Crushed in blackjack at Padres

[Ned Darkfury]

Poker's made me frustrated. Like some people, I'm seeing cpu fold whenever I get a decent hand. So I switched to blackjack and for a while I was doing good.

Not these last two nights, at either pub on Padres. The Ratskellar dealer rarely had an upcard lower than 8 through a few dozen hands last night. Tonight, after a run of about a dozen hands where the dealer got a hand lower than 19 once, I left.

Skull's Thunder, same thing. Dealer has 15, draws a six, has a 12, draws the nine. Push on 20, push on blackjack, and forget about filling 12-16, that was just asking for a 10 or face card.

I was up to 7k in gold, now down to 4k. I have been unable to put together more than two winning hands in a row tonight and last night. I'm no blackjack genius, but I know enough strategy to at least break even or come out ahead, so this is really ruining my plundering mood.

Anyone else getting the blackjack blues? Am I just in a rotten groove, or is PotCO just pure concentrated evil on blackjack now?

[quill_fire]

pure concentrated evil! I agree. I will win 3 or 4 hands and then the dealer will whip me out over the next 10. It was fun when i was up 4k...then I lost half my gold in under 10 minutes. It has to be rigged to ward off the evils of gambling to the young people...but geez.

[Piggeh]

The odds in black jack will always be against you whether you like it or not.
The main reason is that you lose when you go above 21, but the dealer doesn't.
I also watched and kept logs of the black jack dealers from various places and i noticed that on average the dealers will shoot 19.
heres the log from one of them if you want: 18, 17, 17, 18, 20, 24, 18, 19, 24,19, 23, 18, 20, 22, 20, 19, 18, bj, 20, 20, 23, 22, 24, bj, 19...

So basically, just play poker.

[Magilicotti]

Ahhh blackjack. It's the dealers game, odds are always in favor of the house. That's true of any card game. What.. you don't think these casinos in Vagas make billions in dollars in revenue because they lose, savvey?

Listen up scallywags, I'll let you in on a tip. Free of charge

Play with only the houses money. Win some hands, then only bet what they have given you in winnings, never dip into your own pot. Win 10, bet 5.. win that, then bet 20.. and so on, savvey? Playing with your own money, you will only see it disappear.

[UneaK]

lol dont feel bad i was up 1k then now im down 9k.

[RemiBoncoeur]

You might want to search the web for a Blackjack Table - a little index-card-sized list of what to do depending on what card the dealer's showing.

Even though the odds will still be against you, by playing with perfect strategy you can minimize the dealer's "edge" to about 1%...

OR, you can use some of your cheat cards.

[Dukk19]

OR you could buy some of those ______ for dummies books, they are like MAGIC

[HalfFro126]

Blackjack on Pirates is rigged to the max.

I've lost tons of money at Padres playing Blackjack, and not to sound like a jerk, but I'm pretty good at the game. At one point, I was dealt hands over 17 for at least 10 hands straight, and I won about 2, because the dealer almost always had blackjack or 20. At one point I tested exactly how rigged it was.

I printed out a table online that showed the best hand to play taking into account others cards, the chances that they will get a certain card, the chances of you getting dealt a certain card, everything. And you know what happened?

I lost. I broke even for a while, then lost huge amounts of money when the dealer was getting 20's and 21's every, single, time. So that was it, I quit trying to make money like that.

The only way you're going to get good money with Blackjack on Pirates is cheating, and that WORKS.

[whiskey]

Isn't the game configured to expect the players to cheat? I mean, was the game created with the odds created with the understanding that the only way to win big is to cheat the house?

[Wheelsim]

Blackjack is meant to be cheated on. Poker is meant to put your skills on.

[Dr. Zeppers]

I dont now about the cheat/skills philosophy...

The game lets me cheat at blackjack, so I do.

I was bored saturday so I sat one down at blackjack at PDF.

2:10pm 27000 gold, 4:00pm 65000 max, logout, switch to another pirate.
4:10pm 32000 gold, 5:30pm 65000 max, logout, switch to another pirate.
5:40pm 26000 gold, 6:30pm 47000, thanks POTCO, I think ill go quest some now...

I stand up from table alot, I also noticed that about 85% of the time, the dealer got a blackjack immediately after I stood up (before I got dealt back in).

[Katie Scarlett]

Check out Mantaraya's blackjack tutorial. It's awesome. There is a blackjack table link on it, too. I don't know how to link to it from here, but this is the title:

Mantaraya's cheating at blackjack tutorial

I've just used the table and come out with 2000 gold more. I've still lost some, but never more than I came in with.

[Carnage]

They say gambling is the devil's juice.. but in this case..

Gambling is the undead skeleton's evil sea..

[Mantaraya]

Originally Posted by Katie Scarlett

Check out Mantaraya's blackjack tutorial. It's awesome. There is a blackjack table link on it, too. I don't know how to link to it from here, but this is the title:

Mantaraya's cheating at blackjack tutorial

I've just used the table and come out with 2000 gold more. I've still lost some, but never more than I came in with.

Thanks for the props Katie! Here's the link:

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...ead.php?t=5941

Blackjack at any casino is a fairly even game. Because the dealer has to play by specific rules (always hit until 17), if you play by exactly the same rules as the dealer does, it should be a 50/50 game (you win just as much as you lose). In fact, sometimes you will win MORE money if you play just like the dealer, because lots of places give you a 50% bonus for hitting blackjack on the deal, but the dealer doesn't get a bonus if he hits blackjack. So the odds might actually be in your favor. If you are able to count cards, you can even get a statistical advantage on the dealer (which is why it's illegal to "count cards" in Vegas). Leave it to Las Vegas to make math illegal.

So how does Vegas make money on a game where the odds might actually be in your favor, if you play just like the dealer? Well, they have lots of ways (including buffets), but here's two:

(1) You get bored and take your blackjack winnings to the slot machines or roulette tables where the odds are in favor of the house, and the casino wins the money back.

(2) People don't quit when they are winning. They quit when they are losing. Blackjack produces winning and losing streaks, and the house can handle ANY losing streak until it wins. People, on the other hand, will KEEP PLAYING when they are winning, until they start losing. But when they are losing, they stop playing. In other words, people choose to quit playing in such a way that favors the house. That's one of the crazy things about blackjack. The casino can operate a game where the odds are in the favor of the player, and still win more money.

Well, at any rate, I guess I'm rambling. The point is that those casino rules and statistics don't completely work in POTCO Blackjack, because the dealer cheats. Eventually you will lose more than you make, unless you cheat too. Cheat well, and you can win big. Cheat poorly or not at all, and you will eventually lose more than you win.

Mantaraya

[Swash]

try yellow jack or green jack ROFL