6 Ways Blackjack Players Can Avoid Being Cheated Out of Profits

When you gamble, the odds are almost always stacked against you. This means that it’s hard to win, and it’s almost impossible to win if you’re being cheated, too.

As a blackjack gambler, there are basically two ways you can be cheated. The first way is when the casino or someone else does things that cost you money that are against the rules. This is bad when it happens, but the other way blackjack gamblers get cheated is worse.

The fact is that most blackjack gamblers cheat themselves out of profits. You’re going to learn how to avoid being cheated in this article.

Get the Best Rules Every Time You Play Blackjack

The first way that most blackjack gamblers cheat themselves is by accepting rules that give the casino a big edge. Do you know that different rules at the blackjack tables change how much you win and lose?

Many blackjack gamblers don’t know this, and it cheats them out of money. Good blackjack rules give you a better chance to win and poor blackjack rules make it much harder to win.

The blackjack rule that cheats gamblers out of the most money is a table that pays 6:5. When you win with a blackjack on a $20 bet, you get $24. This looks like a good deal, but not when you compare it to a 3:2 payment.

On a $20 bet, you get $30 instead of $24. This means that you get cheated out of $6 every time you land a blackjack if you’re playing at the wrong table.

If you want to avoid being cheated when you play real money blackjack, you need to learn about all of the rules. Learn about all of the rule variations and how each variation helps you win or hurts your chances.

Watch Your Chips and the Dealer

When you’re playing blackjack in a land-based casino, you have to use a few simple things to keep from getting cheated. The first thing you need to do is keep a close eye on your chips.

Casinos are busy, and there are often many gamblers close to each other. At a busy blackjack table, it’s easy to get distracted. And when you get distracted, a player beside you can swipe some of your chips.

Another way you can get cheated is by the blackjack dealer. You need to know that sometimes blackjack players get cheated by the dealer and the dealer isn’t purposely trying to cheat. Sometimes, the dealer simply makes a mistake.

The most common way that this happens is when the dealer pays you for a winning hand and doesn’t pay you the correct amount. You have to watch every pay out to make sure that you get the amount that you’re supposed to get.

You can also run up against a dealer that purposely tries to cheat you. They can try to cheat by paying out a lower amount than you’re supposed to get, or they can manipulate the cards and/or deal. This can be hard to catch, and the best thing to do is closely watch the cards as they deal.

The Basic Strategy System

If you’re not using basic blackjack strategy, you’re cheating yourself out of profits. And it’s easy to use basic strategy if you know a simple trick.

The mistake that most blackjack gamblers make when they play hands is guessing what the best play is or, worse, going with a gut feeling about the best way to play.

Every blackjack hand has a mathematically best way to play.

In other words, there’s only one way to play every blackjack hand that provides the most long-term profit. If you play a hand any other way, you’re cheating yourself out of profit.

How do you know the best way to play a blackjack hand? You simply use a strategy card or chart. A card or chart lists all of the blackjack hands you can have and tells you exactly what play to make.

Some of the plays might not look like the best play, but they’ve all been proven mathematically to offer the best return. Get a chart or card and use it when you play blackjack.

First Tier Advantage Techniques

Few blackjack players use advantage techniques, and because of this, most blackjack gamblers lose money. If you learn how to use a first tier blackjack advantage technique, you can at least break even when you play blackjack. And if you practice enough and use the right technique, you can win.

The most common first tier blackjack advantage technique is called card counting. Counting cards is simply tracking how many high and low cards have been played. When more low cards have been played than high cards, you have a small advantage.

When you have a small advantage, you simply bet more money. This can turn the edge that the casino usually has in your favor over time.

Using a counting system isn’t going to give you a big long-term edge. But it can give you a long-term edge of 0.5% to 1%. This is basically the edge the casino has in most blackjack games. In other words, instead of the casino having an edge, you can have the same edge.

The casinos don’t want you to count cards, but it’s not against the law. Still, they can stop you from playing if they think you’re counting cards. So, don’t let the casino know that you’re counting and playing with an edge.

Seeing What the Dealer Has

In the second section of this article, I recommended closely watching the cards as the dealer passes them out. This is a good way to see if the dealer is trying to cheat, but it’s also a good way to see the value of some cards if the dealer is sloppy.

Some blackjack dealers don’t deal the cards correctly and players with a keen eye can see what some of the card are. For example, you might be able to see whether the card the dealer places down for their hand is a face card or not.

This is valuable information and can help you make the most profitable play on your hand. If the dealer has an ace showing and you know the face-down card is a face card, then you need to accept the insurance offer.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is cheating on your part. It’s not wrong to see a card if the dealer shows it to you, and you can legally use the information. It’s the casino’s and dealer’s responsibility to protect the cards.

Tracking Slugs

In an earlier section, you learned how to maximize your returns when you play blackjack by counting cards. This is only one of the tactics that you can use to improve your odds. It’s the easiest way to get started with playing blackjack with an advantage. But once you learn how to do it, you can learn some more advanced tactics.

Another tactic is to track slugs of cards. I know this sounds funny, but it’s actually a fairly simple technique. A slug of cards is a small group of cards that have been placed in the discard tray together.

If you know that a small slug of cards in the discard tray has a high concentration of aces and 10 value cards, and if you know when this slug is being dealt, then you can bet more and have a higher chance to win.

This only works in blackjack games that are hand-shuffled, and the dealer has to be lazy and not do a thorough shuffle.

Every time you play blackjack in a game that’s hand-shuffled, watch for slugs of cards that have mostly high cards and see if you can follow the slug as it’s being shuffled. With practice and patience, you can learn how to recognize good opportunities and gain a small edge over the house.

Conclusion

Most casinos understand that cheating their customers is a bad idea. The casinos are able to make good profits without cheating because they have the house edge, so they don’t really have to take any chances.

But you still need to do everything that you can to make sure you don’t get cheated when you play blackjack. This starts with watching the dealer to make sure nothing funny is going on and also includes watching your chips.

You can also cheat yourself out of profits if you’re not careful. You even cheat yourself out of profits every time you don’t play at table with good rules and when you don’t use basic strategy.

6 Ways Blackjack Players Can Avoid Being Cheated Out of Profits