Blackjack Two
Spots Betting
by
Henry Tamburin
In this lesson, Blackjack Two Spots Betting is discussed included
in the
Learn to
Play Blackjack program.
Often when you play, you'll see someone playing two spots
instead of one. Is there any advantage to this? Let's see.
Most of the time that players switch from one spot to two or
more, they do so because of the misconception that by ‘changing
the
flow of
cards’ they will presumably change the luck of the table. Unfortunately
this is
not so. You are just as likely to keep on losing, as you are to start
winning
when you switch to blackjack two spots.
There is no
mathematical basis
for this and it is
definitely not one of the reasons you would want to play blackjack two
spots.
One obvious thing that happens when you play more than one
spot is that you will be dealt more hands per hour. Gaming expert Alan
Krigman
developed this nice rule of thumb for determining how many decisions
each spot
will average per hour.
If N is the number of positions in
action, then each
player will be dealt 420/(N+1) hands per hour.
For example, suppose you play
heads
up blackjack with the
dealer. You
can expect to have 210 decisions per hour (420/2).
If you decide to play blackjack two spots,
then
each
spot
will get 140 hands per hour (420/3). That means you'll be getting 280
decisions
per hour on your two spots compared to 210 hands per hour by playing
only one
spot. That's an increase of 25%.
Getting more decisions per hour is not necessarily good
especially when the casino has the edge. Say you are a basic blackjack
strategy player
and your average bet is $10 per hand. Suppose you are playing with
three other
players. Using the above rule, you can expect to average 105 decisions
per hour
(420/4). Wagering $10 per decision means you will bet on average a
total $1050
over the course of an hour.
If the casino has a 0.5% edge,
then your expected
hourly loss is about $5. By playing two spots instead of one, the
number of
decisions you will get per hour on each spot is 84 (420/5).
This
amounts to a
total of 168 decisions per hour for the two hands. At $10 bet per
decision, you
will average $1680 worth of bets with an expected loss of $8 per hour.
Therefore betting the same amount on blackjack two spots when
the
casino has the edge
compared to betting half as much on one spot will increase your hourly
rate of
loss.
However, there is one benefit of playing blackjack two spots compared
to one. You will experience less fluctuation in your bankroll. Your
greatest
fluctuation occurs when you bet $20 on one hand and the least
fluctuation
occurs when you bet $10 on two hands.
The reason for this is
that sometimes one
hand will win and the other will lose. Therefore, if you want to
decrease the
swings in your bankroll, you can do so by betting two spots instead of
one.
But
one caveat. By decreasing your fluctuation, or variance as
mathematicians like
to call it, you will not win as much when Lady Luck smiles on you.
Llikewise you
will not lose as much when she is frowning on you.
The biggest advantage for
playing blackjack two spots occurs
when you
are card counting. If you know you have the edge on the next hand, it's
to your
advantage to play more than one spot.
If you are playing
heads up with the
dealer, by playing two spots you will have twice as much chance of
getting the
high value cards as the dealer because you are playing two spots
instead of
one.
Also, instead of betting say a top bet of $100 on one
hand, you'll have
the same risk by betting 75% of that amount on two hands (i.e. bet $75
on each
of two hands). This technique also allows counters to get more money on
the
table when they have the edge on the next hand without drawing too much
attention from the pit bosses. Having $100 bet on one hand looks more
serious
than $50 bet on two hands.
I generally play two hands when I count, not only when I
have a big edge, but also sometimes when the count is neutral or barely
positive. By jumping from one hand to two hands early on, it creates
the
perception that I am a gambler. I sometimes bet two hands on the
first
hand
after a shuffle where the house edge is very small.
I
usually increase my bets
on one of the hands if it wins and the count is still neutral or
slightly
positive while keeping my bet size the same on the other hand if it
lost.
Of
course, I'm still betting a relatively small amount even on two hands
compared
to when I have a very positive advantage.
And when this occurs, I try
not to
bet the same amounts on each spot. For example, I rarely bet $50 on two
spots.
Instead, I may bet $60 or $70 on one spot and $40 or $30 on the other.
I
often
will sloppily place a rainbow of chips in the betting spot (i.e., place
a pile
of different denomination chips in the betting spot). Again, this
creates the
perception that I am a gambler rather than a skillful card counter.
Card counters will also bet more than one spot if they have
the edge and it looks like the next hand will be the last one before
the shuffle.
Here it's to your advantage to bet as many hands as you think you can
get away
on that last round. When you do so, you’ll be getting a better
penetration and
this is good. But don’t do this too often in the same session since it
will
attract attention from the pit.
Another technique used by the blackjack pros is to play as
many as
three playing spots with small bets when the count is negative.
This
accomplishes two things. First, it consumes the ‘small’ cards so the
deck will
go positive faster and the counter can then bet up on one hand only.
Secondly,
if a pit boss suspects the player is counting and observes him
spreading to
three hands, then back to one hand with a big bet he may have second
thoughts
about his playing abilities.
The bottom line is that playing more than one spot can be a
bad move if the casinos have the edge over you, but a smart move if you
have
the edge over the casinos.
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Two Spots is followed by BJack Players
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