Atlantic City Weekly

Shakespeare had Hamlet say, "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so." Dickens wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The dopey guy who lives across the road said, "Blackjack? It's all just dumb luck!"

For the dopey guy who lives across the road, his thinking has made blackjack a "bad" game and for him the long run will be "the worst of times." Because blackjack is a game where skill will determine just how much you win and lose over the course of your playing career and luck will take a back seat, how you think about the game will be the precursor of what actually happens to you when you play the game.

The majority of blackjack players, unfortunately, tend to play blackjack in such a way that they give the house rather large edges when, in fact, had they played correctly, the house would have very little edge, if any edge at all. Why do they do this, when information about proper blackjack play is readily available in books, tapes and courses? Because they "think" that the game is either based on luck or, they think, that their homespun strategy, concocted from superstition, faulty logic, narrow memory of results and bull-headedness will bring them to victory.

And they ignore the growing losses over the days, weeks, months and years of their play.

It doesn't have to be that way. Blackjack is the most studied, analyzed, and dissected of all the casino games. There are almost as many books on the subject as there are players. The correct basic strategy for the play of every player hand against every dealer up card has long been established, proven by math and computer simulations running into the billions of hands, and, for the true aficionado, distinct basic strategies for single, double, four, six and eight deck games have also been developed.

If a player doesn't feel like memorizing the basic strategy for blackjack, he can just buy a "basic strategy card" (often sold in casino gift shops) and use it at the table like a cheat sheet -- except it isn't cheating! By using correct basic strategy the casino edge is reduced markedly. While most blackjack players will play with a one to three percent house edge against them, the blackjack basic strategy player will play with a mere half percent (or less) edge against him.

It is possible for blackjack players to turn the tables on the casinos and actually secure for themselves slightly positive edges. These players, utilizing such methods as card counting and shuffle tracking, are known as advantage players. Not many players have been able to turn the tables on the casinos and become advantage players (there are approximately eight million blackjack players in the country and only 1,100 identified advantage players -- that's one long-term winner for every 8,000 long-term losers) because it does take effort to learn how to count cards and it takes incredible skill, talent and effort to learn how to master shuffle tracking.

However, some players have had spectacular success against the casinos, such as the late Ken Uston, whose books about his million-dollar adventures have inspired two generations of blackjack players.

Why blackjack is such a good game has to do with the fact that when cards are played they can't be replayed until after the next shuffle. That means the odds for and against the player are always in a state of flux, depending on which cards have come out. Sometimes the odds favor the casino; sometimes they favor the player. For example, if all the aces come out, no one is going to get a blackjack on the next round. With knowledge of the remaining cards to be played, card counters are able to structure their betting to take advantage of the times during a game when the upcoming cards will favor them.

The fact of the matter is that blackjack players merely have to think about what they want to achieve at the tables, then learn the proper methods, for the game to be a "good" for them. If they want to cut the house edge, they will learn basic strategy; if they want to get the edge for themselves, they can learn how to count from books (which is quite doable) or take the Golden Touch Blackjack course for two days and graduate from that with an edge.

It can be "the best of times" for the blackjack player if he wants it to be. He isn't stuck just relying on "dumb luck" as the guy across the road is.

Frank Scoblete is the No. 1, best-selling gaming author in America. His newest book is The Virgin Kiss and Other Adventures! For more information, call 1-800-944-0406 or visit his Web sites: www.goldentouchcraps.com and www.scoblete.com in connection with the site www.casinocitytimes.com.