Vegas Nevada Casino

The new craze in the card playing world is Texas Hold Em. Television and the internet have brought attention to this poker game on a whole new level. Millions of people worldwide have decided to give this poker phenomenon a try. Some are now trying to make a full-time living through this endeavor due to the amount of exposure it has received. If you are a casual observer of the game through television and internet outlets, it may appear to be quite easy to learn and actually win. This is where the detail is left out when the game is actually described by these outlets. They may describe how to play, but they do not describe how to win.
First, the fundamentals behind Texas Hold Em are the same as standard five card draw. Receive five cards out of a fifty-two card deck and make your bets based on the hand you are dealt. The difference between Hold Em and five card draw is you are not able to replace cards as you would in five card draw. You must play all five original cards when playing. Next would be to understand the structure and flow of the game. It is relatively easy to learn exactly how the game is played. Familiarize yourself with terms such as the small and big blind, the flop, turn and the river. Try to understand exactly what pot odds mean and how they relate to making a bet. Take a quick one hour course available at most casinos that will explain how to play the game. These quick courses are usually held for free, but if the instruction is good, a little tip would be in order. Learning how to play the game is the first step towards how to win the game.
Some simple strategies for those who know how to play the game can go a long way in how to win. It must be noted that knowing how to play is a far cry from how to win. The strongest opening hand is always going to be two aces, also known as pocket aces. If you are dealt pocket aces, you are going to want to open the betting strong, but not too strong. Twice the amount of the big blind is a good step in protecting pocket aces. Protecting pocket aces as far as you can in the betting is a good strategy, but remember someone at the table may have picked up a lucky hand, so recognizing when to fold pocket aces is what many great players are noted for. The worst opening hand is when you receive a seven and a two off suited. If you are dealt this hand, fold immediately, don't try and be a hero, especially if you can't keep a straight poker face when trying to bluff, you will expose yourself immediately. Do not try and employ a blackjack strategy if this is your skill, they are two very different games.
So, to win at Texas Hold Em you must first learn to play, and it is a great game. Second, a blackjack strategy will never work in any other poker game. They are simply two completely different strategies. Have fun, and as always, know when to hold em and know when to fold em.

Card counting is used in blackjack as a way to beat the house edge which is always against the player. There really is no way to beat a casino's dealer except through methods that might be considered cheating. Reading the dealer is another one of these methods that can be extremely easy for some players, especially poker players. It doesn't require studying mathematics and blackjack basic strategy. Also, card counting is usually extremely hard for anyone to learn because you have to keep track of a card count throughout the game.
The benefit of reading dealer tells is you can concentrate on the game and not have to think as hard about the mathematical odds. All you need to do is watch the dealer for awhile to pick up a few important patterns that will be described below. If you wanted to get an even bigger edge, you could supplement basic strategy and card counting along with reading the dealer tells. The tells that the dealer will be giving off are going to be based on basic strategy, which is the assumption that there are more 10's in the deck than any other card because all the face cards count as ten points as well. Because of this, there is a higher probability that 10's will be drawn.
Determine the Dealer Hole Card
Knowing what the dealer's hole card is would be far more valuable than card counting. If the dealer has an ace facing up, the hole card must be checked to determine if the dealer has a natural blackjack (21 points). It is possible to read the dealer during this time to determine what this hidden card may be. There are two paramount things that you should be noting. The first one is to notice how long the dealer looks at the card and the second is how much the card is being bent up so that the dealer can read it.
Each card has numbers, symbols and sometimes faces. We all know that a face card (paint card) is either a Jack, Queen or King. Notice that in blackjack, all face cards count as 10 points. So the dealer doesn't need to check long to determine if it is a Jack, Queen or King. This corresponds to a quick glance at the hole card when the dealer is checking. This is a great tell with many experienced blackjack dealer who have played for a long time.
You can also determine when the dealer has a stiff hand or stiff hole card as well. If the dealer doesn't have a face card, then they must look more closely at their card. A stiff card would be a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. These cards are bad for the dealer and good for the player because the dealer would have to draw one more card after showing the hole card. Because there are more 10 point cards in the deck, there is a high probability that the dealer would go bust and the player would automatically win. The higher this stiff card is, the better the odds are for you.
The best card for observing a dealer tell is a hole card of 4. If you look at a deck of cards, the ace and the 4 almost look alike. For example, someone with bad eyes would have to take some time to look at the card to see the difference between "A" and "4"! This would be a powerful dealer tell that would be denoted as the dealer taking longer than normal to look at the cards and possibly bending it up higher to observe the correct symbols.
The great thing about winning at blackjack due to dealer tells is that the dealer normally isn't even aware that they are giving away tells. They are not poker players so they are not gambling with their own money. Players can usually get good at this by playing with the same dealer for the whole night or for many days. A good word of advice is to look for dealers who are "loose" and give off obvious tells such as bending the cards up at different heights and taking various time lengths to look at cards.

Any true blackjack enthusiast will tell you that they love the game far more than the money, and can you really blame them?
Winningat blackjack requires intense skill because the player must take an active role to put the odds in his or her favor. So how do you start winning at blackjack? Well, several skills are actually needed to accomplish this difficult feat.
Card counting is definitely first and foremost. Without counting cards, it is virtually impossible to beat the casino in the long run. This is because even with perfect blackjack strategy, the house edge is still 0.2%. Therefore, unless you can do something to tip the odds in your favor (card counting), you are literally playing a game with the devil (he always wins).
The second skill is memory. You will need to train it so that you can remember the count and keep track of it under noisy conditions (think slot machines). You will also need a to memorize basic blackjack strategy. This is extremely important, as card counting is mentally exhausting and requires 98% of your focus. To be successful at counting cards you will need to be able to hit or stand in the snap of a second. Trust me, if you play enough blackjack, this comes very quickly.
The third, and most valuable skill, is knowing when to quit. This goes both ways, winning and losing. When you are up big time and think you are invincible, that is usually a good time to quit in my personal experience. This type of mentality only seems to bring on losing streaks. Similarly, when losing it is sometimes best just to call it quits. Go home, take some time, and collect your thoughts. The blackjack tables will always be there another day.
Remember, it takes time and practice before you will start winning at blackjack. Card counting might be easy to learn, but it is very tough to master; and if you are in a noisy casino, it is twice as hard. I highly recommend practicing 3-4 hours a day if you want to be a serious blackjack player.

Although Blackjack is basically an easy game to win in the casino, it takes a bit of practice to produce a profitable income from the game. Learning the best blackjack strategy can be the difference between walking away a winner or leaving flat broke.
If you play basic strategy, such as splitting 6's, 7's, 8's, etc. against a dealer bust card (such as 4, 5, or 6), and you know when best to hit your 12's and 16's as well as taking the right opportunities to double down when the cards are in your favor, you have a good chance of making a small profit. However, to maximize your profit, you need to learn one of the best blackjack strategies used by the pro's to pad your bankroll. That strategy is bet spreading or pressing your bets.
If you always bet the same amount, over time, you will generally break even or realize a small profit. The key to increasing your blackjack winnings is to pounce on opportunities where the cards are in your favor and then to press your bet up.
Certain opportunities will arise as you play that allow you to press your bet. For example, if the board has come out all low cards and there appears to be few high cards in the last deal or two, you may want to increase your bet on the next deal. Typically an increase of 50% or double is good in this case.
If you go on to win that hand, then you should increase your bet a little more the next hand (same 50% or double). After all if you lose the subsequent hand you still break even overall. This type of betting is also known as progressive betting, wherein you increase your bet a small amount each time you win.
The ultimate trick to winning at blackjack is to know when it is best to press your bet and by how much. Discovering the timing is crucial to a successful blackjack strategy, and seizing these opportunities will allow you to walk away a winner.
When is the best time to increase your bet? Usually after the dealer breaks and the board typically shows a lot of lower cards. Many players will count cards to know when the deck is rich in high cards, however, counting takes a lot of practice and patience. Instead of focusing on the counting, you can realize just as much profit by paying close attention to the cards as they lay, and make small increases as the board looks favorable to you.

How to beat the dealer at blackjack should be learning strategies and other card counting techniques. It should not be playing the blame game when you lose.
A professional blackjack player will never blame anyone for his loss. In the end, we know that casinos are always the winning players as they have a better edge on all games. In the end, we know that in the long run, if we continue to play, we will lose out. But in the short time we spent in the casinos, we still stand a chance to win big and win big we will!
As professionals we will study the game and learn basic blackjack strategy and make sure the table we sit has the better winning edge against the house. We trained and trained in basic strategy and expect the same from the other players. But the moment we enter the casino, our logic begin to lose us and we let emotions run in. Sometimes when the trends shifts, and we lose, we find that hard to swallow and we want to find something or someone to take the blame.
At a blackjack table, the first seat whom the dealer deals the cards to is known as the first base. The third base is the one whom the dealer deals last. Usually and sadly, it is the third base player that takes the blame because the dealer opens a blackjack natural 21 or did not bust and beats the majority of the players.
Hence, many players like to see whether the third base plays basic strategy properly. Many occasions, we see that heated arguments and quarrels are caused by players blaming the last player due to bad blackjack trends.
We need to understand that the player that really affects the game for you is yourself, and not third base. The problem with everyone else is that they only remember when the third base made them lose. They forgot when this last player made them win.
One of the unexpected players we will find that plays strangely is the card counter. Worse, the card counter will never tell you he is card counting and so sometimes you wondered why he did what he did against basic strategy rules.
Remember that all players are playing with his money and not yours. There is no way you are going to dictate how he is going to play. If you really do not like that player, you can always get up and go to another table and continue your strategy and try to beat the dealer. Do not make the casino trip a bad experience by criticizing others for your loss. How to beat the dealer at blackjack then should be to see the game logically and you will always come out of the casino a winner no matter what happens!