Blackjack - Increase Your Odds With Basic Strategy Plus
by: Tom McBroom
 

Blackjack Basic Strategy, played perfectly in a game with favorable
rules, will reduce the edge against you to about one half of one
percent, the best odds of any game in the casino.

But still - it's a negative edge. While you can win in the short term
on any given day, in the long term that one half percent edge against
you will eventually grind you down if you play long enough and
frequently enough.

An advanced basic strategy - or what we call Basic Strategy Plus - is
necessary for you to step up from being a casual player to being a
serious recreational player who has a better chance of winning over
the long term.

To reduce the small edge against you with Basic Strategy even further,
and at times even turn it into a positive edge in your favor, you
simply must pay attention to the cards on the table and develop some
sense of the proportion of high cards versus low cards remaining in
the deck. This is exactly what a card counter does.

But you don't have to spend the hundreds of hours it takes to become a
proficient card counter. You can get a general sense of the proportion
of high versus low cards by doing something called "counting the
table". Counting the table simply means that in any given hand, you
look at the exposed cards for all hands on the table (including the
dealer's hand). Do a quick count of all the high cards (tens, jacks,
queens, kings) and all the low cards (2 - 5). There are an equal
number of these high and low cards.

If there are a much larger number of low cards showing than high cards
(at least 6 more low cards than high cards in a six deck game),
chances are that the deck now is slightly richer in high cards, which
is favorable for the player. Conversely, if there are many more high
cards showing than low cards (again, at least six more), chances are
the deck is now slightly richer in low cards, which is bad for the
player.

Armed with the information gained from this quick table count, you can
now adjust your play accordingly and thus be playing a little more
like a professional.

For example, there are some basic strategy moves that are so close
that they could go either way. If you are doing a table count, you
have additional information that may indicate a change in what basic
strategy says to do in certain of these close call situations.

To illustrate, let's take the example of one of the most dreaded hands
in Blackjack: your 16 count versus the dealers 10 up card. Basic
strategy says to hit your 16 against a dealer's 10, but this is an
extremely close call. You very badly need a 4 or 5 in order to tie or
win if the dealer also has a 10 card down.

So, using the table count, here's what you do. If the table count
shows at least 6 more lows than highs, then stand on your 16 against a
10. A disproportionate amount of low cards have been dealt and this
lowers your odds of getting a low card to point where you should now
stand with your 16.

There are several more close calls with Basic Strategy that can be
refined further with Basic Strategy Plus, as well as other decisions
that can now be made more intelligently and these are explained in
detail on the author's web site.    Good luck!

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Tom is the webmaster at www.blackjack-for-everyone.com , which is a web
site dedicated to the beginning through serious recreational Blackjack
player.

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Poker Scalping
by: Darren Power

I'm not sure if Poker Scalping is a recognized term for what I'm about
to explain, but for me it sums up a strategy used by a lot of
professional gamblers.

That strategy in a nutshell is that of preying on new and vulnerable
poker players in order to win consistent hourly wages from playing
poker.

Every day thousands of bad poker plays go online at the nets largest
poker site and play badly and lose their money. That money is won not
just by good poker players but also by poker players who play
systematically. That is they play tight they know their odds and they
play business like.

These professional players are winning and winning big with some
making regular six figure salaries year in and year out.

There is an unlimited supply of bad players to win from and more are
added daily. All you have to do is to have a strategy and some tools.

Now maybe "preying on new players" is strong language, but what you
have to keep in mind is that these players will lose to somebody and
that while they are losing they are getting an education. And to be
honest if you dive in to a financial transaction without any real
knowledge of what you're doing, other than what you have seen on TV
then you have to expect to pay for your education.

There are an unlimited number of players and more come online everyday
and the added bonus is that nobody cares if you are winning. No casino
heavy looking over your shoulder, no bookmaker cutting your bets. The
casino takes a rake from everything you win and all they care about is
that you play, they want you playing at their tables.

So how do you get some of this action. Well you need to make sure that
you aren't one of the TV poker suckers. You need an education.

Your first step to earning regular poker income is to join a poker
room and spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the set up,
get familiar with the software, watch some games and play some free
games.

Your next step is to formulate a simple set of rules that you will
play by. You can do this by buying the best poker strategy books over
at Amazon. Or you can do it the way we did. And that's by learning
from the professionals that already win regularly.

There are a number of guides available online that will teach you how
to play to win and if you visit our resource page at www.betting-
school.com/pokscalp.html  we will tell you which ones are worth their
weight in gold.

If you get started today there is absolutely no reason why you
couldn't be making an extra thousand or two next month and before you
know it you will be a six figure winner.

Remember you don't need to be lucky when you have a plan. For
resources that will ensure your success with this strategy visit

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www.betting-school.com/pokscalp.html
Darren Power is the webmaster at www.betting-school.com  a site
dedicated to winning bets on all sports.

---

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