Shuffling and Variants in Blackjack

 Blackjack may be the simple game of counting to 21, but it also has some manoeuvres that regular gamers would not even think of let alone know the names of them. These things are called shuffle tracking and variants.

Any pious blackjack player who has their own sticky techniques would know that their cards have a face value and it is much more than simply counting the cards.

One of these profoundly stated techniques, primarily pertaining to multi-deck blackjack games, involves tracking groups of cards following the shuffling of the decks. These players are then able to play blackjack according to how the cards were shuffled and come into the match from a new round.

This technique is actually quite complex because it doesn’t hail from simple straight blackjack card counting but rather requires the precision to see things that nobody else are able to see with a glance of the human eye. For those who have the extraordinary vision there is an advantage in vying for the blackjack since the casino employees are monitoring player’s actions according to the count and not at the shuffle, which plays opposite that a mere straight count in the game of blackjack.

People didn’t know about the blackjack shuffle until it was first printed in the Blackjack Forum magazine where it then became public knowledge. Later a book was released called the Shuffle Tracker’s Cookbook, which mathematically analyzes what the player’s edge could consist of from shuffle tracking and the size of it.

The best part about shuffling is that it is a legal form gaining the player’s advantage in blackjack. However, there are additional legal ways of doing so as well. They include gaining information about the dealer hole-card for the next card that will be dealt.

Another form of blackjack techniques that are rarely dealt with are variants. When playing the Spanish 21 competitors can have “liberal” blackjack rules where they can double down on practically any number of cards. Players can also receive various payout bonuses for five or more cards, have a late surrender and have around where player blackjack’s and 21s always win even if there are no 10 cards in the deck.

So, with this play in Spanish 21 the player will almost always come out with the higher house edge compared to a regular blackjack round.

However, any competitor should know that there are certain rules that create new variants. This is why for the most part it attracts the beginners. One variant is Double Exposure Blackjack where the player’s cards are dealt face up. In this game the player increases the house edge by paying even-money on all the blackjacks and players losing when there is a tie.

As opposed to the Spanish 21, the French and German variant "Vingt-et-un" (Twenty-and-one) and "Siebzehn und Vier" (Seventeen and Four) don't involve splitting. An ace on the other hand can only count as eleven, but two aces count as a Blackjack. This variant is seldom found in casinos.