Best Blackjack Tips on the Web – Reddit, Forums & Blogs

Blackjack stands unique among all casino games through the sheer volume of blackjack tips, strategies, and approaches you can take to win. It’s one of the few live casino games in which the player has direct control over the outcome. That’s what gave birth to notions like basic blackjack strategy charts. There are simply ways to play that are statistically better than others.

A basic blackjack strategy is just the first step, though. It’s the most essential, barebones way to minimize the house advantage in blackjack. It’s the first step on the long, winding road to blackjack mastery. Let’s discuss some other ways to improve your game.

Collecting Blackjack Tips & Tricks From Across the Web

Thankfully, this road to mastery is not one you have to take alone. Professional gamblers, statisticians, and card counters have been figuring out ways to beat the casinos at blackjack for decades. And while we here at Live Casinos can give some blackjack tips and pointers, we’re by no means the best at the game. Certainly not compared to people out there who make a living playing blackjack.

The internet is full of advice, tips, and strategies for playing blackjack. Some of these are described by credible, skilled players. Others – not as much. Still, there’s no denying that taking advantage of the wealth of information out there can be a great method for getting better.

That said, filtering out useful online blackjack advice can take time and effort. Besides, if you’re new to the game, you may not exactly know which blackjack tricks are useful and which aren’t. To help with that, we’ve compiled a handy list of tips for playing blackjack from across the internet. These include blackjack tips Reddit posts, online blogs, and whatever else we could dig up. We’ve also included a link to the original in each one to give credit where credit is due.

Blackjack strategy tips can be many and varied. The game of 21 can indeed be beaten by a skilled player - but doing so requires a lot of skill and patience.

Table of Contents

Best Blackjack Tips from Reddit

Blackjack Tips reddit

Reddit is an incredible website if you’re passionate about something, including the good old game of 21. More often than not, blackjack Reddit threads can wind up being collaborative thanks to multiple users posting their own opinions and takes. Let’s see some solid advice we found on the “front page of the internet.”

Tips for a Blackjack Newbie

The title of this thread is fairly self-explanatory. It’s a collection of blackjack tips on Reddit for beginners. There’s a lot of to-the-point advice on there, but here are some of our personal highlights.

Learn basic strategy. This tip is quite obvious, but it’s worth repeating. Remember – there’s no need to learn blackjack charts by heart! It’s easy to follow along while playing live blackjack online – just keep a chart open in a different tab. At brick-and-mortar casinos, there’s nothing stopping you from bringing a print-out. In fact, some casinos hand them out on their own!
The smaller the card shoe, the better. Also, bigger deck penetration is also great for players. Especially if you’re trying to learn card counting.
Play the maths and statistics, not your emotions. Keeping emotions out of it is always a good tip for gambling. If you feel yourself getting angry, frustrated, or even overconfident – it might be time to walk away from the table.
Feel free to ask dealers questions, but be careful about their advice. Believe it or not, you don’t have to be good at blackjack to be a dealer at a casino. We doubt anyone is trying to fool you intentionally, but keep in mind that the dealer is possibly just trying to cozy up to you. The advice may or may not be good. Being likable is in a dealer’s job description – being good at blackjack isn’t.

Reddit Playing Blackjack Tips and Tricks

This set of Reddit blackjack tips is aimed at beginners who are in it for the long haul. By that, we primarily mean hopeful future pros and advantage players for whom becoming a good blackjack player is more than a hobby. Still, it boasts a solid collection of useful advice. Here are some examples that we didn’t mention in our own tips and advice.

Practice makes perfect, but don’t waste your money at a real table as a complete beginner. There are plenty of ways to play blackjack online for free. Use those for practice before risking your hard-earned cash. We can also offer you a few blackjack drill apps to speed you along the way!
Remember to adapt your strategy based on the table rules. Blackjack rules vary depending on the casino, table, and game style. This needs to be factored in when following your blackjack basic strategy. Surrender, splitting/doubling rules, dealers standing on soft 17 – all of these should change your strategy.
The basic blackjack strategy does not remove the House Edge. It merely reduces it to a manageable 0.5% or so with live casino blackjack. If you want to actually have a statistical advantage over casinos, you’ll have to learn how to count cards.
Always pick tables with Surrender, if available. Any sort of stat calculation of blackjack will tell you that Surrender is a good tool to have. However, that doesn’t even begin to factor in how much money knowing when to surrender in blackjack can save you.

The Perspective of a Pit Boss

The blackjack Reddit has a lot of useful advice, but a lot of it is rehashing the same old tricks and guidelines. IF you don’t know not to split 10s by now, you may want to go back to the basics.

However, this particular thread is an AMA (Ask Me Anything) from an actual casino Pit Boss. It boasts some very interesting pointers into how blackjack works from the casino’s perspective. Also, solid information if you’re trying to count cards at a land-based casino.

Being good at blackjack is kind of a tip-off. Surprisingly enough, 99% of players don’t even follow basic blackjack strategy properly. Doing even this much is a giveaway that the Pit Boss should pay attention to you. Moreover, hiding card counting in blackjack is something that requires concentrated efforts. They know very well how it works – probably better than you do.
Side bets are almost always bad but may be a good way to show that you’re not actually that good. Blowing a few bucks on these bad decisions can be worth it in the long run. Besides, blackjack side bets can be fun even though they’re not optimal.
Higher bet limits are occasionally connected to more favorable rules. For example, a high-stakes blackjack table may have deeper deck penetration. Obviously, however, larger chunks of money attract more attention from Pit Bosses and surveillance.

What are Bet Spreads in Blackjack?

Spread bets in blackjack are a common term among counters and advantage players. The term simply refers to a range of possible stake amounts you’re willing to place.

Remember keeping a count is only half the battle. You then half to press your advantage when you have it, and lower stakes when the cards are unfavorable. That’s what bet spreading in blackjack is all about. This practice, however, is typically a dead giveaway that you’re trying to count.

You can find quite a few Reddit blackjack tips & tricks on this thread which further explain how bet spreading can be beneficial to you.

Math Above Voodoo

If you're considering blackjack strategy tips and strategies, rely on those that use math and stats to back up their claims. There are many myths, misconceptions, and false claims out there abut blackjack.

Blackjack Forums

Blackjack Tips Forums

Internet forums are one of the best ways to share interests with like-minded people from across the globe. Good blackjack forums become treasure troves of information by combining the collective skill and knowledge of thousands of people. Many would say that they are also a somewhat outdated format at this point, but that can be an advantage in some cases.

Compared to Reddit, forums are much moderated and considerably more regulated. That means that quality, reliable information tends to float to the top instead of just the latest info. In practice, blackjack strategy forums are also populated by (on average) more knowledgeable players. On the other hand, they don’t have the same scope and width of information. This can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage, though. For instance, browsing forums makes it easier to find exactly the information you’re looking for. On the flip side, finding new and surprising data is a bit less intuitive.

For example, a blackjack forum for card counting offers razor-focused guides on just this one factor of winning blackjack. However, if you need something more general and beginner-friendly, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Additionally, forums for blackjack players have been around for quite a while. That means that they archive blackjack guides dating back decades. It can be a bit overwhelming, and you may sometimes run into outdated info, but it’s overall a great thing. After all, winning blackjack strategies don’t really change unless table rules at casinos do.

Anyway, here are some of the best blackjack forums online.

Blackjack the Forum

Blackjack the Forum is arguably the biggest and longest-running online community for fans of blackjack. It’s a staggeringly comprehensive collection of resources, statistics, simulations, and advice for playing blackjack.

This online forum is divided into multiple areas. Some of these require a subscription, but a good chunk is also completely free. For instance, you can find blackjack forums card counting sections, or collections of useful software.

Here are some of our highlights of Blackjack the Forum.

The Disadvantage Forum – The majority of content on Blackjack the Forum is tightly moderated. If any blackjack myths, misconceptions, or misguided theories show up, they end up in this section. Some show a basic lack of understanding of how to win blackjack, while others are simply based on poor math or reasoning. Either way, looking through these blackjack myths can be a great way to identify weaknesses in your own blackjack strategy. Here are some of the blackjack tips we dug up from the Disadvantage Forum:
- Although the surrender option is a player-friendly rule, it’s not as effective as one might think. Simulations show that in the long run, it’s not that impactful on your bottom line.
- The advantages of blackjack teams are suspect at best. The only reliable advantage is keeping card counting hidden.
- Automatic shuffling machines cannot be rigged to cheat. This has been proven as an urban legend time and time again.
Software – The majority of blackjack strategies that work were created thanks to simulations and rigorous testing. If you want to make your own instead of following blackjack guides, consider running blackjack simulations.
As per the blackjack forum card counting section, even top-notch advantage players only win about 40% of their hands. The trick is to raise your stake on advantageous/winning hands – ie, to spread bets.

Blackjack Card Counting Forums

Blackjackinfo.com is another player-run forum, but this one is more focused on specifically card counting. If you ever wanted to up your card counting game and go beyond the good old Hi-Lo, this is a great place to learn it.

Blackjack forum card counting is a huge topic, so we won’t get too into detail. However, here’s a small collection of great tips on this forum.

Your choice of card counting methods and systems is mostly a personal one. If a system works – it works. Pick the one you find easy to pull off.
Some players claim that more popular systems such as Hi-Lo are easier to figure out by casinos. That’s not entirely true – Pit Bosses are mostly tipped off by betting patterns, not the way you’re counting. After all, casino management can’t read your mind.
Counting can have some limited impact on side bets. For instance, you could keep a second count of the color of cards and use it for side bets such as Perfect Pairs or 21+3. This is extremely difficult to pull off, however, and the profitability is questionable.
The back counting blackjack strategy relies on you not playing, and just watching, thus keeping your card counting hidden. The idea is to take a seat once the cards in the shoe are favorable. This is a safe, but sometimes irritating strategy. It can even be used in live casino blackjack tables!
Professional card counters sometimes travel thousands of miles just to find the perfect blackjack table with favorable rules. If you’re playing live online, you have no excuse – make sure to find the best live casino possible!

Blackjack Blogs

Last but not least, here’s a small collection of some of the best online blackjack resources and blogs. Compared to the previous resources, blackjack blogs have a few advantages.

First of all, they’re much more focused and often knowledgable. Anyone can make a forum post, but it takes a bit of dedication to maintain a blog.

On the flip side, trustworthiness can sometimes be an issue with limited community input. That said, the best blackjack blogs tend to be quickly recognized as such. Just be aware that there are still blogs out there with “voodoo” and blackjack strategies not backed by actual math.

The Wizard of Odds

The Wizard of Odds was founded by Michael Shackleford – mathematician, actuary, and Wizard of Vegas. He founded the website with the goal of showing the math behind popular casino games. As the most complex game on the typical casino floor, blackjack naturally became the biggest focus.

Although the website was sold off in 2014, it remains one of the premier online resources for learning blackjack. The Wizard of Odds is always based on maths, stats, and cold, hard evidence. It has contributed a lot to the knowledge level of the average casino-goer, and it’s still going strong. The focus these days is on examining the math behind modern live blackjack games, side bets, and features.

Modern Blackjack – The Free Blackjack Book

Since the days of the MIT Blackjack team, studying the game has become a science in itself. Books have been written, quite literally, forming a sort of blackjack book canon. From The Theory of Blackjack to Beat the Dealer, there’s a lot one can learn if they dedicate the time and effort. Some of these books are not as easy to find as they once were, of course – especially outside the US. Thankfully, advantage player Norman Wattenberger published the Modern Blackjack book online – completely free!

Modern Blackjack has been described as “one of the most important, comprehensive, pieces of research ever done on the game of blackjack.” It’s a 540-page manuscript studying everything from the basic rules of blackjack to card counting, shuffle tracking, and blackjack team play. There are even printable card counting charts you can take to a casino, designed to be easily disguised!

If you’re serious about blackjack advantage play, consider studying this book cover-to-cover.

Casino Vérité – Card Counting Software, Simulation, and More

Norman Wattenberger has more info packed on his website, dubbed Casino Vérité. Besides the book we just mentioned, his site contains many other helpful things.

Card counting strategies, systems, and rule comparisons
Blackjack software includes simulations, drills, shuffle tracking and ace predictions sims, and so on.
References to other blackjack books, blogs, and resources.
Outcome calculators
A comprehensive list of over 100 blackjack rules variations

It’s worth noting that this website is tightly connected to the “Blackjack the Forum” we mentioned earlier. In fact, Norman Wattenberger is the man behind the site, forum, and Moder Blackjack book. As you can see, the online blackjack community is more tightly knit than one might expect.

The MIT Blackjack Team

A website dedicated to the most well-known blackjack advantage players in history – the MIT blackjack team. These are the people that quite literally wrote the book on blackjack strategies. Since its inception in 1979, the MIT Blackjack team proved once and for all that the game of 21 can be beaten by a skilled and knowledgeable player.

The website itself contains detailed information on how they achieved this. More importantly, it’s a comprehensive info hub on many things related to blackjack strategy. From the best variants of blackjack to play to card counting techniques and systems, there’s a lot of info to pick through. As expected, though, the focus is on blackjack card counting theory and the math behind it.

Best Live Casinos for Blackjack

The rules of a blackjack table depend on the software provider, not necessarily the casino. Still, picking the right one can make all the difference in the world. Here are some of our suggestions for the best live casinos to play blackjack. Click on one of the cards below, and start putting what you’ve learned to practice!

Best Blackjack Tips on the Web – Reddit, Forums & Blogs

Collecting Blackjack Tips & Tricks From Across the Web

Best Blackjack Tips from Reddit

Math Above Voodoo

Blackjack Forums

Blackjack Blogs

Modern Blackjack – The Free Blackjack Book

Casino Vérité – Card Counting Software, Simulation, and More

Best Live Casinos for Blackjack

References

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