If you like the thrill and excitement of a good card game and the anticipation of winning and earning some money with the odds in your favor, playing Blackjack is for you.

So, how do you beat the dealer?

Quite simply when playing blackjack you are looking at the odds and probabilities of the cards in relation to:

1. What your hand is

2. What cards could come from the deck

When playing blackjack there is statistically a best way to play every hand and this is known as basic strategy. If you add card counting that helps you calculate the odds of cards coming out of the deck, then you can increase your bet size when the odds are in your favor and decrease them when they are not.

You are only going to win under half the hands you play, so it is important that you adjust bet size when the odds are in your favor.

To do this when playing blackjack you must use basic strategy and card counting to win.

Basic strategy and card counting

Since mathematicians and scientists have been studying playing Blackjack all sorts of complicated systems have arisen, including "card counting" but although the theory is complicated card counting is actually straightforward when you play Blackjack.

If when playing blackjack you card count correctly (even if the game uses multiple decks), you can tilt the odds to your favor.

Blackjack basic strategy

Blackjack basic strategy is centered around a simple system of how your bet based upon the hand you are dealt and is statistically the best hand to use without card counting which we will cover in a moment. It tells you when playing blackjack when you should hit or stand.

It's extremely simple to do and is soon committed to memory and until then you can get free printed cards off the internet

Using it when you play blackjack will bring down the casino's odds advantage to near to even.

Card counting getting the odds in your favor

Card counting works and players use a card counting system gain an edge over the casino.

The reason for this is simple.

Low cards favor the dealer in blackjack and high cards favor the player.

Low cards favor the dealer because they help him make winning totals on his hands when he is stiff (has a 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16 total on his first two cards).

In casino blackjack, you can stand on your stiffs if you want to, but the dealer cannot.

He has no choice to make, but you do and this is your advantage. The rules of the playing blackjack require that dealers hit stiffs no matter how rich the deck is in high cards that will bust him.

The high cards favor the player because they may bust the dealer when he hits his stiffs and also because both tens and Aces mean blackjacks.

Although blackjacks are, evenly distributed between the dealer and the player, the fact is that the player gets paid more (3:2) when he receives a blackjack so the player has an advantage.

You don't have to count the numbers of each of the individual card in order to know when you have an advantage over the casino.

You only need to know when the deck is rich or poor in high cards and you can up your bet when the odds are in your favor.

This is a simple explanation of why card-counting systems work, but gives you an insight into why the logic works.

When playing blackjack over the longer term card counting will help tilt the odds in your favor by to around 2%

So how do you card count and what pitfalls do you need to avoid when playing blackjack check out part 2 of this article for the answers.