How to Win Long Term at Blackjack - Concentrate

Every casino game lends itself to short-term success.  You can truly get rich quick playing a progressive slots game.  You can also win big at roulette and craps.  In all three of these games, you also have to be luckier just to win at all than you need to be to win at the more analytical games: blackjack, poker, and video poker.  This is not a drawback of the luck centred games; getting lucky is one of the reasons we find online casino gaming so much fun.

Winning and Winning Again

Being successful long term is a different story.  Whilst each of the decision-based games has its own unique set of practices, there are some practices that will be applicable to each game.  In this article, we’ll begin a three-part series about each of these three great and cerebral online casino games in which we’ll talk about winning long term.

Play Online

Springbok, your online casino for South Africa, is always available on your desktop or laptop and just a swipe away on your mobile device.  At Springbok, you have many advantages over land-based gaming such as higher return to player rates, great convenience, no travel costs, and a larger selection of games.

For long term success, nothing is better than online casino gaming.

Never Play When You’re Tired

This piece of advice that applies to every decision oriented casino game.  It applies equally to online casinos and land based casinos.  It actually points to another of the many advantages of gaming at Springbok or any other reputable online casino.  When you play at an online casino, you can go from gaming to any of the vast number of everyday activities you do, from working on a work project to working on a home project or any of a thousand things in between.

At a land based casino, if you get tired you can go eat or drink or sleep or maybe take in a show.

Never play when you’re tired.  The worst time for making the best decisions rapidly and successfully is when you’re tired.  Even if you’re down for that particular session, stop playing and recharge your battery doing something else.

Blackjack

There are some positive aspects of blackjack that dramatically affect in a positive way the odds you get when you sit down to play.  One such aspect is surrender.  When you have the option to surrender, you can save half of your bet on a hand that gives you very little winning odds.

Try to play at a game where the dealer has to stand with soft 17.  The difference here is relatively small, but in blackjack every small incremental advantage you can get will ultimately result in more wins for you.

It also saves a lot of money when the dealer checks for blackjack with an ace or a 10-point card.  When she does check and has blackjack, it may save you money that you might lose from doubling down or splitting.  It also tells you that she doesn’t have 21 which may be enough information to win a few hands over the long term.

Some blackjack variations have an extra reward for a five card hand so play those if you can.

We will see that another aspect of blackjack that helps you become a winner long term is to raise your bet when the deck is “rich’ with 10 point cards.  When you have raised your bet, following this tactic, and the cards come out very bad for your chances on that hand, the option to surrender can save you a large sum of money.

Single Deck Games

Try to play only at single deck or double-deck games because it will make it much easier to count cards even when you are still at the beginning stages of learning to count cards. 

This is yet another aspect of long term success at blackjack that demonstrates the advantage of playing online.  At Springbok casino, you can play in free play mode for as long as you wish.  So, if you’re learning to count cards, you can hone your skill for free if you want to do so.

At an online casino, you can always play for very low sums.  At land based casinos, the lowest bet might be $2 but the two dollar table may be full so many players end up at the five dollar table.  This likely depletes those players’’ bankrolls and reduces their ability to gain the necessary experience to become long term blackjack winners.

Doubling Down and Splitting

Try to play blackjack versions that allow splitting three times.  Also, be sure that the game allows you to split aces more than once.  You won’t get three aces often but it does happen and you will want to be able the split aces again.

You should be sure to play at a game that allows you to double down after splitting.

Playing More Hands

At a land based casino, the game that offers you the best rules to reduce the house edge might be full.  This will dramatically reduce the number of hands you can play.  Once you have the skill to play blackjack profitably, you should want to play as many hands as you can until you get tired.

Online blackjack is always a one on one game even if a million people are playing the same game at the same time so you get to play as many games as your decision making speed allows.

Confidence

Having the confidence that you know how to make the best decisions is invaluable in many pursuits including blackjack.  Few people are inherently full of self-confidence; this is a character trait that one develops over time.  So, to become the best blackjack player you can be, requires an investment in time.

You should look at the investment in time the same way you might look at university studies or any other valuable endeavor that takes a lot of time to achieve.

Play Often

We spoke about playing as many games as possible until you get tired.  This will reduce your playing time for every session.  Some people can play for a couple of hours or longer whilst some may be able to play for only a half hour.

As you get older, you’ll get tired faster and that will reduce your playing time even more.  So, play as often as it is reasonable to do so.  More frequent short sessions will likely result in more profit than one single long session per week.

Counting Cards

This is still the best way to maximize your blackjack profit line.  There are a few card counting methods and systems.  Some players do well with a less complex system whilst others can master the most difficult system.

It’s okay to learn the system that works best for you.  The idea is to make the best possible decisions and if you try to learn a system that is too complex for you, you will end up making poor decisions.

Table Position

Although you play the most hands online, most players like the atmosphere at a land based casino once in a while.  If you are a card counter, you probably should sit in the last position so you can see all the cards that are played before you have to decide what to do.

Long Term Blackjack Profits

Finally, whilst there are many blackjack players who make a very nice income from blackjack, the vast majority of people can’t live off their blackjack winnings.  Still, it’s great to be able to enhance your winnings by following a few general rules.