Monthly Archives: November 2014

Blackjack at the Movies

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Blackjack is a hugely popular casino game, both to play online or to play at “real” casinos. However, whilst we normally talk about strategies and tips, blackjack bonuses or ways to try and make money playing blackjack, here we’re having a lighter look at blackjack and how this great game has been portrayed in some classic movies.

James Bond: License to Kill

License to Kill was released in 1989 and was unusual for a number of reasons. It was a rare outing for Timothy Dalton, it was the first Bond movie not to be shot in the UK and it was also the first not to use the title of an Ian Fleming story. Also, unusually, it featured Bond playing blackjack, rather than his usual casino favorite baccarat (Chemin de Fer, to be a nerd about things). One thing that’s far from unusual is that Britain’s best spy wins – an impressive £250,000 ($400,000)!

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

From Britain’s sexiest spy to their silliest, Austin Powers, the comic creation of Canadian Mike Myers, isn’t quite such a hit. Unaware of the rules Powers decides to stay on five. Interesting tactic from the bad-toothed 1960s sex god. Not one that we recommend though, especially as the dealer hits 20, costing Austin Powers $10,000, as you can see below!

Rain Man

One man who did have a better grasp of numbers was Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in the Oscar-winning movie Rainman. Hoffman’s character uses his savant math genius to win more than $80,000 counting cards in Vegas despite the casino’s use of a six deck shoe. He doesn’t quite have the same luck playing Wheel of Fortune where his call of number 20 costs Tom Cruise $3,000.

Hangover

Hangover is a great movie and whilst there are countless brilliant scenes and comic moments, for blackjack fans the one that will get them most excited is where the unruly bachelor group manage to successfully function as a card counting team and win big. If only blackjack was so easy!

21

21 just has to feature on this list, seeing as it is about the most successful group of card counters of all time, the MIT team who took down casinos all over the world counting cards at blackjack and winning millions of dollars in the process. If this movie doesn’t get you in the mood for some blackjack we don’t know what will.

Blackjack: online versus real casino

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Online casinos have become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to the rise of the internet and the advancement in software and hardware technologies. It is no surprise, then, that one of the most popular games in the casino – blackjack – is at the forefront of this wave of popularity, its simplicity to understand and low house edge making it the game of choice for amateurs and pros alike. But how does playing blackjack online compare to playing in a real, live bricks and mortar casino? Here we look at the pros and cons of each.

Convenience

Okay, if you happen to live in a suite in one of the top hotels on the Strip in Vegas, you might find taking a lift down to the gaming floor quite easy. But given that most of us don’t have that luxury, it has to be said that playing blackjack on your laptop or, increasingly, even your cell phone is a heck of lot more convenient than having to travel to a bricks and mortar establishment, especially if you happen to live in a state that has no real casinos! One nil to online blackjack.

Value for money

Tied into the fact that many people have to travel sometimes very long distances to get some blackjack action in a real casino, you can end up being out of pocket before a card has even been dealt if you are not careful. Again with online blackjack you have no such expenses, you can just load up the game whenever and wherever you happen to be. Another plus for Team Online!

House edge

Assuming the same rule variants are applied, the house edge of blackjack will be no different whether you play online or at a real casino. However, the massive bonuses that are often offered to new players by online casinos mean that the already small house edge can sometimes be trimmed to almost nothing. Only the really high rollers get big discounts or meaningful perks in bricks and mortar casinos (see our article about Don Johnson), so it looks like it’s three nil to the online variety of this great game.

Social interaction

Okay, this is where the casino-based blackjack fights back. There really is no beating the atmosphere in a top Vegas casino, as you live out your James Bond fantasies and, hopefully, impress the crowd by winning a big stack. You don’t get quite the same adoration when you play online, even when there is an attached chat room. Having said that, the increasing standard and availability of “live dealer casinos” online means that you can certainly get a slice of the atmosphere whilst playing from your own home, so while the bricks and mortar blackjack takes this one, it’s not by much.

So at three-one to online blackjack, why not give it a go before booking your next flights to Vegas?

How to Win $15 Million at Blackjack in Five Months

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For most of us, coming home from a casino or finishing a blackjack session online with a few hundred dollars of profit warrants a good day at the office. But not so for Don Johnson, the skilled blackjack player who took an astounding $15m from three casinos in a five month period from December 2010 to April 2011. Here we tell you how he did it… and he didn’t cheat!

As you will know if you know anything about blackjack, the appeal of the game for many is that the house edge is a lot lower than with most other casino games, and can be less than 1% depending on the game conditions. What is also apparent is that it is not a game of skill in the same way that poker can be in that you cannot influence the decision of the one player you have to beat, the dealer. The dealer follows a set of rules that mean blackjack is a game of percentages whereby playing the optimum strategy – called basic strategy – gives you the best mathematical chance of success.

Of course, if you can diminish the house edge to zero, or even gain a mathematical edge yourself, you really can be in the money. And that’s exactly what Johnson did. Casinos were struggling for revenue at the time and Johnson – known for being a high-stakes blackjack player – was invited to play at Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. His skill, seemingly, was not in playing the game itself but in negotiating an astounding 20% discount on his losses, giving him a massive advantage that meant he just needed to keep playing the big hands and he was assured of success. And some success it was too: he netted $6m and blew out the casino’s monthly blackjack profits.

Prior to that Johnson had done well at the Borgata, earning a cool $5m, as well as Caesars where he landed a $4m bounty. Wagering $100,000 a hand and safe in the knowledge that he’d negotiated preferential gaming conditions, Johnson knew that unless luck was very much against him, he was onto a winner as long as he played for long enough. In getting the casinos to agree to “loss rebates” of up to 20%, Johnson managed to swing the odds in his favor, something the casinos should never have allowed.

Of course, not all of us have the financial clout to start negotiating with casino bosses for a better deal. But online casinos at least give us the chance to search around for the games with the most favorable conditions (i.e. the lowest house edge) and the addition of bonuses and promotions can help stack the odds in your favor on occasion. $15m might not be on the horizon, but some healthy profits from blackjack could well be.