Customer Reviews

Blackjack Basic (Playing) Strategy, 4-8 Decks

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ever wonder how to get the house edge at blackjack to around half a percent (or less)? If you're new to blackjack and/or need a quick set of game dependent strategy variations, then these are the cards to get.

You actually recieve 3 double-sided, laminated strategy cards (4 strategy, 1 explanation, 1 cover) connected together that easily fold out and refold so the game variation you need is right on top. The 4-8 deck cards are very handy for review or learning the strategy variations between Hit 17/Stand 17 and Doubling After Split Allowed/Not Allowed. Should you surrender 15 vs. 10 when the dealer stands on Soft 17? The surrender variations are provided.

I found the cards very easy to read because of their larger size and good color use. It's easy to find the intersection of your hand vs. the dealer up card, especially since the dealer up card is located at the top and the bottom of each card. They are handly to have for quick review on a plane, hotel room or between casinos. They fit neatly in a shirt or pants pocket and are very flexible. Since they're laminated, so don't worry too much about those swim up blackjack games. I didn't see a picture of the cards shown here, but you can go to http://www.bj678.com/bj_strat_cards.htm for a view.

For one red chip, these cards will pay for themselves quickly, especially when you forget those pesky soft double-downs. Kudos to Mr. Marcus for this indespensible tool.

These four basic strategy cards fit in your shirt pocket yet contain everything you need to optimize your odds under virtually all table conditions. Cards work for 1, 2, and 4-8 deck games covering most variations of house rules. Give yourself the best chance to beat the casino. Use these cards and experience how much fun blackjack can be when you play like the pros.

(Note to Amazon - Please post this review for all four strategy cards. Thanks.

Las Vegas has a saying, "players depend on luck, casinos depend on math". Well, here's your chance to almost even those odds to within 1/2%. These blackjack strategy cards (all 4 for 1, 2, or 4-8(2) decks) do the math for you and stretch your money a long, long way. You will get your money back in the first hour of play and wish you had had them a long time ago. If you play blackjack, this is the one item you should take with you. And you don't even have to think, pretty nice ugh.

First of all, don't get me wrong. I think that a fair amount of thought went into these cards before they slapped a $5/set price tag on them however I wouldn't rate these as 4 or 5 stars personally. Why?

PROS:
1) LARGE: These are large laminated cards that could withstand liquid spills at the table and are easy to read when your eyes are bleary and it's 3AM in the morning in the casino.
2) COLOR: The colors on these cards make them easy to read. Many cards lack the color and only have H, S, P, U on them.

CONS:
1) ONLY 1 SHOE TYPE? They charge $5 for 4-8 deck shoes, then charge another $5 for 2 deck, then charge another $5 for 1 deck. I don't know about you but that kind of reeks of an overcharge. If anything they should have just packaged them up as $9.99 for all 3 sets.
2) ORGANIZATION: This might be a personal preference on the basis of books I've read but the player starting hands go top to bottom from 17 down to 8, the do A-9 down to A-2, then pairs from 10-10 to 2-2.
...I REALLY, REALLY HATE THIS. Again, this might just be a personal preference but back in the day, I was taught with tables that started with player hands (top to bottom) 8-11, then A-2 to A-9, then pairs of 2-2 to 10-10. The organization is completely upside down compared to what's historically been in my head and in my books, rendering these cards pretty much useless to me, so while I'm giving the cards 3 stars on the merit of their potential value to someone else, I'd return all 3 sets if this wasn't such a cheap purchase in the final analysis.

Again, the author clearly put a lot of time and effort into insuring that a person's $5 bucks were well spent and I don't want to knock them for that, but for me, because the tables were formatted differently from what I'd learned and practiced years ago, they weren't very useful for me or the people I teach who also use the same table organizational structure.