Basic strategy blackjack players sometimes ask me for a simple way to overcome the small house edge in blackjack with little worry over being recognized as a card counter. This is often done with the motive of milking the casinos for comps and free tournaments. Most players with the goal of just breaking even use a traditional card counting strategy but with a very small bet spread. However, I offer the following alternative, which is easier to use, and I doubt will arouse any suspicions. The simple rules are as follows.
1. Establish what your minimum bet will be. This is called one unit.
2. At the beginning of each shoe, start a running count at zero.
3. For each 5 observed, add one to the running count.
4. For each ace observed, subtract one from the running count.
5. If the running count is less than or equal to zero, then bet one unit. Otherwise bet 2×(unit size)×(running count).
6. Use basic strategy for all playing decisions.
This strategy is designed to be most effective on six-deck games. To get past the break even point the dealer will need to stand on a soft 17. If surrender or resplitting aces is allowed then that is all the better, but not required to get a postive expected value. Most of the finer Las Vegas Strip casinos have liberal six-deck games, with the dealer standing on soft 17, late surrender, resplitting aces allowed, with 75% penetration the norm. These rules result in a player edge of 0.22%.
