Playing Twenty-one — to Win

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

If you like the thrill and adventure of a good card game and the elation of winning and acquiring some cash with the odds in your favour, playing vingt-et-un is for you.

So, how do you beat the croupier?

Quite simply when playing 21 you are watching the odds and chances of the cards in relation to:

1. The cards in your hand

2. What cards might be dealt from the shoe

When gambling on twenty-one there is statistically a best way to play every hand and this is called basic strategy. If you add card counting that helps you compute the chances of cards being dealt from the deck, then you are able to increase your action amount when the edge is in your favor and decrease them when the edge is not.

You’re only going to succeed at under half the hands you gamble on, so it is important that you adjust wager size when the odds are in your favour.

To do this when gambling on chemin de fer you must use basic strategy and card counting to win.

Basic tactics and counting cards

Since mathematicians and intellectuals have been investigating chemin de fer all sorts of complicated systems have arisen, including but not limited to "card counting" but even though the theory is complex card counting is pretty much straightforward when you wager on 21.

If when wagering on 21 you count cards correctly (even if the game uses multiple decks), you can change the edge to your favor.

21 Basic Strategy

Vingt-et-un basic strategy is assembled around an unsophisticated approach of how you bet depending upon the cards you receive and is statistically the best hand to use while not counting cards. It informs you when playing twenty-one when you need to hit or stand.

It’s surprisingly simple to do and is soon memorized and up until then you can get free guides on the web

Using it when you play chemin de fer will bring down the casino’s edge to near to even.

Counting cards shifting the odds in your favour

Card counting works and players use a card counting approach gain an advantage over the gambling den.

The reasoning behind this is simple.

Low cards favour the house in vingt-et-un and high cards favour the player.

Low cards favour the casino because they help her make winning totals on her hands when he is stiff (has a 12, thirteen, fourteen, 15, or sixteen total on her initial 2 cards).

In casino chemin de fer, you can stay on your stiffs if you want to, but the croupier cannot.

She has no decision to make, but you do and this is your advantage. The rules of betting on 21 require that croupiers hit stiffs no matter how rich the shoe is in high cards that will bust him.

The high cards favour the gambler because they might break the house when he hits their stiffs and also blackjacks are made with aces and tens.

Although blackjacks are, equally dispersed between the dealer and the gambler, the fact is that the player gets paid more (3:2) when he receives a blackjack so the gambler has an advantage.

You don’t have to count the numbers of each of the individual card in order to know when you have an edge over the house.

You just need to know at what point the deck is flush or depleted in high cards and you can jump your bet when the edge is in your favor.

This is a simple commentary of why card-counting systems work, but gives you an understanding into why the logic works.

When gambling on twenty-one over an extended term card counting will assist in tilting the odds in your favour by approx 2%.