Betting Options
Absolute Poker proudly presents the arrival of Blackjack to our tables. You can now easily access Blackjack from our lobby and play for real money at any time of the day. Consult our Blackjack tutorial below in order to get started! Have fun!
Blackjack:
- A winning Blackjack hand (an Ace and any 10-point card) pays 3 to 2 (assuming the dealer does not also have Blackjack).
- A Blackjack beats a multi-card score of 21.
Hit:
To be hit is to request another card be given to you after the original two cards have been dealt. This action will increase the value of your hand. You can take as many hits, or additional cards, as you like until you are satisfied with the total of your hand, or your hand has gone bust.
Stand:
This action allows you to keep your current hand without taking any additional cards. You can stand at any time.Insurance:
- If the dealer’s up-card is an Ace, you can take out insurance.
- You may bet half your original stake but will lose if the dealer does not draw a Blackjack.
- Insurance bets pay 2 to 1 if the dealer does draw a Blackjack.
- Your original bet is paid as normal (1 to 1).
Surrender:
- If you choose to surrender, you fold your hand and lose half of your original wager.
- You can only surrender at the start of the game before you decide to hit, split or double down.
- You have the option to surrender except if the dealer’s up-card is an Ace.
Doubling Down:
- You may double your bet before the third card is drawn on any total except, Blackjack.
- You can only receive one card and may not be hit anytime after you double down.
- Players can double on a hand resulting from a split, except split aces.
- Double bets pay even money (1 to 1).
Splitting Pairs:
- A split is when you can turn your original hand into two separate ones if and only your hand contains two cards of the same value.
- Once the hands are split you are allowed to add a wager equal to your original bet.
- A maximum of 5 splits are allowed.
- If a pair of Aces is split and another Ace is dealt, this hand cannot be split again. Should the second card dealt be anything other than an Ace, this hand is complete (no doubling and no third card can be drawn).
- If you split 2 Aces and get a Blackjack, this is considered a multi-card score of 21.
- After splitting, with the exception of Aces, you may double.
- Split bets pay even money (1 to 1).
- You may also split same value cards, for example: (tens, jacks, queens and kings).
Dealer’s Hand
The dealer must abide by the house rules and has to draw a card on any point total of 16 or less and stand on any point total of 17 or more, except in the case of Soft Seventeen
Rules:
- Absolute Poker Blackjack features a 6 deck shoe
- All cards are shuffled before each hand
- Double down after splits are allowed
- Dealer must hit on Soft 17
- Splitting Aces deals one card down, no option to hit.
- Player may split up to 3 hands
- Insurance Pays 2 to 1
- Blackjack pays 3 to 2
- Insurance is 1/2 of initial bet or remaining balance - whichever is less.
- Late surrender
Blackjack Cheats
There are always people trying to ruin a good thing. For years, blackjack players have been trying to find ways to cheat at blackjack to beat the casinos out of their money. I will start by saying that I believe all players trying to learn blackjack cheating should be banned from casinos and held accountable to the law.
There is no room in the game of blackjack for cheaters and we do not recommend that any blackjack player attempt any of the common blackjack cheating methods that we discuss here. These are listed for informational purposes only. Suprisingly enough, even some of the world’s greatest and smartest blackjack players have been arrested for cheating at blackjack.
Common Blackjack Cheats
The following is a list of common blackjack cheats that players are often caught trying to use:
- Spooking
- Card Marking
- Card Mucking
- Card Bending
- Card Switching
- Dealer Collusion
- Computer Devices (Super Chips)
All of these blackjack cheats are extremely well known to casino security. Casino security isn’t fooled very easily these days and they don’t take to blackjack cheaters very well. Most casinos will prosecute any player attempting to cheat at any game. We highly recommend that you do not attempt blackjack cheating, it’s very dangerous, unintelligent, and often provides bad public relations for the wonderful game of blackjack.The risk of cheating verse the reward of slightly higher profits is simply not strong enough for any player to attempt cheating. By using the strategy information on our website, you will learn enough legal techniques and systems to sway the odds of blackjack to your favor by using your intelligence without cheating.
Can You Teach Me to Cheat at Blackjack?
No. Once again we absolutely frown on even the thought of blackjack cheating and highly recommend that all visitors stay away from it. Most blackjack cheaters end up in jail. It’s a crime that is taken very seriously. This website is designed to provide you with blackjack strategy information and to teach you how to use your mind as a tool to become a better blackjack player. You will find nothing on our website that teaches blackjack cheating. Cheating should simply not be an option for you.
Is Card Counting a Type of Blackjack Cheat?
Card counting is a blackjack strategy of keeping track of which cards have been dealt in a shoe. It is NOT a form of blackjack cheating if you are simply using your brain to keep track of the cards. If you ever attempt to use any type of counting device other than your brain, such as a concealed computer device, it can be considered cheating and you could face legal prosecution.
Many people think that any type of card counting is illegal and is a method of cheating at blackjack but this is not true. Learning to count cards with your brain can be one of the most powerful strategy tools a blackjack player has in his arsenal and it can be a very rewarding learning experience.
Blackjack Odds Betting
To fully understand the game of blackjack, you must understand and master blackjack odds. It’s crucial to know how the casino gains its edge and how it helps them win. It’s also important to understand blackjack odds such as the odds of hitting a 10 or the odds of being dealt a blackjack. You can read over these blackjack odds charts to help understand the logistics behind blackjack.
Casino and Dealer Advantage in Blackjack
In most casino games of blackjack, the house advantage (the dealer advantage) is ~ 8%. The house gets this advantage by the dealer being the last player to act. By acting last, all other players have already made their decisions and could quite possibly bust before the dealer has his turn.
By using correct blackjack basic strategy, you can turn the casino edge in blackjack from 7%-8% down to 0.5%. If you correctly use advanced card counting techniques, you can often change blackjack odds and give yourself the advantage over the casino. Manipulating the house odds to your favor is the reason most casinos don’t allow card counters to play blackjack.
Probability of Busting on a Hit
It’s very important to know the probability of your hand busting when you are holding any total in the game of blackjack. The following odds chart shows the blackjack odds of busting, depending on your current hand value:
| Hand Value | % Bust If You Hit |
| 21 | 100% |
| 20 | 92% |
| 19 | 85% |
| 18 | 77% |
| 17 | 69% |
| 16 | 62% |
| 15 | 58% |
| 14 | 56% |
| 13 | 39% |
| 12 | 31% |
| 11 or Less | 0% |
Two-Card Count Frequencies
This interesting blackjack odds chart is the two card count frequency chart. This chart shows the percentage chance that you will be dealt a hand in each given value range. The most important frequencey to note is the chance of being dealt a natural blackjack (natural 21 value. The odds of being dealt a natural blackjack are merely 4.8%. Following this chart you will see that the most common two card hand, at 38.7%, is a hand totaling 1-16, which is considered a decision hand.
| Two Card Count | % Frequency |
| Natural 21 | 4.8% |
| Hard Standing (17-20) | 30.0 % |
| Decision Hands (1-16) | 38.7% |
| No Bust | 26.5% |
| TOTAL | 100.0% |
Dealer Final Hand Probabilities
This blackjack odds chart shows the dealer final hand probability. These are the percentages that the dealer will end up with a hand totaling each corresponding value (up to 16). Read over this chart to understand the odds that the dealer has to make his final hand.
| Dealer Final Hand Value | % | Cumulative % Total |
| Natural 21 | 4.82% | 4.83% |
| 21 (3 or More Cards) | 7.36% | 12.19% |
| 20 | 17.58% | 29.77% |
| 19 | 13.48% | 43.25% |
| 18 | 13.81% | 57.06% |
| 17 | 14.58% | 71.64% |
| 16 | 28.36% | 100.00% |
Player Advantage vs. Dealer Up Card
The first two columns in this odds chart explain the dealer’s chance of busting, depending on the up card that he is showing. You should note that the dealer has the highest chance of busting when he is showing a 5. The third column in this chart shows the player advantage of using basic strategy, compared to each up card the dealer is showing. You can see that the player has the highest advantage of 23.9%, when the dealer is showing a 5. When the dealer is showing any card that is 9 value or higher, the player is in the negative advantage range.
| Dealer Up Card | Dealer Bust % | Player Advantage % with Basic Strategy |
| 2 | 35.30% | 9.8% |
| 3 | 37.56% | 13.4% |
| 4 | 40.28% | 18.0% |
| 5 | 42.89% | 23.2% |
| 6 | 42.08% | 23.9% |
| 7 | 25.99% | 14.3% |
| 8 | 23.86% | 5.4% |
| 9 | 23.34% | -4.3% |
| J,Q,K | 21.43% | -16.9% |
| A | 11.65% | -16.0% |
Effects of Removing Cards from a Deck
When looking at the odds of removing certain cards from a 52-card deck, some cards have a much greater effect on blackjack odds. To create the strongest card counting system ever invented, you would have to incorporate all of these slight and subtle differences into the numbers to be a completely accurate system.
Removing every 5 from a deck cards would make the largest impact of improving your blackjack odds, as a player. On the other hand, removing every Ace from a deck of cards would make the largest impact on improving the odds for the casino.
| Card | % Effect of Removal |
| 2 | 0.40% |
| 3 | 0.43% |
| 4 | 0.52% |
| 5 | 0.67% |
| 6 | 0.45% |
| 7 | 0.30% |
| 8 | 0.01% |
| 9 | -0.15% |
| 10 | -0.51% |
| A | -0.59% |
Blackjack Betting
Betting in both the Casino Verite Blackjack practice software and CVData Blackjack simulation software can involve many layers and dimensions as follows:
Simple betting - This method allows specification of units and hands played by true count only and is included for people that don’t want to deal with the more complex screens. It is the method found in other Blackjack software.
Basic Betting - Here you can create a library of Blackjack betting strategies. Units and hands per TC are allowed as above. But wonging is added and the more common types of cover can optionally be added - no increase after loss, no decrease after win, no change after push, no large increases or decreases.This is simple cover or camouflage betting
Advanced Betting - Here, betting depends on a three dimensional table. The bet for the current hand depends on the true count, the previous bet and whether or not you won previous hand. This allows more sophisticated cover.
Last Hand Status - This is an extension that allows you to add complexity to the status of the previous hand with a fourth dimension. A two dimensional table is set up for last hand status depending on whether the count is high or low and the last hand was a Blackjack, Insurance, Split, Double, Push, or normal. This allows compromises to cover like ‘if I lost the last hand, and the count is high, I will be allowed to increase the bet (within constraints of the 3D table) if the previous hand was a split or DD.’ This is something that a typical gambler might do and is an exception to normal cover.
Multiple Betting Strategies - This feature allows you to string together multiple Basic or Advanced strategies adding yet another dimension. Each strategy is assigned a section of the shoe. Thus, you can alter your betting strategy by current penetration.
Bankroll Based Strategies - This CVData feature allows you to string together multiple Basic or Advanced strategies with a different dimension. Each strategy is called into play depending on the current bankroll.
Insurance Cover - You can also set individual indexes for each hand total for Insurance bets. That is, you can set different indexes for BJ, 20, and 16 against an Ace.
Betting Errors - After all of the above is taken into account, CVData can also be set to generate errors at a specified rate to simulate the damage caused by betting errors.
Of course you can ignore all the complexity and just use simple betting. But, ridiculously complex cover can be supported. Also, the same strategies can be used for both practice in CVBJ and simulation in CVData assuring that you are practicing the same strategies that you have simmed. Note: CVData runs just as quickly using all of the above methods at once as it does with Simple Betting.