The Online Casino Gambling Blog

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Now China isn’t the first place I think of when I think of gambling, but that was before I heard about the Grand Lisboa Casino in Macau China. Built in 1847 by Portuguese settlers in Macau the casino is shaped like a giant lotus blossom with forty floors, three hundred guest rooms and two hundred tables for gambling which of course includes: blackjack, keno, slots, poker, roulette and all the standards as well as more exotic Chinese gambling games.

Known as The Forbidden City in China (Gambling is illegal in most other areas in the country) Macau gets up to twenty million visitors a year just for the gambling and while there are lots of casinos to handle all these visitors the best and most beautiful is the Grand Lisboa. For a memorable out of the ordinary experience this is definitely the place you want to spend your online casino winnings to get to.

If you’re looking for the true definition of the classy gambling establishment, with ladies in evening dresses, gentlemen in suits and only the finest champagne sipped over games like blackjack, three card poker and roulette then the Clermont Club in London is exactly where you want to go to on vacation. Built in 1962 this Clermont is one of the most elite and high class gambling establishments you’ll find in all of England.

The club itself is gorgeous, with opulent interiors of fine darkly polished wood and classically upholstered furniture pieces. It includes a five star restaurant, a fully stocked bar with the primmest English bartender you can imagine, a club room and finally the Holland Room where all the actual gambling takes place.

So while you’re spinning that roulette wheel online, keep this in the back of your mind as the ultimate destination for UK gamblers or just gambling in the UK.

When playing Poker and Blackjack it’s important for a player to be able to decide logically whether to hit or to stand. Some players may rely solely on gut instinct and their luck might be so that they are always right however knowing when to stand logically means you actually will always make the right decision.

For Poker being able to read the other players, being able to guess what cards they hold and what their next likely move is, is key to knowing what you should do. Standing in cases like these can also be beneficial as if you hold a weak hand but stand on it, it may make other players think your hand is a strong one if you’re willing to stand on it and they may in turn make mistakes. This is a bluff that works well and often.

In Blackjack the best way to know when to stand is to count the cards in the deck, keep an idea of what sorts of cards have been all played out. If the higher cards have mostly been dealt out and the majority of the cards in the deck should be low cards then this is a time for hitting but if the reverse is true and there are mostly high cards left in the un-dealt deck and you have a mid-level hand then you should stand and hope that the dealer hits and busts his hand.

Always think about what you’re doing and how your next move will appear to the other players and what consequences this may have later on in the game whether you’re playing online or at a land based casino. This is true strategy and is important to learn both in cards and in life.

I’ll begin by stating the obvious: the type of blackjack you’re playing will determine the odds you will receive. In single deck blackjack, the kind that is most common the house carries a .05% advantage. Beware that while many casinos advertise single deck blackjack they may have an actual policy of Blackjack paying 6-5 which will be posted somewhere near the table if this is the case. This 6-5 cost almost triples the house advantage upping it to 1.44% so be sure to watch out for the fine print before betting.

In most online casinos which are almost all run out of European countries the European style of blackjack is played wherein the dealer employs the ‘no peek’ rule that is the dealer’s hand is not checked for a blackjack after the cards are dealt but waits until the players have made their wagers and looked at their own cards. At this point the dealer then checks the hand if the dealer has a blackjack the player loses the entire amount wagered.

As for the other variants on the game the Atlantic City blackjack odds leave a player with a return of  -0.43% which is quite low leaving us with the idea that standard blackjack may be the way to go when playing this game. Atlantic City blackjack is also much more complicated as it uses eight decks of cards and players can split their hands up to four times. So really until you’re much further along in your understanding of the game you’ll want to stick to just regular blackjack.

At its heart Blackjack is not a complicated game there are just a few simple rules for basic blackjack that I’ll cover in this article. Basic Blackjack begins with a wager – the player places whatever bet (usually the posted minimum at a casino table) they feel is appropriate along with everyone else in the game and then the hands are dealt around the table. Each hand is two cards – the players are either both face down or face up but the dealer is dealt one card face down and one card face up. The object of the game is to reach 21 by adding the face value of both cards in the cases of Kings, Queens and Jacks these are all valued at 10 while the Ace can either count as a 1 or an 11. If your hand adds up to more than 21 this is what’s known as a ‘bust’ and you have lost the game. At the end of the round whoever comes closest to 21 if no one has hit 21 wins. If the dealer and a player have both come up with ‘Blackjack” this is a tie.

Once a player has been dealt their cards they can either elect to ‘hit’ which means drawing another card in hopes of increasing their proximity to 21 without going over or the player can ‘stand’ which means keeping the hand that has been dealt. A dealer is required to ‘hit’ if his hand adds up to 16 and to ‘stand’ if his hand adds up to 17.

In certain blackjack games you may be allowed to “Surrender” before the round is over, this allows you to back out of the game and lose only half your original bet.

Blackjack can be played at home, in land based casinos or even at online casinos but be sure and read the instructions as with every gambling game as there are many variations to the traditional blackjack game. All differing rules will most likely be posted clearly on the tables at land based casinos and can be found in the FAQ or Frequently Asked Section at most online casinos.

As always have fun and gamble safely!

Card counting is a fairly new strategy developed in the sixties by Professor Edward Thorp who was inspired by the mathematician Roger Baldwin. According to Professor Thorp the most influential card on the deck leading to a blackjack for the player is the five card. If the deck holds all its fives the player isn’t likely to have a favorable outcome. The next most important card is the ten, so Thorp’s system for counting cards in blackjack  simply put means that you must keep an eye out for the fives and the tens, if most or all of either card has been played then you the player are likely in for a good round. Of course is not allowed at most casinos so if you do employ this strategy do it discreetly.

Of course Thorp’s isn’t the only blackjack card counting system out there today, many different card counting strategies make the rounds of the internet every day some much more elaborate than simply keeping track of the four fives and four tens a deck holds. Of course one would believe the more complex the system, the greater the advantage the player should hold once he or she masters it. Realistically though the advantage doesn’t increase drastically so ease of use outweighs the minor benefits of the more difficult systems.

The High/Low card counting system is both simple and effective so it’s one of the most popular systems out there. Another excellent card counting system is the Advanced Plus/Minus system which is easy to learn and useful to employ, also there is the High/Low system. Every system is different and has its own level of difficulty but what it all really comes down to is that if a deck has an abundance for high cards: 9’s, 10’s and Aces then the player should bet big because this is a deck that is stacked in his or her favor. If a deck holds a lot of low face value cards 2’s through 8’s then this is not an advantageous deck and the player should bet low. Whatever tricks you use to keep track of the cards left in the deck is then up to you.

With a pair of twos or threes

           – when the dealer’s face card is 2 or 3 if you can double down after a split then split, if you can’t then hit.

           - If the dealer’s face card is an 8,9,10 or an Ace then hit.

           - If the dealer’s face card is a 4,5,6 or 7 split.

With a pair of fours

- If the dealer has a 7, 10 or an Ace then Stand.

- If the dealer has a 2,3,4,5,6,8 or 9 then split.

With a pair of 10s you always stand.

With a pair of Aces you always split.

Only hit on an Ace 2 or Ace 3 soft total when the dealer’s face card is a 2,3,4,7,8,9,10 or Ace, double down if the dealer has a 5 or 6, if you can’t double down then go ahead and hit.

Only hit on an Ace 4 or Ace 5 soft total when the dealer’s face card is a 2,3,7,8,9,10, or Ace, double down if the dealer has a 5 or a 6, if you can’t double down then hit.

Only hit on an Ace 6 soft total when the dealer’s face card is a 2,7,8,9,10 or ace, double down if the dealer has 3,4,5 or 6, if you can’t double down then hit.

Only hit on an Ace 7 soft total when the dealer’s face card is a 9,10 or Ace, stand if the dealer has a 2,7, or 8 and double down if the dealer’s face card is a 3,4,5 or 6, if you can’t double down then stand.

Always stand on an Ace 8, Ace 9 or Ace 10 soft total.

Always hit if your hard total is less than or equal to 8.

Only hit on a hard total of 9 if the dealer’s face card is 2,7,8,9,10 or an Ace. If you have a hard total of 9 and the dealer has a 3,4,5 or 6 face card you should double down, if you can’t double down then take a hit.

Only hit on a hard total of 10 only of the dealer has an ace or a 10. If the dealer has anything lower than a 10 you should double do, if you can’t double down then take a hit.

Only hit on a hard total of 11 if the dealer has an ace. If the dealer has anything less than an Ace double down, if you can’t double down then take a hit.

Only hit on a hard total of 12 if the dealer doesn’t have a 4,5 or 6 face card. If the dealer has any of those cards then you should stand.

Only hit on a hard total of 13 or 14 only if the dealer’s face card is a 7,8,9,10 or Ace. If the dealer has a face card of 2,3,4,5 or 6 then you should stand.

Only hit on a hard total of 15 if the dealer has a 7,8,9 or Ace, if the dealer holds a 10 surrender, if you can’t surrender then take a hit. If the dealer’s face card is a 2,3,4,5 or 6 then stand.

Only hit on a hard total of 16 if the dealer holds a 7 or 8 face card, for 9,10 or ace surrender if you can if not take a hit. Stand on your 16 if the dealer’s face card is a 2,3,4,5 or 6.

Always stand on a hard total of 17 or higher.