Blackjack, also called 21, is a game that requires strategy, just not the ones you use for more interactive games like poker. How so? Before we go on to talking about blackjack strategy, let us take a look at how blackjack is played. Blackjack is a game where the target is to add the values of the two cards given to each party and this sum should not exceed 21, if your sum is higher than the dealer’s, you win and a player or players go up against the dealer or the bank and not against each other.

Cards represent numbers or values that have no connection to their suit: the two to 10 cards are as is, jacks, queens and kings carry the right of 10 and aces can either be one or 11, depending on predetermination. If you feel that your hand has too low a sum to have any chance at beating the bank and want to increase your sum with another card, you can ask for another hit.

You really cannot strategize with the cards that you are dealt with or the card that is drawn on your hit, is what this means. What this means is that the trends on the table are the only things that you really can follow or strategize on.

Because you and the dealer can see your cards but you can only see one of his, decision making and the factors you have in the process take centre stage in blackjack. The factors of the game and the information you will have are your cards, one of the dealer’s cards, which can give or take your confidence, depending on the value and the face of the dealer, which is usually as telling as a brick wall. But if it is just a game of luck, then why do blackjack strategies exist?

Because there is such a thing as trending. These days, you can track statistics of the game table with displays that show you trends that you can either ride or wait out on, and these displays are found in major casinos, on and offline. As blackjack is usually played with three playing card decks, to counteract card counting, predicting the next card or cards that will be drawn by the process of elimination, meaning taking mental note of the cards that have already been played, is an excruciating strategy that is not recreational user friendly.

So the stat board is a better friend. In this game, you only have to remember one thing. Card games are more about decision making than strategies. Panic, and you lose.