Global Casino Player is known for being the home of online blackjack. It has a few games that are pretty basic and some really cool variations. I have listed the game variations avaiable along with the house rules as listed on their website.

Las Vegas Strip Blackjack (4 Decks)

• Dealer stands on all 17’s.
• Double down is allowed on any total of the first two cards.
• No doubling is allowed after splitting cards.
• Splits allowed up to 4 hands.
• Late surrender is available.

Las Vegas Downtown (3 Decks)

• Dealer hits soft 17’s
• Double down is allowed on any total of the first two cards.
• No doubling is allowed after splitting cards.
• Splits allowed up to 4 hands, Aces may be resplit.
• Late surrender is available.
• The deck is shuffled after each round.

Atlantic City (6 Decks)

• Dealer stands on all 17’s.
• Double down is allowed on any two cards.
• Doubling is allowed after a split.
• Splits only up to 2 hands.
• Late surrender is available.
• Doubling is allowed after a split.

Reno (1 Deck)

• Dealer hits soft 17’s
• Double down is allowed only if the two first cards have a hard count of 10 or 11.
• No doubling is allowed after splitting cards.
• Splits allowed up to 2 hands.
• Surrender is not allowed.
• The decks are shuffled after each round.

Spanish 21 (6 Decks) - The most recent addition to Global Player Casino’s blackjack repertoire, Spanish 21 has gotten rave reviews. It makes use of six Spanish decks which have 48 cards, and the four tens (not the face cards) have been removed.

• Dealer hits soft 17’s
• Double down on any card count and any number of cards.
• Splits allowed up to 4 hands, Aces may be resplit.
• Late surrender is available. A non-busted doubled hand can be surrendered, keeping the initial bet.
• Player’s blackjack wins over dealer’s blackjack and pays 3:2.
• Player wins 21 ties.
• Special bonus for some non-doubled 21-valued hands.
• Jackpot of $1,000 if the player has three suited 7s and the dealer also shows a 7 of the same suit.

Baden-Baden (2 Decks)

• Dealer stands on all 17’s.
• Double down is allowed if the first two cards have a count of 9, 10 or 11.
• No doubling is allowed after splitting cards.
• Splits allowed up to 2 hands. Only cards with the same face value may be split.
• Surrender is not allowed.
• European no hole card rule.
• Six card Charlie (an unbusted player hand with six cards automatically wins).

Double Exposure (3 Decks)

• Double Exposure is a blackjack variation in which both dealer cards are exposed.
• Dealer hits soft 17’s
• Double down is allowed if the first two cards have a hard count of 9, 10 or 11.
• No doubling is allowed after splitting cards.
• Splits allowed up to 4 hands.
• Surrender and insurance are not available.
• The decks are shuffled after each round.
• To compensate the player’s advantage because of the second up card, there are the following rules changes:

Blackjack pays 1:1.
Player wins Blackjack ties, dealer wins all other ties.

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Unfortunately, this led the casino industry to complicate the game to re-shift the advantage away from the player (including the addition of decks, and moving up the shuffle points) but at least Uston had made his point. A black jack player had the right to use whatever strategy he needed, provided it wasn’t outright manipulation of the cards or the dealer, and did not break the inherent rules of the game. This propelled blackjack’s image as a thinker’s game, one where strategy and logical thinking could really put the player on equal standing with the casino odds, and Skills made as much difference as Good Luck.

He also made a comeback. He continued to play, wearing several disguises, and mastered the art of card counting camouflage. Sometimes he’d come as a factory worker; other times, he’d dress up as a bearded professor. Whatever his “identity” for the day, he was a master, known for such amazing moves such as spreading his bets from table minimum to table maximum on a single-deck game.

Uston put some of his secrets in a book, Million Dollar Blackjack (now part of the gambler’s bible), as well as Ken Uston On Blackjack. Both books are of very interesting and helpful reading for the serious blackjack player. Decades after they were printed, they continue to be relevant and have often been cited by today’s blackjack masters as one of their definitive reads.

He was also an avid player of arcade games and home video games, and he shared his techniques for those as well in Ken Uston’s Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games. Any

Unfortunately, Uston died at a relatively young age. On September 19, 1987, his body was discovered in an apartment he rented in Paris. He was only 52 years old. Coroners declared his demise to be a result of a heart attack, but gamblers like to think that he had finally met the only Opponent that he couldn’t outwit: Death.

Uston was born in 1935, in New York. He came from a middle class family, and there wasn’t always enough money to go around. Nevertheless, he was able to secure a scholarship to Yale. He was just 16 years old.

Uston actually wanted to take music (jazz was always a big part of his ife) but his father advised him to take a practical course. This prompted him to shift to Harvard Business School, with a major in finance.

With his brains, his drive, and a degree from one of the most prestigious universities in the United States, Uston had no problems finding a job. He climbed up the ladder, and by the time he was 31, he was Vice President of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange and earning $45,000 a year.

It was a hectic job, but Uston wanted a fresh challenge. He took up computer languages, programming, even piano lessons. But he was bored. He wanted a challenge, and one day, he heard about a professional blackjack player. Something clicked. He already knew about the connection between gambling theories and mathematics, but here was a chance to see things at work.

Uston believed that mathematics could help players win. He organized a team of some of the best blackjack players, and made a card counter system. They used the Hi Opt I system, devised by Lance Humble, and assigned counters to each table. They would make small bets, and then signal the big players when their computation showed them that the situation was “favorable for a win.” The counter would only return once the players had left the table.

In Ken’s first Las Vegas trip, at a stopover at Fremont Casino, he made $27,000 within 45 minutes, using just seven hands. He quit his job and played black jack fulltime. In the late 70s the casino had caught on, and the Sands Casino stopped him after winning $200,000. He was also banned from other casinos owned by the same organization. But he would not be stopped.

In my previous posts I have given pointers on how to avoid detection as a card counter. Below are some more tips on how to avoid detection and fool casino bosses and casino personnel:

* Always try to maintain a bet in your betting circle. Remember that only counters will think about how much to bet. Gamblers, on the other hand, just put out a bet in that circle. If you got busted or if you get a blackjack, you should place your next bet as the dealer is just playing his hand. If you keep practicing you will eventually learn to place a bet that is the correct amount and it will not appear that you have been thinking about how much you are planning to bet – a tell-tale sign of the card counter.

* Remember that gamblers will never ever leave a table after they have won. If the count has dropped below 1, you should still continue playing at the minimum bet until a hand makes you lose.

* You should act like you are hesitating before you hit a stiff hand. There are some card counters who take it a step further by actually talking to the card.

* Occasionally, you should insure your blackjack against the dealer’s Ace when you have made a minimum bet. You should not ask for even money. What you should do is to go through all of the motions and act like you do not know how all of these things work. This strategy has an added benefit in that it will make the dealer slow down with regards to the insurance calls. This will then give you the extra time that you need to internally calculate the true count. The best time to do this minimum insurance bet is when there is a floor supervisor observing your table.

* If you are planning to tip the dealer, then wait until the count is high and you have placed a big bet. By placing your bet for the dealer at this particular juncture will make it look like you actually want to help in winning.

* About once o either every other session you should start off a shoe with a big bet. This could be about two to three times the minimum.

* You should make different strategies as a way of hiding your true abilities.

Technorati Tags: card counter, casino pit bosses, casino personnel

But what precisely does money management mean? It is basically a method of betting that aims to limit your losses but increase your winnings. Any gambling game has a risk of loss. Even a blackjack player who makes a card counting strategy still only has a very slight advantage over the casino and the fluctuations in a players money can be quite alarming. By managing your money in a proper way gives you the best chance of reaching that balance that will allow you to play for long stretches of time with the money that you have brought.

In order to properly learn about money management, one should know the “true count” first because all of the betting decisions will be based on this. The true count can also be termed as the count per remaining deck. Even though this usually applies to players who are in a multi-deck game, those who opt for single deck tables can also learn from this.

If there are six small cards on the first hand in a game there will be a running count of 6. For single-deck games, the true count is just over 6 because there is just a little less than one deck remaining that needs to be played. If you are playing a six-deck game, the count per remaining deck is just a little over 1, because there is a little less than 6 decks remaining to be played. This method basically standardizes the count bt dividing the running count bthe total number of remaining decks.

The rule when it comes to money management is quite simple, “in order to find out the true count, you should divide the running count by the number of decks that have yet to be played.”

Technorati Tags: money management, blackjack, lesson, strategy, single deck game

According to Vacations Hawaii, one ofthe largest Hawaii - Las Vegas charter and package-tour companies, has indicated that it has not seen any decrease in the numbers. Actually, about 10,000 people a month board its charter aircraft. The company that owns Vacations Hawaii, Boyd Gaming Corporation, has reported that it has seen its first quarter profits at it three Las Vegas hotels downtown rise by about 2.3 per cent to $64.5 million. This is atrributable to the strong feeder market in Hawaii.

For most Hawaiians who love to gamble — be it blackjack, poker or roulette — or take vacations, Las Vegas has captured their hearts. In fact there are many Hawaii residents who are now living in the city and the local culture of Hawaii has found a place in Sin City that it has led to some references to Las Vegas as the ninth Hawaiian island. Many Hawaiian residents are actually budget conscious and buy packages that will take them on a charter fligth and then put thyem at Boyd’s California Hotel and Casino as well as other less expensive properties in downtown Las Vegas.

According to many travellers who go visit Las Vegas, prices in the city has increased just like in any other vacation destination. This includes air fare, hotel rooms, as well as car rental prices. The prices have gone up very significantly and room availability has become very scarce. Even though the weekends have been traditionally the busiest and most expensive time to go on a vacation or trip, travellers say even weekday deals are beginning to get harder to find too.

Based on the figures arrived at by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the average room rates at the Las Vegas strip have increased by 19 per cent to $127.53 from figures posted last year. the increase can be partly attributed to the arrival of new, more upscale real estate properties as well as the change in the business model used for a casino. Before a casino would often lose money on both food and rooms in order to draw customers to the blackjack tables as well as the slot machines. The new paradigm now is that Las Vegas hotels are still expected to make money off the rooms and the restaurants.

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Hawaii, United States, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

tips and the so-called Golden Rules of playing Blackjack. I have a belief that each blackjack player will have their own sets of rules and tips. But listed below are some of the more common golden rules that are cited by more seasoned blackjack gamblers in both casinos and online gambling sites. These rules may help you increase the probability or possibility of winning in a game of blackjack:

The first rule that you should follow is to know the game of blackjack. What this means is that you should know by heart and in your mind what you are supposed to do with all of the hands that are given to you all of the time. One very simple way of doing this is by bringing a Strategy Card with you to the casino or having one handy when you gamble online. These cards, which are available both online and in most casinos are perfectly legal and can be used by players inside the casino. A strategy card would aid you in making your strategies without necessarily memorizing all of the nuances of the game all at once.

Another good rule is to actually just stroll around the casino and try to locate a table where the chip tray beside the dealer appears to have a low count. Also look for players that have a large stack of chips in front of them. Try to play in this table because the winning atmosphere in that table may translate to you also winning and starting a good winning session with blackjack.

Always remember your wager strategy when playing. As a rule, try to follow the 30th system. In this system a player should only bet 1/30th of his bankroll for the day on any kind of hand. This system is full proof and shows that a player can actually go through a series of losses and still have enough money for when the tide reverses and he starts winning. The good thing with this system is that, if you comtinue your winning streak then you can still press your wager in order to further enrich your winnings in that table.

Technorati Tags: golden rules, blackjack, winning streak, Strategy Card

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