But if you split tens, then get an Ace - does it pay 3:2? or just even?
How does the house win if the player has blackjack?
If you double a blackjack, then it’s not a blackjack anymore. For example, you could draw an ace for 12, when the house wins as long as the dealer doesn’t bust.
Also, for a blackjack after a split, you are only paid 1:1, not 3:2; I was looking at the claim made that doubling blackjack gives better than 3:2.
There is one exception - you’re playing in a blackjack tournament, either you or the person ahead of you will be eliminated this round, and you have between 33% and 40% of his stack.
In this case, if you take the blackjack, you won’t beat him and you get eliminated, but if you double and win, you’ll beat him and he’ll be eliminated.
Even. If you find a place that pays 3:2 for BJ after split (possibly as a temporary promotion), count your lucky stars.
If you are dealt Ace-Ten and decide to double, you no longer have blackjack.
Edit: Beaten like an old mule. :mad:
Er, close. You count tens and aces as -1, and twos through sixes as +1. Positive counts indicate your favor, negative counts indicate increased house edge. You don’t count 7-9 because there are five “good” cards and five “bad” cards, making the natural tendency to return to zero. This is known as a balanced count. You take your count and divide by the decks remaining to get the “true count”.
There are also unbalanced counts, in which you count sevens in with the low cards. This tends to drift your count upward, but you start negative. The advantage of an unbalanced count is that at a certain, specific count (known as the “pivot”) the running count is equal to the true count. This means you don’t have to estimate the number of decks remaining.
That’s probably the most basic way of busting someone. You can also watch composition-dependent strategy (e.g. whether a player hits hard 16 vs. dealer 10 at low counts and stands on high counts).
The first thing that happens if they suspect you’re counting is that they get a nice picture of you and see if you match up with anyone in their database. If you do, you’re booted whether you’re winning or losing or even playing in their casino for the first time (casinos share information).
Next, they do a basic strategy check. If you do not play basic strategy correctly, any advantage you have by counting cards is pretty much negated. More than 1 or 2 basic strategy errors per hour will wipe out your profit. In particular, hitting soft 18 vs. dealer 9, 10, A is one of the most diagnostic plays - you can’t win long-term if you don’t hit those.
The last thing that they’ll do is note your composition-dependent play and betting history. Remember, all your past footage is archived upstairs. It’s tedious, but they’ll do it if they need to.
I’m pretty sure once the movie “21” comes out this won’t even be an open secret any more, but you don’t need to vary your bets at all in order to win.
(1) Let’s say you just hang out behind a blackjack table and just keep counting until the count goes way up. Then you plunk down $100. You’re technically varying your bet from $0 to $100, but you won’t vary your bet once you’re at the table. Once the count drops, you pick up and leave. This is known as “Wonging” after Stanford Wong who popularized it in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
(2) Let’s say you get a friend to do (1) for you. He gives you a signal and you charge in to bet $100. Now you’re spreading $0-$100 without even having to lurk around at a table. This is the style of team play that Tommy Hyland popularized in the late 1970’s and from the trailers I’ve seen, what “21” is all about.
And in case you didn’t note the subtle hints, casinos have been well aware of these techniques for a long time, so if you’re considering using them, you’ve got to be a little creative.
Casinos are probably SALIVATING over this movie coming out. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry are going to take out $500 and hit the casino to try their hand at counting. 
Good post Aptronym. You seem to know your stuff.
I’ve heard the new system is rather to team play but have everyone vary their bets INDEPENDENTLY, but directly with the count. So three partners might start off betting $10, $15, $10. Count goes a little higher: $20, $15, $20. Count goes higher, $15, $30, $20. Higher…$30, $25, $60. Lower…$10, $30, $15.
So that the team’s AGGREGATE BET follows the count, but no individual bet exactly correlates.
I think so too. Snyder says something like 99% of the general public and 95% of card counters are net losers.
Thanks.
That sounds pretty cool (and novel). Maybe I’ll see if my friends want to do that next time we’re in Vegas. 
Honestly, though, I think the days of counting cards are limited.
The bottom line is that there is one thing you can’t hide - long-term winnings. If the casino could track you and your chips - with facial recognition and RFID technologies improving, this may be soon - they won’t even need your identification or watch you play to figure out you’re a counter. All the facial recognition software that people make to pick out disguised terrorists will eventually make its way into the gaming market as anti-cheater/counter software.
Plus, everyone’s moving to those damn autoshufflers. 
Thanks for the info guys!
If aptronym’s right, it sounds like sitting at the blackjack table is one day going to be just like sitting at a slot machine. (But we give you 95% of your money back!)