Knowledge of the Blackjack game (Cont.)


The 7 gets included in that category, because if the dealer is showing the 7 as the up card, there could be an Ace down, making for a total of 18. Or there could be a 10, Jack, Queen, or King down, giving the dealer a 17.

When you are staring at that 7 and sitting with a lousy twocard band of 12 through 16, you have to bit your breaking hand because you just can't sit there and let the dealer turn over a card and beat you (10 through Ace). Hitting your breaking hand against a weak 7 is disturbing but it has to be done.

Finally, we get to the 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, which the dealer could display, and that is when he or she is weakest. They are the cards we wanna see as our opposition. But alas and alack, that VAII happen by average only five times out of thirteen. When the dealer does show one of those five weak cards, however, we gotta get extra money in action, and that's where doubling down and splitting comes into being.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This chapter is just an intro into what knowledge is all about. In blackjack it has to do with knowing exactly which move is the best, as soon as you check out your two cards, and then glance at the dealer's up card to see how good or rotten a position you may be in.

If the dealer is showing one of the power cards, we is in deep trouble. If it is the 7 or 8, we are bobbing and weaving, kind of like teetering on the fence as to whether we're gonna fall off or get to the other side. If the dealer shows 2 through 6, we're in fat city (in comparison) and looking to double and split our initial two cards.
Now, after saying that, I would like to jump in here and make an adjustment to the info handed down through the years, as respects the deuce. Yeah, the dealer is in trouble but it ain't as if he's buried. The ability to make something out of a hand that starts with a deuce ain't exactly like climbing up the side of the Empire State Building with roller skates on. Since the value is so low, the dealer is quite capable of drawing cards that will end in the danger zone of 19 through 21, or even in the less dangerous 17 or 18.


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