| ==Phrack Magazine== |
|
|
| Volume Four, Issue Forty-Three, File 9 of 27 |
|
|
| How to "Hack" BlackJack |
| By |
| Lex Luthor |
| and |
| The Legion of Gamblerz!! (LOG) |
| lex@mindvox.phantom.com (or) lex@stormking.com |
|
|
| Part 1 of 2 (50K) |
|
|
|
|
| BLURB: |
| "I learned a lot of things I didn't know from Lex's File" ---Bruce Sterling |
|
|
|
|
| Introduction: |
| ------------- |
|
|
| With the DEF CON 1 hacker/cyberpunk/law enforcement/security/etc convention |
| coming up in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 9-12 1993, I felt that now would be a |
| good time to write a "phile" on something the attendants could put to use to |
| help legally defray the costs of going. The thought of a bunch of ex-hackers |
| running around Las Vegas without shirts (having 'lost' them in the various |
| Casinos) frightened me into immediate action. Besides, I don't write articles |
| on 'Underground' topics anymore and since I have done a lot of research and |
| playing of Casino BlackJack, the CON in Vegas provided me the perfect excuse |
| to finally write an article for PHRACK (not withstanding the pro-phile in |
| Issue 40 which doesn't really count). |
|
|
| Regardless of whether you go to this DEF CON 1 thing, if you ever plan to |
| hit a casino with the purpose of MAKING MONEY, then you really should |
| concentrate on ONE game of chance: BlackJack. Why? Because BlackJack is the |
| *ONLY* casino game that affords the educated and skilled player a long-term |
| mathematical advantage over the house. All the other casino games: Craps, |
| Roulette, Slots, etc. have the long-term mathematical advantage over the |
| player (see table below). BlackJack is also the only casino game for which the |
| odds are always changing. Don't be fooled by all the glitter, a casino is a |
| business and must make a profit to survive. The profit is ensured by using a |
| set of rules which provides them with an edge. Now you say: wait a sec, how do |
| they make money if BlackJack can be beaten? There are a couple of reasons. One |
| reason is that there are very few good players who make it their profession to |
| beat casinos at BlackJack day in and day out. There are many more who THINK |
| they are good, THINK they know how to play the game, and lose more money than |
| the really good players win. Notwithstanding the throngs of vacationers who |
| admit to not being well versed in the game and consequently are doomed to |
| lose...plenty. Another reason is that if a casino thinks you are a "counter" |
| (a term just as nasty as "phreaker" to the phone company) there is a good |
| chance that they will ask you to leave. See the section on Social Engineering |
| the Casino to avoid being spotted as a counter. Also, the house secures its |
| advantage in BlackJack from the fact that the player has to act first. If you |
| bust, the dealer wins your bet regardless of whether the dealer busts later. |
|
|
| The following table illustrates my point regarding house advantages for the |
| various casino games and BlackJack strategies. The data is available in most |
| books on casino gambling. Note that negative percentages denote player |
| disadvantages and are therefore house advantages. |
|
|
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| GAME Your Advantage (over the long run) |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Craps -1.4 % overall average |
| Baccarat -1.1 % to -5.0 % |
| Roulette -2.7 % to -5.26 % |
| Slots -2.5 to -25 % depending on machine setting |
| Keno -25 % more or less |
|
|
| BlackJack (WAG Player) -2 % to -15 % |
| BlackJack (Mirror Dealer) -5.7 % |
| BlackJack (Basic Strategy) -0.2 % to +0.3 % |
| BlackJack (Basic Strategy & Up to +3.1 % depending on card counting |
| Card Counting) system and betting range. |
|
|
| A -2 % player advantage (2 percent disadvantage) means that if you play a |
| hundred hands at a dollar each, then ON AVERAGE, you will lose two dollars. |
| Note that the typical "pick three" State Lottery game is a disaster as your |
| advantage is -50 %. If you make 1000 $1 bets, you will lose $500 on average. |
| Some people say that state lotteries are taxation on the stupid... |
|
|
| This article contains thirteen sections. It was written in a fairly modular |
| fashion so if there are sections which do not interest you, you may omit them |
| without much loss in continuity however, all the sections are networked to |
| some degree. For the sake of completeness, a fairly comprehensive list of |
| topics has been presented. Due to email file size restrictions, I had to |
| divide this article into two parts. Note that I am NOT a Professional |
| BlackJack player, the definition being someone whose livelihood is derived |
| solely from his/her winnings. I did however, dedicate a summer to gambling 5 |
| evenings a week or so, keeping meticulous records of wins, losses and expenses |
| incurred. I averaged 1-2 nights a week playing BlackJack with the other nights |
| divided among 3 different forms of Pari-Mutual gambling. At the end of the |
| summer I tallied the wins/losses/expenses and am proud to say the result was a |
| positive net earnings. Unfortunately it was instantly apparent that the net |
| money when divided up by the number of weeks gambling was not enough to |
| warrant me to quit school and become a professional gambler. Besides that |
| one summer, I have played BlackJack off and on for 7 years or so. In case you |
| were wondering, no, I have never been a member of GA [Gamblers Anonymous] |
| contrary to what one of those Bell Security "Hit-Lists" circulated many years |
| ago would have you believe. The topics contained herein are: |
|
|
| o Historical Background of the BlackJack Card Game |
| o Useful Gambling, Casino, and BlackJack Definitions |
| o Review of BlackJack Rules of Play |
| o Betting, Money Management, and the Psychology of Gambling |
| o Basic Strategy (End of Part 1) |
| o Card Counting (Beginning of Part 2) |
| o Shuffle Tracking |
| o Casino Security and Surveillance |
| o "Social Engineering" the Casino |
| o Casino Cheating and Player Cheating |
| o Some Comments Regarding Computer BlackJack Games for PC's |
| o A VERY Brief Description of Other Casino Games |
| o Selected Bibliography and Reference List |
|
|
| Notes: |
|
|
| a) I made extensive use of my many books, articles, and magazines on |
| gambling and BlackJack along with actual playing experience. References are |
| denoted by square brackets [REF#] and are listed in the Selected Bibliography |
| and Reference List section. |
|
|
| b) It's hard to win at something you don't understand. If you want to win |
| consistently at anything, learn every thing you can about it. BlackJack is no |
| exception. |
|
|
|
|
| History of BlackJack: |
| --------------------- |
|
|
| I provide this historical background information because I find it rather |
| fascinating and it also provides some insight into contemporary rules and |
| play. I think it is worth reading for the sole reason that you might some day |
| use one of the historical tid-bits to answer a question on Jeopardy!#@%! |
| Seriously, the first couple of paragraphs may read a bit like a book report, |
| but bear with it if you can as I did all of the following research |
| specifically for this file. |
|
|
| First, a brief history of cards: Playing cards are believed to have been |
| invented in China and/or India sometime around 900 A.D. The Chinese are |
| thought to have originated card games when they began shuffling paper money |
| (another Chinese invention) into various combinations. In China today, the |
| general term for playing cards means "paper tickets". The contemporary 52 card |
| deck used in the U.S. was originally referred to as the "French Pack" (circa |
| 1600's) which was later adopted by the English and subsequently the Americans. |
|
|
| The first accounts of gambling were in 2300 B.C. or so, and yes, the |
| Chinese again get the credit. Gambling was very popular in Ancient Greece even |
| though it was illegal and has been a part of the human experience ever since. |
| Today, with the all too common manipulation of language to suit one's own |
| purposes, gambling is no longer a term used by casinos....they prefer to use |
| the word GAMING instead. Just as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has replaced |
| the term Shell Shock in military jargon. Since this manipulation of language |
| is all the rage these days, why don't we water down the name Computer Hacker |
| and replace it with Misguided Information Junky or someone who is afflicted |
| with a Compulsive Curiosity Disorder? |
|
|
| The history of the BlackJack card game itself is still disputed but was |
| probably spawned from other French games such as "chemin de fer and French |
| Ferme", both of which I am completely unfamiliar with. BlackJack originated in |
| French Casino's around 1700 where it was called "vingt-et-un" ("twenty-and- |
| one" in French) and has been played in the U.S. since the 1800's. BlackJack is |
| called Black-Jack because if a player got a Jack of Spades and an Ace of |
| Spades as the first two cards (Spade being the color black of course), the |
| player was additionally remunerated. |
|
|
| 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. As some of you may recall, 1978 was the year casino |
| gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As of 1989, only two |
| states had legalized casino gambling. Since then, about 20 states have a |
| number of small time casinos (compared to Vegas) which have sprouted up in |
| places such as Black Hawk and Cripple Creek Colorado and in river boats on the |
| Mississippi. Also as of this writing, roughly 70 Native American Indian |
| reservations operate or are building casinos, some of which are in New York |
| and Connecticut. In addition to the U.S., some of the countries (there are |
| many) operating casinos are: France, England, Monaco (Monte Carlo of course) |
| and quite a few in the Caribbean islands (Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Aruba, etc.). |
|
|
| Now: The first recognized effort to apply mathematics to BlackJack began in |
| 1953 and culminated in 1956 with a published paper [6]. Roger Baldwin et al |
| (see Bibliography) wrote a paper in the Journal of the American Statistical |
| Association titled "The Optimum Strategy in BlackJack". These pioneers used |
| calculators, and probability and statistics theory to substantially reduce the |
| house advantage. Although the title of their paper was 'optimum strategy', it |
| wasn't really the best strategy because they really needed a computer to |
| refine their system. I dug up a copy of their paper from the library, it is |
| ten pages long and fairly mathematical. To give you an idea of its importance, |
| the Baldwin article did for BlackJack playing what the November 1960 issue of |
| The Bell System Technical Journal entitled, "Signalling Systems for Control of |
| Telephone Switching", did for Blue Boxing. |
|
|
| To continue with the analogy, one can consider Professor Edward O. Thorp to |
| be the Captain Crunch of BlackJack. Dr. Thorp, then a mathematics teacher, |
| picked up where Baldwin and company left off. In 1962, Thorp refined their |
| basic strategy and developed the first card counting techniques. He published |
| his results in "Beat the Dealer" [3], a book that became so popular that for a |
| week in 1963 it was on the New York Time's best seller list. The book also |
| scared the hell out of the Casino's. Thorp wrote "Beat the Market" in 1967, in |
| which he used mathematics and computer algorithms to find pricing |
| inefficiencies between stocks and related securities. Currently he is using an |
| arbitrage formula to exploit undervalued warrants in the Japanese stock |
| market. |
|
|
| The Casinos were so scared after Beat the Dealer, that they even changed |
| the rules of the game to make if more difficult for the players to win. This |
| didn't last long as people protested by not playing the new pseudo-BlackJack. |
| The unfavorable rules resulted in a loss of income for the casinos. Not making |
| money is a sin for a casino, so they quickly reverted back to the original |
| rules. Because Thorp's "Ten-Count" method wasn't easy to master and many |
| people didn't really understand it anyway, the casinos made a bundle from the |
| game's newly gained popularity thanks to Thorp's book and all the media |
| attention it generated. |
|
|
| Beat the Dealer is rather difficult to find these days, I picked up a copy |
| at the library recently and checked the card in the back to see how popular |
| it is today. I was surprised as hell to find that it was checked out over 20 |
| times in the past year and a half or so! How many books from 1962 can claim |
| that? I do not recommend reading the book for anything other than posterity |
| purposes though, the reason being that newer books contain better, and easier |
| to learn strategies. |
|
|
| Another major contributor in the history of winning BlackJack play is |
| Julian Braun who worked at IBM. His thousands of lines of computer code and |
| hours of BlackJack simulation on IBM mainframes resulted in THE Basic |
| Strategy, and a number of card counting techniques. His conclusions were used |
| in a 2nd edition of Beat the Dealer, and later in Lawrence Revere's 1977 book |
| "Playing BlackJack as a Business". |
|
|
| Lastly, let me mention Ken Uston, who used five computers that were built |
| into the shoes of members of his playing team in 1977. They won over a hundred |
| thousand dollars in a very short time but one of the computers was |
| confiscated and sent to the FBI. The fedz decided that the computer used |
| public information on BlackJack playing and was not a cheating device. You may |
| have seen this story in a movie made about his BlackJack exploits detailed in |
| his book "The Big Player". Ken was also featured on a 1981 Sixty Minutes show |
| and helped lead a successful legal challenge to prevent Atlantic City casinos |
| from barring card counters. |
|
|
|
|
| Useful Definitions: |
| ------------------- |
|
|
| Just as in Social Engineering the Phone Company, an essential element for |
| success is knowing the right buzzwords and acronyms. Therefore, I list some |
| relevant definitions now, even though the reader will probably skip over them |
| to get to the good stuff. The definitions merely serve as a reference for |
| those who are uninitiated with the terminology of gambling, casinos, and |
| BlackJack. If you encounter a term you don't understand in the article, look |
| back here. The definitions are not in alphabetical order on purpose. I grouped |
| them in what I feel is a logical and easy to remember fashion. |
|
|
| Action: This is a general gambling term which refers to the total amount of |
| money bet in a specific period of time. Ten bets of ten dollars each |
| is $100 of action. |
|
|
| Burn Card: A single card taken from the top of the deck or the first card in |
| a shoe which the dealer slides across the table from his/her left |
| to the right, and is placed into the discard tray. The card may or |
| may not be shown face up (which can affect the count if you are |
| counting cards). A card is burned after each shuffle. I have |
| not been able to find out how this started nor the purpose for |
| burning a card. If you know, drop me some email. |
|
|
| Cut Card: A solid colored card typically a piece of plastic which is given to |
| a player by the dealer for the purpose of cutting the deck(s) after |
| a shuffle. Cutting the cards in the 'right' location is part of |
| the 'shuffle tracking' strategy mentioned later in Part 2. |
|
|
| Hole Card: Any face down card. The definition most often refers to the |
| dealer's single face down card however. |
|
|
| Shoe: A device that can hold up to eight decks of cards which allows the |
| dealer to slide out the cards one at a time. |
|
|
| Hard Hand: A hand in which any Ace is counted as a 1 and not as an 11. |
|
|
| Soft Hand: A hand in which any Ace is counted as an 11 and not as a 1. |
|
|
| Pat Hand: A hand with a total of 17 to 21. |
|
|
| Stand: To decline another card. |
|
|
| Hit: To request another card. |
|
|
| Bust: When a hand's value exceeds 21....a losing hand. |
|
|
| Push: A player-dealer tie. |
|
|
| Pair: When a player's first two cards are numerically identical (ie, 7,7). |
|
|
| Point Count: The net value of the card count at the end of a hand. |
|
|
| Running Count: The count from the beginning of the deck or shoe. The running |
| count is updated by the value of the point count after each |
| hand. |
|
|
| True Count: The running count adjusted to account for the number of cards left |
| in the deck or shoe to be played. |
|
|
| Bankroll: The stake (available money) a player plans to bet with. |
|
|
| Flat Bet: A bet which you do not vary ie, if you are flat betting ten dollars, |
| you are betting $10 each and every hand without changing the betting |
| amount from one hand to the next. |
|
|
| Black Chip: A $100. chip. |
|
|
| Green Chip: A $25.00 chip. |
|
|
| Red Chip: A $5.00 chip. |
|
|
| Foreign Chip: A chip that is issued by one casino and is honored by another |
| as cash. A casino is not necessarily obligated to accept them. |
|
|
| Settlement: The resolving of the bet. Either the dealer takes your chips, |
| pays you, or in the case of a push, no exchange of chips occurs. |
|
|
| Toke: Its not what some of you may think...to "toke" the dealer is just |
| another word for tipping the dealer. |
|
|
| Marker: An IOU. A line of credit provided by the casino to a player. |
|
|
| Junket: An organized group of gamblers that travel to a casino together. |
| Junkets are usually subsidized by a casino to attract players. |
|
|
| Comp: Short for complimentary. If you wave lots of money around, the casino |
| (hotel) may give you things like a free room or free f00d hoping you'll |
| keep losing money at the tables in their casino. |
|
|
| Heat: The pressure a casino puts on a winning player, typically someone who |
| is suspected of being a card counter. |
|
|
| Shuffle Up: Prematurely shuffling the cards to harass a player who is usually |
| suspected of being a counter. |
|
|
| Nut: The overhead costs of running the casino. |
|
|
| Pit: The area inside a group of gaming tables. The tables are arranged in |
| an elliptical manner, the space inside the perimeter is the pit. |
|
|
| House: The Casino of course. |
|
|
| Cage: Short for cashier's cage. This is where chips are redeemed for cash, |
| checks cashed, credit arranged, etc. |
|
|
| House Percentage: The casino's advantage in a particular game of chance. |
|
|
| Drop Percentage: That portion of the player's money that the casino will win |
| because of the house percentage. It is a measure of the |
| amount of a player's initial stake that he or she will |
| eventually lose. On average this number is around 20 percent. |
| That is, on average, Joe Gambler will lose $20 of every $100 |
| he begins with. |
|
|
| Head-On: To play alone at a BlackJack table with the dealer. |
|
|
| WAG Player: Wild Assed Guessing player. |
|
|
| SWAG Player: Scientific Wild Assed Guessing player. |
|
|
| Tough Player: What the casino labels an '3L33T' player who can hurt the casino |
| monetarily with his or her intelligent play. |
|
|
| Counter: Someone who counts cards. |
|
|
| High Roller: A big bettor. |
|
|
| Mechanic: Someone who is elite in regards to manipulating cards, typically for |
| illicit purposes. |
|
|
| Shill: A house employee who bets money and pretends to be a player to attract |
| customers. Shills typically follow the same rules as the dealer which |
| makes them somewhat easy to spot (ie, they don't Double Down or Split). |
|
|
| Pit Boss: An employee of the casino whose job is to supervise BlackJack |
| players, dealers, and other floor personnel. |
|
|
|
|
| Review of BlackJack Rules of Play: |
| ---------------------------------- |
|
|
| The rules of BlackJack differ slightly from area to area and/or from casino |
| to casino. For example, a casino in downtown Vegas may have different rules |
| than one of the Vegas Strip casinos which may have different rules from a |
| casino up in Reno or Tahoe (Nevada). The rules in a casino in Freeport Bahamas |
| may differ from those in Atlantic City, etc. Therefore, it is important to |
| research, a priori, what the rules are for the area/casino(s) you plan on |
| playing in. For Nevada casinos you can order a copy of [1] which contains |
| rules info on all the licensed casinos in the state. Later in this article, |
| you will see that each set of rule variations has a corresponding Basic |
| Strategy chart that must be memorized. Memorizing all the charts can be too |
| confusing and is not recommended. |
|
|
| The BlackJack table seats a dealer and one to seven players. The first seat |
| on the dealer's left is referred to as First Base, the first seat on the |
| dealer's right is referred to as Third Base. A betting square is printed on |
| the felt table in front of each player seat. Immediately in front of the |
| dealer is the chip tray. On the dealer's left is the deck or shoe and beside |
| that should be the minimum bet sign--something that you ought to read before |
| sitting down to play. On the dealer's immediate right is the money drop slot |
| where all currency and tips (chips) are deposited. Next to the drop slot is |
| the discard tray. Play begins after the following ritual is completed: the |
| dealer shuffles the cards, the deck(s) is "cut" by a player using the marker |
| card, and the dealer "burns" a card. |
|
|
| Before any cards are dealt, the players may make a wager by placing the |
| desired chips (value and number) into the betting box. I used the word "may" |
| because you are not forced to bet every hand. Occasionally a player may sit |
| out a hand or two for various reasons. I have sat out a couple of hands at |
| times when the dealer was getting extremely lucky and everyone was losing. If |
| you attempt to sit out too many hands especially if there are people waiting |
| to play at your table, you may be asked to leave the table until you are ready |
| to play. If you don't have any chips, put some cash on the table and the |
| dealer will exchange them for chips. |
|
|
| Once all the bets are down, two cards (one at a time) are dealt from left |
| to right. In many Vegas casinos, players get both cards face down. In Atlantic |
| City and most every where else the player's cards are dealt face up. Should |
| the cards be dealt face up, don't make the faux pas of touching them! They are |
| dealt face up for a reason, primarily to prevent a few types of player |
| cheating (see section on cheating in Part 2) and the dealer will sternly but |
| nicely tell you not to touch the cards. As most of you know the dealer receives |
| one card down and one card up. The numerical values of the cards are: |
| (10, J, Q, K) = 10 ; (Ace) = 1 or 11 ; (other cards) = face value (3 = 3). |
|
|
| Since a casino can be as noisy as an old Step-by-Step Switch with all those |
| slot machines going, marbles jumping around on roulette wheels, demoniacal |
| shrieks of "YO-LEVEN" at the craps table, people screaming that they hit the |
| big one and so on, hand signals are usually the preferred method of signalling |
| hit, stand, etc. |
|
|
| If the cards were dealt face down and you want a hit, lightly flick the |
| cards across the felt two times. If the cards were dealt face up, point at the |
| cards with a quick stabbing motion. You may also want to nod your head yes |
| while saying "hit". The best way to indicate to the dealer that you want to |
| stand regardless of how the cards were dealt is to move your hand from left |
| to right in a level attitude with your palm down. Your hand should be a few |
| inches or so above the table. Nodding your head no at the same time helps, |
| while saying "stay" or "stand". |
|
|
| Permit me to interject a comment on the number of decks used in a game. |
| Single deck games are pretty much restricted to Nevada casinos. In the casinos |
| that have one-deck games, the tables are usually full. Multiple deck games |
| typically consist of an even number of decks (2, 4, 6, 8) although a few |
| casinos use 5 or 7 decks. The two main reasons many casinos use multiple decks |
| are: |
| 1) They allow the dealer to deal more hands per hour thereby increasing |
| the casino take. |
|
|
| 2) They reduce but in no way eliminate the player advantage gained |
| from card counting. |
|
|
| Dealer Rules - The rules the dealer must play by are very simple. If the |
| dealer's hand is 16 or less, he/she must take a card. If the dealer's hand is |
| 17 or more, he/she must stand. Note that some casinos allow the dealer to hit |
| on soft 17 which gives the house a very small additional advantage. The |
| dealer's strategy is fixed and what you and the other players have is |
| immaterial to him/her as far as hitting and standing is concerned. |
|
|
| Player rules - The player can do whatever he/she wants as far as hitting and |
| standing goes with the exception of the following special circumstances. See |
| the section on Basic Strategy for the appropriate times to hit, stand, split, |
| and double down. The aim is to have a hand which is higher than the dealers'. |
| If there is a tie (push), neither you nor the dealer wins. Should a player get |
| a BlackJack (first 2 cards are an Ace and a ten) the payoff is 150% more than |
| the original bet ie, bet $10.00 and the payoff is $15.00. |
|
|
| DOUBLE DOWN: Doubling down is restricted to 2-card hands usually totalling |
| 9, 10, or 11 although some casinos allow doubling down on any 2-card hand. If |
| your first two cards provide you with the appropriate total and your cards |
| were dealt face down, turn them over and put them on the dealer's side of the |
| betting square. If your first two cards provide you with the appropriate total |
| and your cards were dealt face up, point to them and say "double" when the |
| dealer prompts you for a card and simultaneously put an equal amount of chips |
| NEXT TO (not on top of) those already in the betting box. The dealer will give |
| you one more card only, then he/she will move on to the next hand. |
|
|
| SPLITTING PAIRS: If you have a pair that you want to split and your cards are |
| dealt face down, turn them over and place them a few inches apart. If your |
| cards were dealt face up, point to your cards and say "split" when the dealer |
| prompts you for a card. The original bet will go with one card and you will |
| have to place an equal amount of chips in the betting box near the other card. |
| You are now playing two hands, each as though they were regular hands with the |
| exception being that if you have just split two aces. In that case, you only |
| get one card which will hopefully be a 10. If it is a ten, that hand's total |
| is now 21 but the hand isn't considered a BlackJack. That is, you are paid 1:1 |
| and not 1:1.5 as for a natural (BlackJack). |
|
|
| Combined example of above two plays: Say you are dealt two fives. You split |
| them (you dummy!). The next card is another 5 and you re-split them (you |
| chucklehead!!). Three hands have grown out of one AND you are now in for |
| three times your original bet. But wait. Say the next card is a six. So one |
| hand is a 5,6 which gives you eleven; another just has a 5 and the other hand |
| has a 5. You decide to double down on the first hand. You are dealt a 7 giving |
| 18 which you stand on. Now a ten is dealt for the second hand and you decide |
| to stay at 15. The last hand is the lonely third 5, which is dealt a four for |
| a total of nine. You decide to double down and get an eight giving that hand a |
| total of 17. Shit you say, you started with a twenty dollar bet and now you |
| are in for a hundred! Better hope the dealer doesn't end up with a hand more |
| than 18 lest you lose a C-note. The moral of this example is to not get caught |
| up in the excitement and make rash decisions. However, there have been a |
| couple of times where Basic Strategy dictated that certain split and double |
| down plays should be made and I was very low on chips (and cash). Unless you |
| are *really* psychic, don't go against Basic Strategy! I didn't and usually |
| came out the better for it although I was really sweating the outcome of the |
| hand due to my low cash status. The reason it was stupid to split two fives is |
| that you are replacing a hand that is great for drawing on or doubling down |
| on, by what will probably be two shitty hands. |
|
|
| INSURANCE: This option comes into play when the dealer's up card is an Ace. At |
| this point all the players have two cards. The dealer does not check his/her |
| hole card before asking the players if they want insurance. The reason being |
| evident as the dealer can't give away the value of the hole card if the dealer |
| doesn't know what the hole card is. If a player wants insurance, half the |
| original amount bet is placed on the semicircle labeled "insurance" which is |
| printed on the table. If the dealer has a BlackJack the player wins the side |
| bet (the insurance bet) but loses the original bet, thus providing no net loss |
| or gain since insurance pays 2 to 1. If the dealer does not have a BlackJack, |
| the side bet is lost and the hand is played normally. If you are not counting |
| cards DO NOT TAKE INSURANCE! The proper Basic Strategy play is to decline. The |
| time to take insurance is when the number of non-tens to tens drops below a |
| 2 to 1 margin since insurance pays 2 to 1. It's simple math check it yourself. |
|
|
| SURRENDER: This is a fairly obscure option that originated in Manila |
| (Philippines) in 1958 and isn't available in many casinos. There are two |
| versions, "early surrender" and "late surrender". Early surrender allows |
| players to quit two-card hands after seeing the up card of the dealer. This |
| option provides the player an additional 0.62 percent favorable advantage |
| (significant) and therefore the obvious reason why many Atlantic City casinos |
| abandoned the option in 1982. Late surrender is the same as early except that |
| the player must wait until the dealer checks for a BlackJack. If the dealer |
| does not have a BlackJack then the player may surrender. The following table |
| was taken verbatim from [5] and is valid for games with 4+ decks. It details |
| the best strategy regarding late surrender as determined from intensive |
| computer simulation: |
|
|
| TWO-CARD HAND TOTAL DEALER'S UP-CARD |
| ------------- ----- ---------------- |
| 9,7 16 ACE |
| 10,6 * 16 * ACE |
| 9,7 * 16 * 10 |
| 10,6 * 16 * 10 |
| 9,7 * 16 * 10 |
| 10,5 * 15 * 10 |
| 9,7 16 9 |
| 10,5 16 9 |
|
|
| "In a single-deck game, you would surrender only the above hands |
| marked with an asterisk, as well as 7,7 against a dealer's 10 |
| up-card." [5] |
|
|
| Casino variations - Note that some casinos do not permit doubling down on |
| split pairs, and/or re-splitting pairs. These options provide the player with |
| a slight additional advantage. |
|
|
|
|
| Betting, Money Management, and the Psychology of Gambling: |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
| Let me begin this section with the following statement: SCARED MONEY RARELY |
| WINS. Most gambling books devote quite a bit of time to the psychology of |
| gambling and rightfully so. There is a fine line to responsible gambling. On |
| one hand you shouldn't bet money that you cannot afford to lose. On the other |
| hand, if you are betting with money you expect to lose, where is your |
| confidence? When I used to gamble, it was small time. I define small time as |
| bringing $250.00 of 'losable' money. I've lost that much in one night. I |
| didn't like it, but I still ate that week. One pitfall you can easily fall |
| into happens AFTER you lose. You scold yourself for losing money you could |
| have done something productive with. "DAMN, I could have bought a 200 MB hard |
| drive with that!#&!". You should think about these things BEFORE you play. |
|
|
| Scared money is more in the mind than real. What I mean by that is even if |
| you gamble with your last $10.00 in the world, it is important to play as |
| though you have thousands of dollars in front of you. I don't mean piss the |
| ten bucks away. I mean that there are certain plays you should make according |
| to your chosen strategy which are the optimum mathematically. Don't make |
| changes to it out of fear. Fear is not your friend. |
|
|
| The "risk of ruin" is the percent chance that you will lose your entire |
| bankroll. This percentage should not exceed 5% if you plan on playing multiple |
| sessions to make money. The risk of ruin is dependent on the sizes of your |
| bets during a session. The "Kelly Criterion" provides a zero percent risk of |
| ruin. The system requires that you bet according to the percent advantage you |
| have at any one time. For example, if you are counting cards and your |
| advantage for a certain hand is 2% then you may bet 2% of your total bankroll. |
| If your total is $1000. then you can bet $20. Note that if you won the hand |
| your bankroll is now $1020 and if your advantage dropped to 1.5%, taking .015 |
| times 1020 (which will determine your next bet size) in your head isn't all |
| that easy. The literature provides more reasonable systems, but do yourself a |
| favor and stay away from "betting progressions". See Reference [16] (available |
| on the Internet) for more information regarding risk of ruin & optimal wagers. |
|
|
| If you are gambling to make money, it is important to define how much cash |
| you can lose before quitting. This number is called the "stop-loss limit". My |
| stop-loss limit was my entire session bankroll which was $250 (50 betting |
| units of $5.00 or 25 betting units of $10.00). This concept is especially |
| important if you expect to play in the casinos for more than one session. Most |
| books recommend that your session bankroll be about a fifth of your trip |
| bankroll. Unfortunately, most people who have $500 in their wallet with a self |
| imposed stop-loss limit is $200 will violate that limit should they lose the |
| two hundred. Discipline is what separates the great players from the ordinary |
| ones. |
|
|
| Obviously you don't want to put a limit on how much you want to win. |
| However, if you are keeping with a structured system there are certain limits |
| to what your minimum and maximum bets should be. I am not going to go into |
| that here though. |
|
|
| In my gambling experience, there has been one non-scientific concept that |
| has proven itself over and over again. NEVER BUCK A TREND! If you have just |
| won three hands in a row, don't think that you are now 'due' for a loss and |
| drastically scale back your bet. If you are winning go with it. A good friend |
| of mine who was my 'gambling mentor' won $30,000 in a 24 hour period with a |
| $200 beginning bankroll. This was not accomplished by scaling back bets. By |
| the same token, if you see that the players at a certain table are losing |
| consistently, don't sit down at that table. One problem that I've seen is when |
| someone has won a lot and starts to lose. Mentally, they keep saying, "if I |
| lose another $100 I will stop". They lose the hundred and say "no, really, the |
| NEXT $100 I lose, I will stop", etc. When they go broke, that's when they stop. |
| Live by the following graph typically designated as The Quitting Curve and you |
| won't fall into that trap: |
|
|
| | * <-+ |
| | * * | Loss |
| ^ | * * | Limit |
| | | * * <----QUIT! <-+ |
| | | * |
| W | * |
| i | * |
| n | * |
| n | * |
| i | * |
| n | * |
| g | * |
| | |
| |_________________________________________ |
| Time ----------------> |
|
|
| Determine your loss limit and stay with it. Obviously the loss limit will |
| change as you keep winning. Standard loss limits are 10 to 20 percent of the |
| current bankroll. Note that this philosophy is also used in stock market |
| speculation. |
|
|
|
|
| Basic Strategy: |
| --------------- |
|
|
| If you only read one section of this file, and you don't already know what |
| Basic Strategy is, then this is the section you should read. Knowing Basic |
| Strategy is CRITICAL to you gaining an advantage over the house. The Basic |
| Strategy for a particular set of rules was developed by intensive computer |
| simulation which performed a complete combinatorial analysis. The computer |
| "played" tens of thousands of hands for each BlackJack situation possible and |
| statistically decided as to which play decision favored the player. The |
| following 3 charts should be duplicated or cut out from a hardcopy of this |
| file. You don't want to wave them around at a BlackJack table but its nice to |
| have them on hand in case you fail to recall some plays, at which time you can |
| run to the rest room to refresh your memory. |
|
|
| I hope you don't think this is weird but I keep a copy of a certain Basic |
| Strategy chart in my wallet at ALL times...just in case. Just in case of what |
| you ask? Permit me to go off on a slight(?) tangent. The following story really |
| happened. In 1984 I was visiting LOD BBS co-sysop, Paul Muad'dib up in New York |
| City. After about a week we were very low on cash despite the Pay Phone |
| windfall mentioned in my Phrack Pro-Phile ;->. I contacted a friend of mine |
| who was working in New Jersey and he offered us a job for a couple of days. I |
| spent just about the last of my cash on bus fair for me and Paul figuring that |
| I would be getting more money soon. Some how, the destination was |
| miscommunicated and we ended up in Atlantic City, which was not the location of |
| the job. We were stuck. Our only recourse was to attempt to win some money to |
| get us back on track. First we needed a little more capital. Paul, being known |
| to physically impersonate phone company workers, and a Department of Motor |
| Vehicles computer technician among others, decided to impersonate a casino |
| employee so he could "look around". Look around he did, found a storage closet |
| with a portable cooler and a case of warm soda, not exactly a gold mine but |
| hey. He proceeded to walk that stuff right out of the casino. We commandeered |
| some ice and walked around the beach for an hour selling sodas. It wasn't all |
| that bad as scantily clad women seemed to be the ones buying them. To cut the |
| story short, Paul knew ESS but he didn't know BlackJack. He lost and we |
| resorted to calling up Sharp Razor, a fellow Legion member residing in NJ, who |
| gave us (or is it lent?) the cash to continue our journey. For the record, I |
| was fairly clueless about BlackJack at the time which really means that I |
| thought I knew how to play but really didn't because I didn't even know Basic |
| Strategy. The same goes for Paul. Had we had a chart on hand, we would at least |
| have made the correct plays. |
|
|
| Here are the charts, memorize the one that is appropriate: |
|
|
|
|
| Las Vegas Single Deck Basic Strategy Table |
|
|
| Dealer's Up-Card |
| Your +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| Hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9 | D | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 10 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 11 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 12 | H | H | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 13 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 14 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 15 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 16 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 17 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,2 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,3 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,4 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,5 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,6 | D | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,7 | S | D | D | D | D | S | S | H | H | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,8 | S | S | S | S | D | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,9 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,A | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 2,2 | H | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 3,3 | H | H | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 4,4 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 6,6 | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 7,7 | P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | S | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8,8 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9,9 | P | P | P | P | P | S | P | P | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| |10,10| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| H = Hit S = Stand D = Double Down P = Split |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Las Vegas Multiple Deck Basic Strategy Table |
|
|
| Dealer's Up-Card |
| Your +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| Hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 10 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 11 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 12 | H | H | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 13 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 14 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 15 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 16 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 17 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,2 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,3 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,4 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,5 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,6 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,7 | S | D | D | D | D | S | S | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,8 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,9 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,A | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 2,2 | H | H | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 3,3 | H | H | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 4,4 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 6,6 | H | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 7,7 | P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8,8 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9,9 | P | P | P | P | P | S | P | P | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| |10,10| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| H = Hit S = Stand D = Double Down P = Split |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Atlantic City Multiple Deck Basic Strategy Table |
|
|
| Dealer's Up-Card |
| Your +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| Hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 10 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 11 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 12 | H | H | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 13 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 14 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 15 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 16 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 17 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,2 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,3 | H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,4 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,5 | H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,6 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,7 | S | D | D | D | D | S | S | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,8 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,9 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | A,A | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 2,2 | P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 3,3 | P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 4,4 | H | H | H | P | P | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 6,6 | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 7,7 | P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 8,8 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| | 9,9 | P | P | P | P | P | S | P | P | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| |10,10| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | |
| +-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+ |
| H = Hit S = Stand D = Double Down P = Split |
|
|
|
|
| End of "How To Hack BlackJack": File 1 of 2 |
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