Understanding Luck and Skill in Blackjack Games
Blackjack is an exciting card-comparing game where your objective is to beat the dealer to 21. It’s a hugely popular game that’s available at most online casinos. This post looks at skill and luck’s roles in blackjack and how they affect your strategy.
Playing cards – © tommyvideo, Pixabay
Is Blackjack Skill or Luck – Mastering the Balance in Your Strategy
Some casino games, such as slots and roulette, are entirely based on luck. Blackjack is an exception because there’s a degree of skill due to decision-making being a big part of the game.
The debate over whether blackjack is more skill or luck is ongoing. Some players think you just need to be lucky to win; others think you can’t do well without using skills.
This blog post looks at the role of both in blackjack. It gives an overview of how both of these affect a typical blackjack game and which, if either, has the more important role.
The Basics of Blackjack
First of all, we’ll run through the basics of blackjack. It’s a card-comparing game where you try to get closer to 21 than the dealer but without going over 21.
There can be multiple players in a single game of blackjack, but they’re not playing against one another. Each and every person taking part plays their own game against the dealer.
At the start of a game, you receive two cards, and so does the dealer. One of the dealer’s cards is face-up, so you can see what it is and make decisions based on it.
You have your turn first, followed by the dealer. There’s a number of actions you can do with your hand to improve it. All of these are optional. You alone decide which moves you make.
Your available actions include adding a card to your hand, doubling your bet and accepting one more card and splitting your hand in two (when your two cards are worth the same).
The dealer has to follow specific rules based on their first two cards. When they’re done, both players reveal their hands. Whoever is closest to 21 wins; it’s possible of course for ties to happen.
Blackjack uses standard 52-card decks. All cards are worth their face value except for J, Q and K, which are all worth 10. The A can be worth 1 or 11 (you decide).
At the start of the game, if either player gets 21 (an A plus a card worth 10) and the other doesn’t, the player with 21 wins. If you go over 21 and the dealer doesn’t, you win and vice versa.
Blackjack is a very popular casino game in the UK thanks to its gameplay. It generated a turnover of over half a billion pounds from April 2022 to March 2023 at British land-based casinos.
The Element of Luck
In blackjack, luck is simply where you get dealt favourable cards, and the dealer doesn’t. In other words, you’re more likely to win, and you’ve done nothing to make this the case.
An obvious example of being lucky in blackjack is getting a starting hand of 21, while the dealer doesn’t get 21, which gives you a win. Another example would be you reaching 20 and the dealer reaching a lower number.
Sometimes you have good luck, sometimes you have bad luck. There’s nothing you can do to determine what kind of luck you have, i.e. what cards you and the dealer are dealt.
The Role of Skill
In blackjack, it’s up to you to decide what happens to your hand. It’s important to think about the decisions you make because they can help you win – or lose – the game.
If, for example, your hand totals 15 and you decide to take another card, that card could be high enough to put you over 21. Because this move is a risk, you have to think carefully about it.
Thankfully, there is a guide that can help players of all experience levels with their blackjack games. It’s called the basic strategy, and it tells you the best move to make based on your hand and the dealer’s face-up card.
The moves suggested by the basic strategy aren’t guaranteed to make you win the game. However, they’re the optimal moves to make, statistically speaking. Stick to it, and you should have a better chance of winning.
The basic strategy removes the need to make decisions because it tells you the best ones to make. Some players rely on it, whereas others prefer to decide things themselves.
Balancing Luck and Skill
In a typical game of blackjack, luck and skill both have a role to play. Luck determines the cards you and the dealer receive; there’s the need for skill when you decide what to do with your hand.
It’s hard to say whether one has more of a role to play than another. If you’re dealt poor cards, it might be that no amount of skill can help you win the game.
Likewise, you could be dealt a good hand, but you make risky decisions that don’t pay off, and you end up going over 21. To be successful at blackjack, you need to be both lucky and skilful.
Obviously, there’s nothing you can do to affect your luck. You can, however, optimise your skills so that you always make the best decisions and have the highest chance of winning.
Tips to Enhance Skill
If you want to improve your blackjack skills, there are several easy things you can do. These won’t guarantee you a win, but they may help you fare better over the long term.
An obvious tip is to use the basic blackjack strategy. Like other casino games, blackjack has several variants, each with its own rules and features. A popular example is single-deck blackjack.
The good news is that there’s a basic blackjack strategy for each variation of the game. When using it, make sure it matches the version of blackjack you’re playing. If you want to practise risk-free, play blackjack demos.
All the best blackjack sites let you play demo versions of games, including blackjack, for free. You can’t win or lose any real money, but you can play as often as you like and improve your skills.
There’s a wealth of resources online for mastering the blackjack strategy and perfecting your gameplay. Whatever level of experience you have with blackjack, there are always plenty of easy things you can do to improve your gameplay. Maximise your skills to boost your long-term chances of making money.
