Live casinos have been hailed as the next big thing in online gambling for some time now. It’s a platform that combines the convenience of being able to play blackjack, baccarat and roulette from your PC, with the peace of mind that the deal is not reliant on a random number generator (“RNG”) to dictate game outcomes.

In principle the offering is an enticing one. Unlike traditional RNG online casino games where a computer dictates event outcomes, live casino games offer a real human dealer dealing real cards, or tossing a real ball into an actual roulette wheel all viewed over a live webcast. With a reasonably fast internet connection, the smoothness and clarity of vision at most offering casinos is impressive, as are the bet interfaces that the vision is delivered through.

That is of course if you have a reasonable connection. And this leads us to the main contention of this article. This platform is not without its shortcomings, and being aware of them may temper any disappointments you may otherwise have trying any live casino games out for the first time.

As intimated above, one of the key problems many players may encounter with live gaming is problems with the vision. Remember, the vision is live and not an mpeg that you play once loaded. While the platform providers spruik their fantastic video streaming technologies and file compression capabilities with patents pending and a whole list of other wonderful claims, what you will find is that in the end the web-cast is only as good as the connection speed supporting it. If you are on a dial up connection, forget it. Even if your connection speed is reasonable, don’t expect uninterrupted vision at all times.

What you will also find, is that vision quality from certain platform providers is far from impressive. The spinning roulette wheel is an amorphous blur until it finally stops and the card deals in blackjack and baccarat are more like a series of low resolution freeze frames. To be fair, this is not the norm though and with a fast connection vision quality from most providers is pretty good – in some cases very impressive.

Are you an impatient gambler who can’t stand a slow game? If so this may not be your ideal game format. Unlike in RNG casino games, where you can call the deal in most instances and control game speed, live games are a little different. While you are viewing a single dealer, he or she is dealing to a number of players and must allow ample time for all bets to be placed and hit/stand/double/split decisions to be made in blackjack. In fact, this time is fixed according to the casino’s (platform provider’s) game set up and can be anywhere from 15 to 40 seconds between deals/bet decisions.

Imagine playing a live blackjack game in multi-play format with 7 players at the table. You are give 40 seconds to place your bets. Then, each player is given a further 30 seconds to play their hand. If all players take their full time allotted to play their hand, by the time the last player is reached it’s almost 4 minutes since conclusion of the last hand. Now this is an extreme case but you get the idea. Live gaming can be slow.

Fortunately for impatient players not all live games will have full multi-play tables. Some don’t offer multi-play and have a 15 second count between bets – but this is the exception rather than the norm.

Blackjack has one of the most popular online card games. And it is easy to learn and play blackjack. The reason for this is maybe there are no combination’s of cards to remember unlike poker.

The main objective of playing blackjack is to get the sum of two cards closer to 21. So when a particular persons cards add up over 21 the person loses the game.

Each player is given normally two cards. And after the persons sees their cards, they have to make a decision whether to hit or stand. “Stand” means the person thinks that they are closer to 21. When you feel you need of additional cards to reach 21 you say “hit”.

The person who is nearer 21 wins the game. And players are allowed to draw as many cards as they want to reach 21.

However some people have devised strategies and tips to get over the edge with other players. And this tends can help others win the game.

Below are some tips you can choose to win the game of blackjack.

1. If you get 17 or higher, you might consider to stand, and again if you have any number between 13 and 16 and you find the dealer is six or lower, its also better to stand. You should hit when the dealers card has seven or more.

The dealer may take a card if it is showing a card of six or more, but that is assuming his cards are all facing down and has a 10. Other players assume the dealer may be banking on a bus and so then they decide to lower their card number.

2. When you have cards of aces or 8′s, a good idea is to split them no matter what the dealer maybe showing.

3. Make sure you don’t split tens because the chances are high that you get busted.

4. It is a good idea to stand hard on 12 if the dealer is showing 4, 5, or 6.

5. Face cards, fives and splitting fours is not a wise choice if you want to win.

Winning is possible when gambling , but you should understand that it is a game of chance. And with the right information it is highly possible you will win.

The Basics of Blackjack
Blackjack is one of the casino games that gives the players a good probability of winning if they have the right strategy. Before the strategies, a player must first master the basics of blackjack.

Blackjack Card Counting has become quite famous of late because of the new hit movie 21 being released, portraying the true story of a group of MIT students who devised a way of counting cards that was not only very effective, but also easy enough for the average human being like you or me to learn.

Counting cards is based on the principle that because the casino is using five decks of cards at the blackjack table and continues to use that same five decks constantly, if you can remember the location of all the cards — or even key cards — you’ll be able to figure out what cards are coming up next in order to place smarter bets.

So how does blackjack card counting work exactly? In short, you have to have some kind of ability to remember where certain cards are in the deck. Now short of being a mathematical genius or someone with an absolutely photographic memory, you need a method of learning how to do this. These are not card counting secrets at all, merely ways of embedding the locations of these cards into your memory; commonly called ‘memory anchoring’.

Without even knowing it, we all inadvertently anchor things in our memory almost every day. For example, is there a certain smell that triggers a certain memory to appear in your mind? Or it could be whenever you hear a certain song it brings back thoughts of a time or place in your past that has connections to it. This is exactly how memory anchoring works.

When you’re thinking about memory anchoring in this aspect, it’s generally being imprinted by our subconscious mind without us even realising it, or even wanting it to happen. So, what we need to do is to find a way of using memory anchoring in the short term to remember cards in the blackjack deck.

Before I go any further, let me stress that you don’t need to remember every card in the deck, only critical cards which will make or break your hand; these are the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten cards. If you know the location of these cards it won’t guarantee you’ll win every hand, however you will have an enormous advantage over the casino and every other player at the table, ensuring you’ll be up hundreds or thousands of dollars at the end of each betting session.

There are many ways of using this memory anchoring, however one of the better ones is by associating each card to a certain ‘place’ in your mind. For example, you could create a house in your mind, and each room of the house has the symbol of a certain card over each door. You could have a King room, Ace room and so on. For this to work, you also need to remember the which card came before it.

Say that the Jack of Hearts comes up in the deck and the card that came right before it was the Eight of Diamonds. In your mind you would walk into the Jack room, and place an Eight of Diamonds — or to make it even easier just a red Eight or even just an Eight — next to the Jack of Hearts. While you’re doing this in your mind, you would focus on the room and the cards very deeply for several seconds, basically imprinting this in your mind.

You’d be surprised how well this method actually works, however I have to admit this isn’t the exact method devised by the MIT students portrayed in the movie 21. For their card counting secrets, you’ll have to do a little searching for it online, but don’t worry, you shouldn’t have to look very far!

In 2006, betting exchange introduced the concept of the zero lounge to their range of games and it was said to offer the player an equal chance of winning or losing. On a roulette wheel this can be seen by the removing of the zero and meaning a player who always bet on red should see a winning return of 50%. It is easy to explain for roulette but for games such as Zero Blackjack, it may not be so straightforward. However, this is where the advantage lies for those players who understand the game and are able to play towards what is known as the perfect play.

In the Betting exchangeonline zero blackjack game, the odds have been slightly rewritten to be more preferable to the player. The online casino now pays out at 2-1 when the player has a suited natural Blackjack and also when they have a five card 21.

The suited natural blackjack occurs when a player receives their first two cards which amount to 21 and both belong to the same suit, an example of which may be receiving the Ace of Spades and the Jack of Spades. This would pay out as 2-1 as opposed to the 3-2 which would normally be given to a blackjack. The suited blackjack is not viewed as better as a standard blackjack and if the dealer and the player both have any form of blackjack, a push is the outcome.

Similarly, anytime a player has taken 5 cards and their points amount to 21, a payment of 2-1 is immediately paid out. If the dealer draws a 21 the 5 card player will be the victor but this is not enough to defeat a dealer Blackjack. Also, having a 5 card 21 is not applicable with regards to the dealer which will result in a push against the player who has 21 with fewer than 5 cards.

Betting exchange online casinos have been at the forefront of offering more variety and better odds to the player and the zero blackjack addition to their list of games gives another opportunity for serious players to have a chance of making some winnings.

Variations of blackjack games
With the popularity of blackjack game growing, there are many variations of this game which have emerged to bring more excitement to the game. Las Vegas strip blackjack is a very popular variation used in Las Vegas casinos located on the Strip. It has different splitting and double down rules. In Pontoon blackjack, the dealers both [...]

Blackjack- Few Tips
Like any gambling game, there is no guarantee to win this game but a novice can follow certain tips which can reduce the loss and make playing at the casino a pleasurable experience. As blackjack is a game of mathematics and probabilities, one should follow the basic strategy always. Hunches and intuition is not the [...]

Best Blackjack Game & Double Exposure
Simulation results indicate that there are vital differences in what your time is worth for different playing conditions. Penetration is important. The rules are important.

One of my favorite casino games is blackjack, but I struggled to win consistently until I discovered a great system. Now I can beat the banker on every visit and not get myself banned.

Casinos welcome losers and luckily for them 98% of their visitors fall into this category. That leaves just 2% of their customers who actually cost them money. Now you would think that they could live with those odds, but they spend a lot of time and money shrinking this figure by another 1.5% by spotting the winners and banning them.

That leaves 0.5% who “get away with it”. Are these people cheating? No! Their only crime is that they can consistently beat the banker and that is certainly not illegal.

So how is it possible to be one of those rare people that turn the tables in their favor night after night without getting unceremoniously ejected. Well one answer is by using the blackjack betting system. Using this easy to learn, multi-part strategy you can shift the balance of odds in your favor and reap rich rewards night after night. So let’s break this down a little for you.

First and foremost you need to learn the rules of the game. Blackjack is a game of pure mathematics, which means that for every card dealt there is only one right decision. It is also pretty unique in as much as each hand played has an affect on future hands. To complement this knowledge you need to learn to count cards. Don’t panic, you are not expected to remember every card dealt, just certain values. This strategy alone will shift the odds in your favor, but not enough to guarantee consistent results.

The next tactic is progressive betting. This strategy will keep you at the table longer and have a significant impact on your winnings when applied correctly. Combining this with good money management should provide an overall odds advantage of 2% in you favor, which may sound small, but is actually a very significant figure.

There are additional parts to the blackjack betting system which will allow you to maintain that overall advantage and maximize your winnings without you fully exposing your skill level and subsequently joining the banned list.

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games of all time. Its exciting, fun, and can potentially bring in very big profits! Playing professional Blackjack is something anyone can do. Winning is easy to do if you have the right strategies, and the right plan. In a lot of ways, winning Blackjack is easier to do than winning Poker. Unlike Poker, you only have one opponent in Blackjack (the dealer). There are also various scientific methods proven to help you win more consistently over a long term period. Winning Blackjack requires discipline and patience. The fear of going bust causes a lot of players to stand. This is especially devastating when hitting would have been the right decision to make. To win at Blackjack, you need to have a big enough bankroll. A big bankroll is your safety net in times of sustained losing streaks. If you don’t have enough money to survive a big losing streak, you have no chance of getting back into the game. So many times, players get frustrated when they lose a few hands. Chasing losses by betting too much, which causes big losses, is how most players end up getting wiped out. Winning Blackjack should be a long term goal, not a short term one. Gambling is a losing game, however, a winning strategy is not gambling. A winning strategy turns a gamble into a long term profit gain (because you are no longer gambling!). Eliminate the element of luck, put the odds in your favor, and you almost cannot lose! An intelligent strategy + discipline = long term success at Blackjack!

Am I getting this right?
Can I use the Samsung blackjack as my mp3/video player? I’m considering getting a new Samsung Blackjack as a mp3 player for commuting/general travel. I can get it for 75 bucks from cingular and apparently a 2gb microsd card is only about 30, so I can have a nice, fully featured mp3 player/organizer/nice new phone for 100 dollars. My question to the askmefi audience is if there’s a potential downside I’m missing here. Does anyone have experience with the blackjack? Is the audio output good enough for semi-regular mp3 usage? Will I be able to install some sort of codec package to play my downloaded tv shows? I think it uses Windows Mobile 5, so are there any equivalents of vlc media player for WM5? I guess general impressions are welcome too. I’ve read the cnet review, and they seemed largely impressed, with the only potential downside in that there’s no wi-fi (hey – I’d love to skip this question and go for an iphone – but I don’t have 500 bucks to spare). Thanks all.

What should my bankroll be?
How much money would it take to deal blackjack for a night? I’ve been asked if I want to deal and be “the house” at blackjack at a party. Assuming a $5 max bet for the first few hours and a $10 max bet for the last couple, what’s a reasonable estimate for the amount of money I should have in order to cover winnings? I don’t expect to have a full table the whole time, probably full every once in a while and empty others. If it’s easier to estimate we can just assume two players the whole time.

Only way to win at online blackjack, is by chasing the bonus
I got into an email fight with Ray because he said the only way to win at online blackjack was by becoming a slave to the best bonus and continually chasing down the bonus, then moving onto the next casino site. Actually slave is a politer term compared to what he used. I disagree, you can [...]