Blackjack Philosophy

I have heard Casino players say that it doesn’t matter who you play with on a Blackjack table – how good they are or how they play or whatever – because the cards will even out in the long run, and besides, how can it really effect what you get dealt?

    They have a point, but I feel so much happier on a Blackjack table of good players.  It’s not just that they play better, but they just conduct themselves better.  Bad players – really bad ones – can be totally random in their play and that gets on my nerves very quickly if I’m playing with them.  They also seem really unsure of every decision.  It’ll come to them and they haven’t got a clue what they’re doing; it’s as if they think they’re not allowed to think about what they are going to do until the dealer points to their box.

    Good players usually make instant decisions.  They know what they are going to do in any given situation and whether they win or lose their expression changes little.  Sometimes they might show some relief if they look as if they are about to lose but don’t, or they can get a bit angry if the cards time and time again come out wrong despite their very best efforts, but, by in large, it’s the amateur players that show all the emotions, especially when they win.  It makes me laugh when I see a good player playing, say,  $200 a time, winning a few grand and remaining calm and poker-faced, while someone else on the table is screaming and hollering over $5.

    A game on a table of good experienced players, will invariably flow, and if the whole table gets on a winning run it is a beautiful place to be; but it only takes one bad player sitting on the table and that is pretty much impossible; what I mean is: if I lose and everyone is playing well then I can take it, but when I lose and it is because time and time again there is somebody at the table taking a card when they shouldn’t or leaving a hand when they should take, then I cannot help but get frustrated about it.  What makes it worse is how ignorant these people usually are.  Even if you point it out as it happens, (look, if you hadn’t taken that card then the dealer would’ve got too many, etc.) they look at you blankly and don’t understand that the decisions they make influence everybody’s bets and not just their own.

    But how much is bullshit?  I mean, I like playing with good players, but I remember playing once in Amsterdam and the whole table was losing: we were all good players but we couldn’t do a thing right; but then another player joined the table on the box just before me and was a terrible player, but everything he did – every mistake he made – was good for me.  My luck completely turned because of him and I ended up winning.

    I still feel much more relaxed and get more into the game on a table of good players.  The way I play – concentrating on the game and putting big bets down every now and again when I feel it is right – there is too much to worry about if there is a bad player or two at the table.  If they directly cost you money then you do blame them; it’s automatic.  If they help you win, you don’t tend to think: ‘well I knew he’d do that’, it’s more like: ‘well, I got bloody lucky there!’

    Interfering doesn’t work either.  I used to try and tell people how to play, but if you tell somebody to take a card or whatever and everybody ends up losing because of it, then you feel pretty stupid and can cause a bad vibe at the table.  At the end of the day, people can play however they like because it is their money.

    On one of my earlier Casino visits before I ever came to Vegas, in the Treasury in Brisbane, Australia, I learnt a valuable lesson about keeping quiet on the table:  I was playing on the first box and had put a large bet on, I think it was about $400 AU, which at that time, for me, was as big a bet as I’d ever had.  There were two other players and I got dealt twenty and the dealer was showing a picture.  I obviously stayed and then it got to the guy on the last box who had sixteen.  He pulled a card – the correct strategy – and got an ace.  I was so pleased to see this because he had stopped the Dealer’s Blackjack, so I said ‘Thank you’, smiling and relieved.  The guy on the end box had just been playing his own game with minimal bets, and as he looked over at me then, he noticed the big pile of chips that I had on my box.  All of a sudden he looked nervous and I don’t think he even realised the size of the bet I had on until that moment.  Anyway, for whatever reason he pulled another card (he had seventeen so should never have done this).  It was a seven and he predictably bust.  I shook my head in disbelief, knowing that that seven would’ve been a perfect card for the dealer.

    Worse was to follow.  The dealer then pulled an ace and therefore still got a Blackjack.  I lost when I should’ve won and if I hadn’t have said anything to the other player he would not have hit on seventeen, I am certain of it.  Obviously I could’ve still thanked him but done it AFTER the hand was finished so as not to influence the game too much.  It was an $800 difference and I was absolutely sick – even the dealer looked as if he felt really bad about it.

    I think that was the worst I’ve ever felt at a Blackjack table and ever since then I try not to get involved in what other players are doing.  Sometimes I forget this rule of mine and can’t control myself, normally with predictable consequences.

    A lot of gambling to win is one big battle against human nature.  When we win we want to win more and when we lose we don’t want to leave the table or the Casino losing, so we keep playing until we have got our money back.

    Timing is everything and knowing when the correct time is to leave a table is one of the hardest things to learn.

    You also need to be in control of your emotions.  I have learned that it is good to be positive – you should always be positive – but not in that ‘false bravado’ type way, as in: “I’ve got a real feeling I’m going to win tonight”.  This can never be the case.  To say that you have ‘a feeling you are going to win’ suggests that the Casino owes you money and that you have a bigger influence on things than you actually do.  Genuinely believing that ‘this is going to be your night’ can result in being too brave when in front or refusing to cut your losses.  I always avoid this over-confident emotion.  Another mistake that many people make is setting themselves a ‘target’, like: “I’m going to win a grand tonight.”

    Oh yes?  And how do you know that exactly?  Again, the Casino does not ever owe you money and you have absolutely no idea – no matter how good you are – of knowing what is in store for you.  Setting a target, again, suggests that you have more control over the game than you actually do.

    When I play Blackjack I never have a target in mind, I just play my best game, go for it when I feel it is good and hope to win; I will play for as long as the luck stays good, and unfortunately it rarely stays good for long.  Once I feel the luck turn for a few hands I will stop playing. 

    Let’s say that I set myself a target of a $500 profit and then have good luck right up to being $450 up only for the luck to turn completely, well then: I won’t leave the table until I have that $500.  The chances are that by chasing the last $50 that I want, I will lose my hard-earned profit.  Yes, sometimes you might get to $500, but is it really worth the risk?  You should never have a target and I do not understand some people’s obsession with a ‘nice round number’.  Again – you do NOT have that much of an influence; you CANNOT pick and choose when you are going to win and how much: It doesn’t work like that.

    The same applies when you lose and want to get back to evens.  I once lost $600 but then started to have some good luck.  I got all my money back apart from $30 before my luck went bad again.  What did I do?  I walked away.  Why chase that last $30 when the chances are I would go back to losing a much larger amount if I did?  $570 back was enough in this instance: IT HAS TO BE.  Think about it: If someone had offered you $570 back at the point when you were losing $600 you would’ve snapped their arm off. 

    Go with the flow and with the luck, forget nice round figures or chasing every penny back: this can be very damaging and ruin the best of strategies.  No one likes to take a loss but sometimes you have to accept that this is not your day.  Getting away on a bad day with only minimal losses is every bit as important as maximising your profits on a good day.

    And a tip that is particularly relevant in a place like Las Vegas: If you start to get stressed, blurry-eyed, angry, or all three, then remember: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE A BREAK!  Play to enjoy it; if you are not enjoying it, get away from there – go and sit by the hotel pool for an hour, go for a walk, have a coffee.  It is so easy to forget that life away from the tables does exist.

    Take each game as a SEPARATE SESSION.  What I mean by this is: If you lose, say, $500 in one session then have a break for two hours, when you come back for another play never play to win that 500 back.  You are at ZERO.  Again, you don’t know how it’s going to go and you need to have your head about you, focused on the game in hand.  Thinking back to a previous game is not going to help and can have you feeling like you are ‘chasing money’ even when you are winning.  Winning and going with the flow is a much better state of mind to be in than chasing losses.

    Another mistake that people make, (and this is only natural amongst holidaymakers) is to have too many plans.  If I sit down at a table, I make sure I can be on that table for as long as I need to be.  Sure, I might have some idea in the back of my head of what I want to do later on, but you should NOT sit down at a table if you have to be away from it by a certain time.

    Most holidaymakers won’t care about this, I know – they are just there on holiday, not to win money but to have fun – and that is fair enough; but if you are serious about trying to win, then sitting down to play Blackjack at 6.45pm when you’ve got a table booked for dinner with the wife at 7.00pm, will lower your chances, significantly, of winning.  By doing this, the only way you can win is if the cards are good almost straight away; the cards might be terrible for ten minutes and then suddenly go great just before Seven – well, you’re going to have to leave the table just when it’s getting good, when you don’t really want to, and perhaps miss out on a great run of cards.

    I once had an argument with a friend that it was better to win £50 in ten minutes than to lose £200 over two hours, and he just scoffed; but quite frankly: where’s the argument?  If you are serious about this you don’t set yourself any time limits.  You might stay at one table for five minutes and another for two hours, but this should be completely dictated by how well the cards are going and how good a game it appears to be.  You can’t influence some things; sometimes it is best to get away from a table as quickly as possible.  To have the mental strength to be able to walk away from a table when you’ve only just sat down is a bonus, and another example why you should stay away from that ‘I feel as though I’m going to win today’ feeling.