Blackjack Strategy

The Wizard of Odds teaches his "Wizard's Simple Blackjack Strategy."

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Closed Caption:

hi my name is mike shackelford with The
Wizard of odds website and i'm here with
Angela Wyman my student and dealer damn
woman to teach you about blackjack
strategy
I've been trying to teach people how to
gamble for 25 years
and for most of that time I really
pressed what's called the basic strategy
really hard and all the gift shops in
Vegas you can buy these cards that show
how to play any given situation in
blackjack according to your hand and the
dealer's up card
however if there's one thing that I've
learned 99% of blackjack players do not
have the time or inclination to memorize
that it's it's asking too much
so if you're in that 99% i'm going to
teach you what's called the Wizards
simple blackjack strategy
it's just a handful of rules and it gets
you to ninety nine point eight percent
of the expected return of the basic
strategy
so it's going to get you almost all the
way to perfect play with basic strategy
but with a much more simple strategy
the first rule and the one that you see
did you see a lot is really obvious its
if you have a total of hard eight or
less you hit
that's all there is to it with a nine
what you do depends on the dealer's up
card if the dealer has a small up card
you're going to double if he has a high
up card
you're going to hit now let me explain
what is a low and high up card and this
is going to be true throughout my whole
strategy a low dealer up card is a 2
through 6 a high dealer's up card is a
seven through and eggs
so you've got a total of of nine if the
dealer is showing a 2 through 6 you
double if the dealer is showing 7
through an ace you hit next rule with a
10 or 11
the potentially doubling hands you're
going to double if you have more points
and the dealer for example if i have a
total of a hard 10
then i'm going to double if the dealer
has a 2 through and nine showing if the
dealer has a 10 or a showing
I've just been admitted likewise with an
11
i'm going to double with the dealer
showing a 2 through 10
and if he has an ace up tying me then
I'm just going to hit next rule and this
one covers a lot of hands and they're
frequently miss play these are the stiff
hands if you have a total of twelve to
sixteen then you're going to stand if
the dealer is showing a small card and
hit if the dealer is showing a big card
if you remember just one thing from this
whole video
it should be that because these
situations happen all the time and
they're frequently miss plays next rule
is pretty obvious if you have a total of
hard
17 or more you stayin that was obvious
so let's play a few hands and see how
well Angela remember all that and we
will get the soft doubles and splits
later
okay Angela what should I do
and because it
as you have a 20 against dealers and
right if I have a 17 or more hard 17 or
more
I stand which I obviously do I'm hard 17
very good
yeah
okay Angela of what should i do -
small card
Apple correct and before all the
perfection is out there right to me
i want to remind you this is a simple
strategy there are some borderline cases
like this one where it's not
mathematically correct but I made but
we're going to double this situation in
the interest of simplicity
here's another case 12 against to this
is another case where the Wizards simple
strategy differs from the basic strategy
don't stress about it don't send me an
email about it
what does the wizard simple strategy
cited to in the situation because 12 -
it wouldn't be the dealership I got a
small card exactly
you have a 12 to 16 a stiff hand and the
dealer is showing a small card so you
stay big one please
still have that now i make it no no
strategy is going to win every single
hand but if you look learn the strategy
you're going to be playing better
blackjack
then the vast majority of players out
there
now here's the situation I didn't cover
yet the soft doubles
if you have a soft hand of 13 to 15 then
you always hit
so here's a soft 13 doesn't matter what
you've got
I'm going to hit now here I've got soft
20
this is pretty obvious but if you
another rule is if you have a soft 19 or
more
you always thing so that's off 20 I'm
good
stand correct 18
ok
yeah
insurance ok here's another rule never
take insurance .
no exceptions all right insurance closed
ok what should i do your double down
rules said if you have a 10
you have to outflank the dealer's up
card that you double if you don't then
you just write exactly we count the ACE
as 11 points
you've got more than me so I'm just
going to have any team two winners
ok what are you going to do
I will
double because you outrank the deal
ranked one card
25
1315
so what should you do should hit right
if you have a soft 13 to 15
you always hit so you've got soft 14
doesn't make any difference what the
dealer has now what do you do there time
ok
it's not the dealer outrank you it said
you had a step and the dealer had a big
card
so this is obvious i've got hardy or
less i hit if this worry to cart 11
I would double but I'm not allowed to
double because it's more than two cards
so with the night a hard nine ten or
eleven composed of three or more cards
you always just hit and you look out and
I've got 11 something because what's the
rule phone
mm
everything except yes way
yeah
yeah
Wow look at this - hands where the
player can split
there are five kinds of cards where
sometimes you split and sometimes you
don't
those being twos threes sixes and sevens
and nines
if you've got any one of those five
hands you will split it if the dealer
showing a low card and you don't
if the dealer is showing a high card if
you don't then you revert to the rules I
explained before about hitting and stand
so in this situation I've got one of
those five kinds of hands that the
others got a low card so I split
now you've got cases there's two kinds
of hands of cards that you always split
hates and bases and you get one car
don't think there's a 21 that's not a
blackjack that's in 21 and that's it 21
those are 220 ones they're not black
Jack's because the original hand was two
aces not a black but those are good
hands and you needed every bit of it and
you got now we've got two more split
hands here
as I was saying before there's five
kinds of cards which sometimes you split
and sometimes you don't lose three sixes
and sevens and nines
I've got the nine then it depends on the
dealer's up card if the dealer was
showing a low part 2 through 6
I would split these however he's got a
high card is seven through an ace
so I'm going to be more conservative I'm
not going to split in which case i
revert to the hitting and standing rules
so I would stand on any 18 so I'm good
now
we haven't covered finds yet but there's
three kinds of hands in the wizard
simple strategy that you never split the
three that start with F fours fives and
faces
so you've got two fives never split no
matter what the dealer does so then you
revert to the hitting and standing
strategy so what do we do
double detention
exactly
don't don't
ok
the thing you had black out haha you
went
this hand gives me an opportunity to
explain another rule about soft hands
I explained before that if the player
has a soft 13 to 15 you hit no matter
what
what I didn't get to yet is if the
player has a soft 16 to 18 then it
depends on what the dealer's up card is
the dr has a low card showing then
you're going to double if the dealer has
a high card showing then you're going to
hit so i have a soft 13 to 15
so I'm just gonna do it no matter what
the dealer has 15 against the seven
I hit I'm good 21
stop
part exactly
team can 70
thanks my but that's the right play as
soft 17 is always a at least the free
but you have a 16 against it
don't worry you get comps
since we work with
ok
yeah
ok this reminds me of the last hand
except this time
dan has a low card showing so as I was
it explained on last time i've got a
soft 13 to 15 so i did no matter what
the dealer has not about 15
the only has a low card so I stand so
what do you do Angela
I've got a soft 17 against dealer low
card since the 15 to 17 double its 16 to
18
if you have a soft 16 to an 18 and the
dealer has a low card then double
yay
this gives me an opportunity to explain
the last rule of the wizard simple
strategy
the only time you surrender is 16
against the 10
that's it it's that simple
surrender
so what should you detention
I've got a pair of threes against they
do
my card so i don't want to split those
with low card instead i'm going to
revert to stand so what kind of hands is
what you just said apply to three sixes
so that is and then I right so you just
got to remember that - 36 set at nine
alright this is it so you fall into that
range but the dealer has a high card
so then what do you do revert to
understand exactly less than eight we
have some and
oh yes this is the closest play there is
in blackjack it happens all the time
as I just explained if this was a to
card 16 against the tenure with
surrender but you can only surrender on
your initial hand
it's not an option in this case so the
fundamental rule of my strategy with a
stiff hand is right you hit against the
dealer high card go down swinging and
sometimes you had no choice you have any
way and i know that you probably didn't
remember everything in this video but
everything I just said is right on my
blackjack page
I wizard of oz . com wizard of oz . com
go to blackjack and the wizard simple
strategy is right there
if you learn the strategy like I said
earlier
you'll get to ninety nine point eight
percent of the power of the blood of the
basic strategy but it's much more easy
to look any questions
well thank you very much for being my
student Angela and you know at the end
to the dealer and good luck ollie