iPoker and Blackjack:
Blackjack - Basic Strategy
As I’ve told you, both Texas Hold’em and Blackjack are games in which the training and the skill of a player are fundamental aspects because they can reduce the importance of fortune in play. The basic strategy shows you how to play your cards based on the dealer up card. This strategy is based on the mathematics of the game but even on the fact the dealer has a rigid game strategy that changes only when it regards to hit a soft 17.
The blackjack basic strategy was firstly developed by Dr Edward O. Thorp, an American mathematics professor of M.I.T., using analysis and computer simulations. Successively, this strategy has been drawn on other blackjack analysts, in particular Wrong who has developed a chart on the basis of which you can decide how to play.
Now, I suggest you to learn and understand this chart very well so you’ll always be able to act in the proper way. Then, it’s important you undertake card-counting (I’ll explain it in the next chapter).
For instance, if your total hand is 13 or 14 (it can seem an insufficient score to win a hand) you must to stand if the dealer has 2/3/4/5/6 because, even if his down is a face card, he will totalized 12/13/14/15/16. Now the dealer must totalize 17 at least so he must to ask another card and risking to bust. For that reason, this effective and useful strategy should be combined with card-counting. In fact, in that specific case, when many high cards are still in the shoe then the probabilities of the dealer busting increase.
