Unlike most other casino games, Blackjack is a game whose outcome is greatly influenced by the player, right from the moment the player cuts the deck of cards. The dealer practically plays like a robot. He follows a set of rules and makes no decisions of what so ever.

There are 3 different approaches to the game a player can take using 3 different strategies:

1.	Play Black Jack as a game of luck using money management only. Determine when to call a card and when to stand irrespective of what the dealer shows, apply a suitable money management system like the Paroli System and set appropriate profit and loss limits to decide when to quit.
2.	Use basic strategy. Follow the game and take into account the dealers card to determine whether to call a card (hit) or stand. Apply a suitable money management system like the D'Alenbert System and set appropriate profit and loss limits for when to quit.
3.	Card Counting. This is not an easy thing to do and some casinos don't like it. If you choose to play Black Jack this way, it is best to learn from the experts. There are several books for sale that should teach you how to count cards successfully.

Paroli System

This system is in a way the opposite of the Martingale system. You start with one bet and you increase your bet when you win rather than when you lose. However, you will need to plan a betting procedure that will help you remember how far you will let the bet build before you’ll take it down to the initial starting bet and how much to raise after each win. This obviously depends on the type of game played and the odds of the bet. The advantage of this system is that it does not require a large bankroll. It lets the profit run and cuts short the losses.

Basic Strategy

Basic strategy is designed to be used against the baseline rules of Black Jack. With basic strategy the number of decks, used in a game have no bearing on the situation. Each recommended play does not guarantee that you will win, but offers the highest odds of winning with any particular hand. Understanding basic strategy can make the difference between winning and losing, and Black Jack is the only casino table game where players can employ skill to affect the outcome of their play against the house.

The most important decision a player has to make is whether to hit or to stand on their hand. There are a few straightforward rules for both hard and soft hands.

For hard hands, if the player's cards amount to 12 or higher, there are 3 rules:

1.	Hit if the player hand totals 12 through 16 and the dealer has a 7 or higher.
2.	Stand on any hand totaling 17 or higher.
3.	Stand if the player cards total 12 through 16 and the dealer has 2 through 6.

For soft hands there are only 2:

1.	Always draw to soft 17 or less.
2.	Only draw on soft 18 if the dealer has an 8, 9 or 10.

Doubling down is the main method by which a player can eliminate the house edge so it is very important to remember when to utilize this option.

For hard hands, there are 3 basic rules:

1.	Double down when the player's cards total 11 and the dealer has a 10 or less.
2.	Double down when the player's cards total 10 and the dealer has a 9 or less.
3.	Double down when the player's cards total nine and the dealer has a 4, 5 or 6.

For soft hands, there are also 3 basic rules:

1.	Double down with a soft 13 and soft 14 when the dealer has a 5 or 6.
2.	Double down with a soft 15 and soft 16 when the dealer has a 4, 5 or 6.
3.	Double down with a soft 17 and soft 18 when the dealer has 3 through 6.

There are 6 easy rules that apply to splitting pairs in basic strategy:

1.	Always split a pair of aces or eights. A pair of aces totals either 2 or 12 but when you split them each card is worth 11. When you split eights you are breaking up 16 which is the worst hand to have.
2.	Never split 4’s, 5’s or 10’s.
3.	Split 2’s and 3’s only when the dealer has 4 through 7.
4.	Split 6’s when the dealer has 3 through 6.
5.	Split 7’s when the dealer has 3 through 7.
6.	Split 9’s when the dealer has two through 6, 8 or 9.

Card Counting

The technique of card counting allows the player to take note of changing probabilities and by altering playing and betting strategies accordingly, they can gain a statistical advantage over the casino. Learning the skill of card counting is relatively simple, and you don't need to have a photographic memory or a freakish mathematical ability.

The card counting system described below is designed only as a rough guide to give you an idea how card counting is done. It is intended only to give an idea of how card counting is done, and is not recommended for actual practice.

For single deck games:

-	Start the count at -4 when the deck is shuffled.
-	Count -2 for 10, J, Q, K.
-	Count +1 for everything else (including Aces).
-	Bet low when the count is negative, high when the count is positive (actually, simulations show that you can bet high for a count of -2 or above).
-	Take insurance when the count is positive.
-	Play basic strategy at all times.

The principle behind card counting is that a deck of cards rich is tens and Aces is favorable to the player, whereas a deck rich in small cards is favorable to the dealer. A deck rich in tens and Aces is likely to bust the dealer more often.

To gauge the richness of the deck in high cards or lack of them, the player needs to keep track of the cards that are already played and assign a point value to each card. The calculation is quite complex, but basically the card counter will give a plus point each time the deck of cards becomes more favorable and a minus point each time it becomes less favorable. Basically, the high cards have a -1 point and the low cards a +1 point and the in between 0 point.

The counter then counts by adding and subtracting points according to the cards played and keeps a running total of the count called 'running count'. Then he also needs to divide the running count by the proportion of the size of the deck of cards left to get the 'true count'. Now he knows the relative richness of high cards in the remaining deck.

A positive count is good and a high positive count is best and the card counter will assess his hand, the dealer's up card, weigh up his options and intensify his betting accordingly.
To be a successful card counter you need to have a powerful memory and fast reaction while amassing information as you play. If everything works out well, you will be looking at a slow and tedious 1% average profit. If you wager large sums of money to make the 1% worthwhile, you are likely to be noticed by the pit boss and prompt frequent shuffling of the cards. Card counting is hard, not liked by the casinos and is not as rewarding as it may seem.

Shuffle Tracking

Shuffle tracking is the science of following specific cards through the shuffling process for the purpose of either keeping them in play or cutting them out of play. The concept of Shuffle tracking appears to have resulted from bored mathematician's research and computer simulation of shuffling cards.

A beneficial (to the player) shuffle for a one deck game is executed by dividing the deck equally into 26 cards and shuffling them together a minimum of 3 times. This allows the cards to be sufficiently intermixed to yield a fairly random distribution. An adverse shuffle prevents the cards from mixing completely.

The simplest example is the Unbalanced Shuffle. As its name implies, the dealer breaks the deck into 2 unequal stacks. For example, let's say you are playing 2 hands head on with the dealer and the last 10 cards in the deck are dealt. The result of the hand was that both your hands lost to the dealer primarily due to the high percentage of low value cards in the clump. Note that if you were counting, you would have bet a single unit since the deck was unfavorable. The dealer is now ready to shuffle the deck, and separates the deck into 31 cards in one stack and 21 in the other stack. The dealer shuffles the 2 stacks. If the shuffle is done from the bottom of each stack on up, the top 10 cards of the larger stack will remain intact without mixing with any of the other cards. Those 10 cards can remain in the order they were just dealt throughout the shuffle, only if the process of bottom to top shuffling is not altered. You are now asked to cut the deck. If you don't cut the deck, the 10 cards that were dealt last hand will be dealt as your first 2 hands. The result will be the same as your last and you will lose the 2 hands. However, if you cut the deck exactly at the end of those 10 cards, you have just altered the future to your benefit. Those cards will now be placed at the bottom of the deck. Should the dealer shuffle up early, you will avoid them altogether. In addition, if you were keeping count, you would know that the deck was favorable during the first 3-4 hands since there would be an abundance of 10’s in the portion of the deck that will be played. You would accordingly increase you bet size to maximize your winnings.

Some dealers will unknowingly split the deck into unequal stacks. However, more often than not, they are required to split the deck into unequal stacks. If they are required to do this, they are performing the House Shuffle. The casino has trained the dealer to shuffle a particular way... on purpose! In the long run, the house will benefit from this because most players will not cut any bad clumps out of play. If you have played Black Jack in a casino, how much did you pay attention to the way they shuffled? Like most people you were probably unaware to it.

There are a number of shuffle methods, some of which have been labeled as: the 'Zone Shuffle', the 'Strip Shuffle', and the 'Stutter Shuffle'.

The Zone Shuffle is particular to shoe games (multiple deck games) and is probably one of the most common shuffle methods. It is accomplished by splitting the shoe into 4 to 8 piles depending on the number of decks in the shoe. Prescribed picks from each pile are made in a very exact way with intermittent shuffles of each pair of half deck sized stacks. The net effect is a simple regrouping of the cards pretty much in the same region of the shoe as they were before, thereby preventing clumps of cards from being randomly mixed. If the dealer won 40 hands and you won 20, this trend is likely to continue until you are broke or until the unfavorable bias is removed through many shuffles.

What if the players are winning 40 hands and the dealer wins only 20? If the dealer has been mentally keeping track of how many hands each side has won in the shoe, the dealer will probably do one of two things. One is to keep the shuffle the same, but 'strip' the deck. When a dealer strips a deck, he/she strips off one card at a time from the shoe letting them fall on top of one another onto the table. This action causes the order of the cards to be reversed. The main consequence is to dissipate any clumping advantages (a bunch of tens in a clump) that the players may have. The second thing the dealer may do is simply change the way they shuffle to help randomize the cards.