special software to enjoy your favourite game. Just connect to the Internet and have a wonderful time with live dealer and other players.

If you are not ready to risk it, you can easily just play for fun, offered in most of the casinos. Otherwise, you are welcome to play blackjack for money and to increase your profit while a having good time.

You may also be interested in the variations of live blackjack. Firstly, you can choose between Game View or Casino View. The Game View will increase your impression of reality and will allow you to feel the interaction between players. Casino View will suit the players that have a slower internet connection.

Live Dealer Blackjack Games

Live blackjack games include Single Seat Blackjack and Early Payout Blackjack. According to the rules of the first type, you have your own cards and should not share them with other players.

Blackjack with Early Payout game enables you to perform the cash out with the help of the Basic Strategy. This means that you are allowed to stop the game and take your winnings, or continue playing. Moreover, the money prizes in these games are usually higher.

Live Casino Blackjack Bonus

The most beneficial bonus offered is no deposit welcome bonus. New players are presented with an opportunity to try several live casino games and to choose the most appropriate one without depositing money. The advantage of some casinos is that they give you the opportunity to play with free cash. Remember that special bonuses in many live casinos depend on the means of payment that you used to deposit. Unfortunately, not all live casinos accept USA players so you should pay attention to that before you decide to try the game.

Playing live blackjack is as easy as playing online and as exciting as real casino. It is available for everyone!

There are four options available to the player in a game of Blackjack once he has been dealt his starting cards. One these is to split but what exactly does this mean?

Sometimes when you are playing Blackjack you will be dealt a pocket pair such as 88, 66, 44, etc. When you are dealt a pocket pair you have the option to split. Splitting means that you divide the two cards into two separate hands. The dealer then deals you two separate cards, one to each hand, giving you the net result of two hands instead of one. When you decide to split you also have to double your wager because you are now betting on the outcome of two hands. Anyone who is unsure as to what they’re doing may be better off sticking to video poker instead.

The number of times that you are allowed to split your hand will depend on the rules of the particular casino you are playing in. Imagine you have two eights and decide to split and the dealer deals you another two eights; in some casinos you will be able to split the two eights again giving you the net result of four hands. As you can imagine the splitting of hands can win or lose you a lot more money than you initially bargained for, but it is one of the most exciting parts of the game. Remember, Blackjack has just as many nuances as slot games.

Another rule variation you need to look out for when splitting is when you are dealt a pair of aces. Some casinos will not allow you split aces, others will only allow you to draw one additional card on each ace and some will not recognize an eventual 21 as a 3:2 Blackjack hand. It’s important to bear these things in mind before you start.

Quick, can you tell me what are the five worst playing rules for blackjack? If you don’t know them then the next time you play blackjack you might just be bucking higher than normal odds. So let’s review these bummers to be sure you never play in a game that has them.
Blackjacks pay Even Money

This one stinks. Normally the casino pays 3 to 2 when a player gets a blackjack hand (and the dealer doesn’t also have blackjack). Getting paid 1 to 1 may not seem like a big deal but it is because the casino’s edge goes up by 2.3% (ouch).

Normally blackjack games that offer an even money payoff also have several other player favorable rules as a come on. A good example is SuperFun 21, which is offered in many casinos in Las Vegas. The game uses only a single deck of cards with liberal rules such as surrendering anytime including after hitting, doubling, or splitting. But the liberal rules do not come close to negating the 2.3% edge the house enjoys when it pays even money on blackjack hands. The bottom line is be very cautious when a casino only offers even money on a blackjack.
Blackjack pays 6 to 5

Oh come on, no casino would pay 6 to 5 for a blackjack hand you say? Well guess what? Walk up and down the strip in Las Vegas and you’ll find this game all over the place. The come on is that it’s advertised as a single deck game, which usually implies a good game for the player. But getting paid 6 to 5 on a blackjack is a much worse deal than getting paid the normal 3 to 2. How much less? For every $10 you bet and get a blackjack you’ll get paid $3 less. This increases the house edge by 1.2%.

What’s ironic is that these same casinos that offer this 6 to 5 abomination game also offer plenty of multiple deck games with a much lower house edge (partly because blackjacks are paid at the standard 3 to 2). Yet the last time I visited Las Vegas I observed all the 6 to 5 single deck tables packed with players while the multiple deck tables where much less crowded. I finally asked one player who had quit playing the 6 to 5 single deck payoff game why he choose to play it rather than the better multiple deck game. His response was that he thought 6 to 5 was a better payoff than 3 to 2. So much for the math skills of the average blackjack player (which is probably why the casinos in Las Vegas are blazingly getting away with offering this game to clueless tourists).
Doubling Down only on 11 or 10 or just 11

Often you’ll see this rule in single deck games where a player is restricted to doubling on a two card 10 and 11 (or just 11). This means you can’t double down on 9 or any soft hand (that’s not good). The house edge goes up by about 0.7% when you can only double on 11 and by 0.25% when you are restricted to just doubling on only 10 and 11.
Using 8 decks of Cards

Compared to a single deck game, the casino’s edge increases by 0.61% when 8 decks of cards are used. You would need several liberal rules to offset the 0.61% edge to make the game playable. At the minimum make sure the dealer stands on soft 17 and doubling after pair splitting is offered (ideally also late surrender).
Dealer Hits Soft 17

Many casinos (especially on the Las Vegas strip) have changed the dealer rule regarding soft 17. It used to be pretty standard that dealers must stand on all 17 hands (which includes a soft 17 hand). Nowadays, however, more casinos are changing to hit soft 17. That’s not a good change for the player because the casino edge increases by 0.20%. Given a choice you are better off playing where the rules require that dealers must stand on soft 17.

Probably the worse blackjack rule that I ever saw was dealer winning all ties. Yes, I know that’s the way you play it with your buddies when you get together for a friendly game of blackjack and poker. But in a casino, you should never play any blackjack game where the dealer wins ties. The standard casino rule is when your hand totals 21 or less and the dealer ends up with the same total, it’s a tie or push and you don’t lose or win your bet (but remember that a dealer blackjack hand beats a player’s three or more cards 21 hand). By winning tied hands the casino edge zooms by about 9%.

There are two things to keep in mind when you play blackjack. First, there has never been a game with exotic rules that has a lower house edge than the standard game. So before you decide to try a SuperFun 21 or other ‘new’; game you better check the rules.

Secondly, you should always try to pick your games carefully so that the overall mix of rules leads to a casino edge that’s as low as possible for the game you are playing (this of course assumes you know the basic playing strategy – if not, learn it!).

Dan Pronovost showed the effect of each rule on the house edge in his excellent article, Picking the Right Game, that appeared in issue #35 of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter (www.casino.com/newsletter/blackjack/archive/). This article is a good starting point to be sure you understand the impact a rule has on the house edge.

Often casinos will introduce new rules or games in their blackjack pits. An example is the new game Blackjack Switch, which recently had a trial run in Atlantic City and will soon be launched in casinos there and in Las Vegas (it’s also offered on the Internet). In this game you must play two hands and you are allowed to switch the two top cards. That very favorable player rule is offset by this new rule – when the dealer has 22, all player hands of 21 or less push (instead of win). So is the favorable switch rule offset by the very unfavorable push 22 rule? The answer is I don’t know at the moment but I’ve got several blackjack mathematicians working on this as we speak to determine the overall impact on the player (we hope to have it all unraveled in the next issue of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter).

That’s it for now. Stay positive and make sure you know the rules before you play.

By Henry Tamburin

The game itself is simple. You, the player, attempt to accumulate cards with a numerical total closer to (but not more than) twenty-one than those accumulated by the dealer. If you do so, you win. If the dealers’ total is closer to twenty-one than yours, you lose. Winning hands are paid off at even odds. If you and the dealer both arrive at the same total, the hand is a “push,” and nobody wins. All bets must be made before any cards are dealt, and no bet may be changed once the first card has been dealt.
Each player is initially dealt two cards; they may be face-down or face-up, depending on the rules of the casino. The dealer gets two cards, one face-up and one face-down. The value of the cards is given by their face value except that the ace (A) counts as either 1 or 11 and the 10, jack (J), queen (Q), and king (K) all count as 10.
The combination of an A and any 10 on the first two cards is a blackjack and is an automatic winner (unless both dealer and player have it, in which case it’s a push). A player blackjack is paid at 3 to 2. When the house has a blackjack the player merely loses his bet and not one and a half times that bet. Any combination of cards that exceeds 21 is a bust and a loser. The player always goes first, so if the player’s total exceeds 21 the hand is lost — even if the dealer also busts later. If the dealer busts, all remaining players are winners. The dealer has no options; play is fixed by the rules.
After the first two cards are dealt, the player must decide whether or not to take additional cards based on two pieces of information: the cards held and the dealer’s upcard. This is where the game begins to get interesting. A wide variety of options offer themselves, and unless the player understands the principles of the game there are numerous ways to go wrong. Let’s review the options first; correct play will be discussed later.

It is generally believed that playing cards was invented in China in about 900 AD. Chinese people began to shuffle paper money into various combinations and in China today the term for playing cards means paper tickets.

The 52 card deck as we know it was originally called the French Pack. The origin of Blackjack is somewhat unclear. Some people believe that Blackjack originated in French casinos in the early 1700s where it was known as “vingt-et-un” (“20 and 1”).
The game became known as Blackjack because if a player held a Jack of Spades and an Ace of Spades as the 1st two cards, the player was paid out extra. So with a Jack being a vital card and Spades being black, the game was called Blackjack.

This game has been played in the United States since the 1800’s. Gambling was legal out West from the 1850’s to 1910, at which time Nevada made it a felony to operate a gambling game. In 1931, Nevada re-legalized casino gambling where BlackJack became one of the primary games of chance offered to gamblers. In 1978, New Jersey became the second state to legalize gambling and since then casinos have sprouted up in about 20 other states.

Blackjack remains one of the most popular card games in the world.