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Here are some tips to help you win at blackjack.  You should also have good betting and bankroll strategies.  These tips can help you improve your chances of winning.

1.  If you have two 7’s and the dealer has a 7 or less, you should split them.

2.  If you have 2’s or 3’s and the dealer has a 4, 5 or 6, you should split.

3.  Aces and 8’s should always be split.

4.  Face cards, 10’s and 5’s should never be split.

5.  If you have 17 or higher, stand.

6.  Keep going until you have 17 or higher if the dealer has a 10.

7.  If the dealer has a 10 and you have and ace and a 6 (7/17), take a hit.

8.  If the dealer has a hard 10 and you have a 15, surrender the hand if the casino allows it.  Some casinos don’t allow surrendering.

9.  If the dealer has a 9, 10 or ace and you have a hard 16, surrender it.

10.  Only take insurance if you are counting cards.

11.  Control your emotions.

12.  If you are losing, don’t take it out on the dealer.

13.  The other players are not to blame for your losses.  If the way they are playing is interfering with your strategies, move to another table.

14.  If the last man at the table seems inexperienced or desperate, go to another table.

15.  It is not worth it to lose all of your money for a free drink.

16.  Always set win goals and loss limits.

17.  If you have a choice, play at a table that is using a smaller number of decks.  The more cards that are being used, the higher the house edge is.

18.  Try to find a casino that offers favorable rules.  These include single deck games, the ability to surrender, allowing double down on any two cards or after splitting pairs, allowing multiple splitting of pairs, allowing aces to be re-split, dealer stands on a soft 17 (ace/6) and dealing far into the deck.

There are expert card counters who have developed the skill to be able to remember exactly which cards have been dealt, and which ones remain in the deck.  However, that is not what this article is about.  That level of card counting is likely to get you barred from every casino you visit, not help you win.  If you are that good, the casinos will simply not let you play.

However, you can improve your chances of winning without getting banned from the casinos.  All you need to do is pay attention to the proportion of high-value cards and low-value cards.  If a high percentage of the 10-point cards and aces have been dealt out, the remaining deck is not favorable to the player.  But if many smaller cards have been dealt, the cards that are left in the deck are more likely to come out in the player’s favor.

So if you notice that there were a lot of 10’s dealt in the first round, then the deck is starting to become unfavorable.  On the other hand is the first round has very few high cards, the remaining deck is more favorable.

You can use this information to your advantage by raising your bet if there have been a high proportion of smaller cards dealt, and lowering it if there have been more high cards dealt.  After each round, re-evaluate whether the deck has become more or less favorable based on the cards that were dealt during that round.  Then, adjust your bet accordingly.

This strategy works best when playing a one-deck game.  If more than one deck is being used, it will take more than one round for the previous cards played to significantly impact the remainder of the deck.  Also, keep in mind that in many casinos, the cards are shuffled once about half of them have been dealt.  The casinos do this to make card counting less successful.

If you are playing online, of course, card counting is completely useless.  Internet-based gambling sites use programs that deal the cards randomly, starting each hand with a full deck.  If you want to experiment with card counting strategies, you’ll have to do so at a real casino, not a virtual one.

There can be wild winning and losing streaks when playing blackjack, so it is important to understand how to manage your money while you are playing.  You need to plan ahead so that you will already have made decisions about when it is time to quit and how you will bet.  With these decisions already in place, all you have to do is stick to your plan.

Before you start playing, make sure you have a large enough bankroll to cover any streaks.  A typical bankroll should be about 40 times the amount you normally bet at one time.  If you bet $5 at a time, you will need about $200.  If you are short, it is better to lower the amount of your bets than to take less money and hope it will be enough.

Of course, as with any other type of gambling, you should only bet what you can afford to lose.  That doesn’t mean you should just make sure you have enough left to cover the bare necessities either.  If you are going to be emotionally upset about losing $100, then it is too much.  If you can lose $1000 without giving it a second thought, and have enough money to pay your bills and maintain the lifestyle you want, then that’s not too much.  The amount that you can afford is something that only you can determine.

Your goal should be to double your money.  If you do that, you’ve done well.  If the table seems to have a lot of ups and downs, just be happy to leave when you’re ahead.

Whatever you do, never bet more than you have decided on ahead of time.  Make these decisions when you are calm and rational, not when you are surrounded by bright lights and have too much adrenaline coursing through your system.  If possible, take only the money you plan to spend with you to the casino.  Learn to keep your bankroll under control, and you are much more likely to come out a winner.