Winning Secrets of Online Blackjack

335 Pages·2005·20.32 MB·English

by  Catherine Karayanis

Winning Secrets
of Online Blackjack
Catherine Karayanis
http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield
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To my wonderful husband Dean—
the real writer in the family.
Your love is endless and your talent amazes me.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Joel Morton, who taught me many winning secrets of blackjack. Your knowl-
edge of blackjack, casinos, and Vegas is astounding.
Thanks to Kim Benbow, Mitzi Koontz, Kristin Eisenzopf, and the rest of the Thomson
Course Technology PTR publishing team.
And as ever, thanks to God and to the Creary and Karayanis families.
iv
About the Author
Catherine (Creary) Karayanis has authored four previous books: Introduction to
Relational Databases and SQL Programming,Introduction to Unix and Linux Lab
Manual,All-in-One Network+ Lab Manual, and MCSE Windows XP Professional Lab
Manual. She has also written numerous online computing courses and articles. Karayanis
has been a technical trainer in the corporate educational system, as well as a public and
private school teacher. She has given workshops in Canada on cross-border employment
and has been a professional musician for several years. Karayanis has a love for card
games—specifi cally blackjack and poker—and lives only miles from Atlantic City. Her
favorite casino is the historic Tropicana.
v
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv
Chapter 1 Online Blackjack Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Object of the Online Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Creating Your Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Buying Your Virtual Chips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Value of Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Varieties of Online Blackjack Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Betting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Dealing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Standing and Hitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Splitting Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Doubling Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Rebetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Cashing Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 2 Getting Started with Online Blackjack. . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How to Play Blackjack Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Computer Specifi cations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Internet Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Crashing and Disconnecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Virus Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Computer Worms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Trojan Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Spyware and Adware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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Contents
Download and Install the Casino Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Play or “Fun” Money Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Real Money Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Personal Information Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Identity Theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Banking Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Legal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
State Laws. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
WTO and Online Gambling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Blackjack and Taxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 3 Choosing an Online Casino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Where to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Awards and Reputation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
User Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Game Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Play Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Customer Service and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Deposit/Payment Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Payouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Bonuses/Promotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Inside an Online Casino Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Golden Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Casino-well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
32Red Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Fortune Room. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Carnival Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
River Belle Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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Contents
Casino King. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Casino-on-Net. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Grand Online Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Spin Palace Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
InterCasino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 4 Playing the Classic Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Rules the Dealer Lives By. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Betting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Hit or Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Hard Hitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Soft Hitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Splitting Pairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Resplitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Doubling Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Hard Double Downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Soft Double Downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Doubling after Splitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Surrender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter 5 Concepts and Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Basic Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
What about Card Counting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Online Blackjack Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Beginner Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Practice Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Basic Rules of Online Blackjack Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Microgaming Original Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Microgaming Viper Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
viii
Contents
Cryptologic Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Playtech Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Looking to Make a Profi t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 6 Online Variations of the Classic Game . . . . . . . . . . 104
Pontoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Double Exposure (Face-Up 21, Dealer Disclosure). . . . . . . . . . 107
Blackjack Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Bonus Blackjack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Triple 7s Blackjack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
MatchPlay 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Super 21 and Super Fun 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Blackjack Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Triple Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Extreme 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Chapter 7 International Variations of the Classic Game. . . . . . 127
European Blackjack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Caribbean 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Bets, Lies and Audiotape: A Caribbean 21 Controversy. . . . . 131
Spanish 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Progressive Blackjack Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 8 Advice for the Online Blackjack Player . . . . . . . . . . 140
Make Good Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Set a Win Limit (and Log Off When You Reach It). . . . . . . . . . 141
Minimizing Losses and Maximizing Gains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Know Your “Dealer”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Play Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
ix