| Confusing? The key to understanding all this is a phenomenon in blackjack called the cut card effect. It works like this. Suppose you take a single deck of cards and place the cut card two thirds of the way into the pack of cards (at card 36). Assume there are 5 players and a dealer. The average number of cards dealt per hand in blackjack is 3, therefore you would expect 6 x 3 or 18 cards used per round. You would expect to reach the shuffle card after 2 rounds of play (18 cards per round x 2 rounds) and the cards would be reshuffled. But let's assume for the moment that the first two rounds contain a disproportionate number of high value cards (10s through aces) so that there would be a lot of 20s and some blackjacks dealt in the rounds leading up to the shuffle card. This means that the players would be standing and not drawing a third or fourth card, therefore the number of cards per hand in this situation will be less than the expected three. So after the second round is finished, there will be fewer than 36 cards played and since the shuffle card did not appear, the dealer will deal a third round. Since a lot of 10s and aces (player-friendly cards) were already dealt, the remaining unplayed cards contain a lot of small, player-unfriendly cards. From the player's perspective, dealing the third round is not good. Now let's look at the reverse situation, namely, during the first two rounds of play there is a disproportionate number of small cards played. When this occurs players will most likely average more than 3 cards per hand and the dealer will most certainly reach the 36th card (cut card) after two rounds and reshuffle. In this situation the remaining unplayed cards will be rich in player-friendly 10s and aces, but these cards would not be played because a third round would not be dealt. Not dealing a third round when the unplayed cards are rich in 10s and aces is also not good from the player's perspective. More and more casinos are offering blackjack tournaments, especially during the slower winter months. They can be fun, but before you enter it's best that you know the basics of how to play blackjack under tournament conditions. Tournaments work like this. Every contestant is assigned to a table and every player will begin with the same bankroll. Players will play blackjack over a specified period of time (or number of hands) and at the end, the player with the most amount of money is declared the table winner. Table winners then compete against each other until you end up with 6 (or 7) finalists, who compete for the top prize. What makes tournaments popular is the competition amongst players. Unlike traditional blackjack where it's you against the dealer, in tournament play it's player against player. |
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