Blackjack Strategy

[antibes]

I entered a blackjack tournament today for the first time and busted shortly after starting.

Normally when I play I flat bet - but what is a good strategy - when to increase or decrease your bet size?

 

[BlackjackInfo]

My articles are more appropriate for live multi-player tournaments, but there is a lot of good tournament advice here:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

There are also active message boards at

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

 

[antibes]

Tks.

It wasn't a live tournament - Littlewoods gave you 100 and an hour to play.

Top 10 won something.

 

[BlackjackInfo]

Ah, the Cryptologic tournaments. Unfortunately, there's not much strategy involved in those. Generally, it takes quite a large chip count to win. Numerous max bet wins are required.

The best strategy in that case is to make max bets until you get to first place. I usually go all-in on hand one and either bust out in a hurry or do well.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Betting your whole balance on one hand isn't that good because you can't split and double. Betting around 1/3 of your balance is probably a better idea.

 

[antibes]

Forgot to mention max bet was 10.

 

[BlackjackInfo]

Ick. This may as well be a slot tournament. With a 10 GBP max, there's no good way to get an edge over the competition. Perhaps deviating from basic strategy to increase variance via more aggressive splits and doubles would help a little. But basically, this tournament will just reward whoever gets better cards.

For now, if you want to play a real multi-player tournament, the only place available online is Link Removed (invalid URL). At least, that's the only place yet. I expect a new tourney site to launch in early '06.

 

[antibes]

This month I have busted out of quite a few monthly bonuses.

I flat bet only 1 or $1.

I use the WoO chart but haven't stood a chance when the dealer gets 20 or 21 or pushes every hand.

I start off ok, but after 30 minutes or so start to go continually down and never get back up.

When you hit a bad run, is it best to stop and come back later. I continue hoping to get better cards, but just go from bad to worse.