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Archive for February, 2010

Casino Games – Chemin de Fer

February 8th, 2010 No comments
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Whether you’re a brand-new to betting house gaming or a casino veteran, twenty-one is one of the simplest and most exciting card games casinos have to provide. The goal in black jack is to beat the croupier by acquiring a hand as close to twenty one as as you can while not going over. To play chemin de fer, you simply need a general understanding of the game rules and a ambition to have excitement.

So how do you achieve twenty one? In chemin de fer, the cards have values. Numbered cards 2 up to 10 are counted at their printed value, while all face cards (King, Queen and Jack) are valued at ten points. The ace card is a special card in black jack: you deduce whether it is worth one or eleven points. Since casino players are given two cards to begin, if you get an ace and a 10 valued card,you have twenty-one-an immediate success, as long as the croupier doesn’t get twenty-one as well. This two-card winning hand is called a "black jack"; hence the name of the game!

Casino rules for blackjack are essentially similar at all betting houses. After you are dealt your initial two cards, your possibilities are to take another card, stand, double down, split your hand into 2 hands with a second wager equal to the first, or sometimes give up.

When you play blackjack at a casino, be certain to know which table to select. Most casinos have color coded twenty-one tables according to the min. bet the table accepts, typically 3 dollars, five dollars, $25 or one hundred dollars. In any betting house, it’s a certainty the three dollar and five dollar tables will be crowded, but they’re exceptional for beginners at casino games because all of the cards are given out face-up, instead of the 1up, one-down way at higher tables. So the upcoming time-or the initial instanceyou goto a casino, be certain to stop at the twenty-one tables and aim for twenty-one!

The Beginnings of Twenty-One

February 1st, 2010 No comments
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The game of black jack was brought to the United States in the 1800’s but it was not until the mid 20th century that a system was created to defeat the house in twenty-one. This article is going to take a swift peak at the creation of that technique, Card Counting.

When betting was made legal in the state of Nevada in ‘34, chemin de fer sky-rocketed into recognition and was most commonly played with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which detailed how to lower the house advantage built on probability and statistics which was really bewildering for individuals who weren’t math experts.

In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to advance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st strategies for counting cards. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting techniques and the strategies for reducing the casino edge.

This spawned a huge growth in chemin de fer competitors at the US casinos who were trying to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the awe of the casinos. The strategy was hard to comprehend and hard to execute and therefore expanded the profits for the casinos as more and more folks took to wagering on black jack.

However this massive increase in profits wasn’t to last as the players became more sophisticated and more insightful and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have brought in countless methods to counteract card counters including, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has it, sophisticated computer software to observe body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you banned from most betting houses in Las Vegas.