In the blackjack overview and advices article we wrote about an approach which is the statistically optimal strategy for playing blackjack. Following that strategy you can increase your winning chances but there are also other factors which are important and we didn't noted in that article. Here we will try to give some examples which can help you learn how to correctly apply that strategy in the optimal way.

Hard and Soft – the interesting 17

Many players consider 17 is a hard number in Blackjack. It is always good to play a "hard" 17 but there is also "soft" 17 (Ace-6). Even though 17 is a good hand you have a good chance to improve it in case it is soft and the risk is in fact quite low.

If it happens to you that the next card is 10 you will still have 17, but if it is Ace, 2, 3 or 4 it will make your hand stronger. It means that the bad cards for you are 5,6,7,8 or 9 and the good ones are A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, J, Q or K. So the chance is 9:5 in your advantage.

Play your hand but not your bet!

Whether they follow the optimal blackjack strategy or their own one, most professional blackjack players admit that the most important thing is that they took their decisions according to their cards but not their bets. For example: if you have 14 and the dealer has 10- the optimal strategy is for you to get an extra card. So, if a situation like this happens to you and you play a too high bet then you would want to play further (for an extra card) so you can lower the risk but in the same time it would be a good approach for you to lower the bet a little as well as there is still some risk that you might lose.

Doubling

The "doubling" allows the players to earn more money when holding good hands in good situations. Playing a bet which is beyond their zone of comfort most players are scared to take advantage of the "doubling" option. So our advice is to play according to your hand in a situation like this as you are losing good opportunities otherwise. Math matters!

Splitting pairs

Opposite to doubling many players tend to split a pair of cards equal to 10. If the next card happens to be 5 or 6 they think there will be a big chance they will win 2 hands at one.

But why would you want to split one of the most powerful hands in Blackjack and to risk building 2 weaker hands? There are many cases in which splitting worth trying but if you are holding a 20 number hand then the best idea is always to play it!

Last thoughts

As you can see many players change their strategy according to factors outside their hands and that rarely leads to good results. You have to know that everything in blackjack is mathematics! The probabilities theory is something that worth learning if you want to become a professional blackjack player. If you are consistent and you play according to the probabilities you can be sure that those probabilities will turn into tendency in the long term.

Good luck!