Gambling is a mathematical challenge—intellectuals have attempted to find ways to beat the house, and surely, there are many strategies that allowed them to turn the odds in their favour. But do these gambling tips apply to online casinos?
Today, we will help you realize that there are many gambling tips that do not work in online casinos. After reading this, you should say goodbye to these tactics because they do not work online.
Counting Cards in Blackjack
Counting cards in blackjack is an effective strategy in casinos. But how does it work? The first step is to perfect the basic strategy. It is a strategy where you should know how to decide whether to hit, stand, or double down based on the cards that are shown on the table.
Now, onto card counting. What you need to do is to assign a value to every card. The system is called the hi-lo. In a suit of cards, you separate the numbers into values, as shown below:
- 2 to 6 – has a value of 1; these are low cards
- 10 to Ace – has a value of minus 1 or negative 1; these are high cards
- 7 to 9 – these are neutral cards that have a value of 0
To do the running count, you need to “add” the values as the cards come out of the shoe. If the first card that came out is a nine, the running count is zero. If the second card that came out is a 10, the running count is -1. If the next card is 6, you add one to negative 1, and you get a 0. Do this several times.
As the running count gets higher on the negative, the advantage of the succeeding hands leans towards the casino. As the running count is on the positive, the advantage leans to the player. This strategy works on any deck count. You can use it on single-deck or eight-deck blackjack tables.
The premise here is that if the running count is high, it tells you that most small value cards have gone up, and more high-value cards are still in the shoe. If the running count is low, then more low-value cards are in the shoe.
As you can see, blackjack is not based on independent events. The shoe contains the deck, and the cards that have been dealt are now in the discard box. The only way a reset can happen is if the dealer re-combines all the cards in the shoe again.
If you know that more high cards are coming out, you can decide to bet higher because these are the cards that you want. However, you can only make the right decision if you know the basic strategy in blackjack.
This is not going to work in an online casino. You do not know if the game takes back the “discarded cards” back into the shoe. In blackjack card counting, you only place the bet once the shoe has only about 1/4 of the deck left. You cannot do this online because you have no visibility as to how many decks are used, and if the deck is still half-full or what.
Choosing Hot Slots
In land-based casinos, there is a prevailing myth that some slots are hot on some days. A hot slot is a
machine consistently pays money. Nobody really knows if this is true—but we all know that casinos have the capability to adjust something in the slot machine’s programming. If they don’t, then they can ask the developer to create a slot machine for them that pays out more.
Some slot machines are hot because casinos want the players to come back. Players who lose all the time will never have an incentive to go back the casino, much less invite his friends to play. The existence of hot slot machines is really debatable. Some argue that this cannot happen. Some say that, of course, it is possible because the casino has control over the chips that run the games.
Whatever it is, one thing is certain—there are no hot slots in online casinos. You see, slot machines online all go back to the game developer’s servers. What this means is that the online casinos that offer the slot machine have no control over its payout.
Besides, online slot machines have to go through more rigorous testing systems than cabinet ones. Government entities are much more particular in checking online slot machines to ensure that the players are protected. Also, even if there are hot slots, how will you know if a slot machine is hot online? You cannot see if a slot machine is paying out a prize to somebody, so there is no way you can tell if a slot machine is loose.
The best thing you can do is to play free slots games with bonus cash. This strategy works because all you need is to register, and then the online casino will give you free cash or free spins to play with. If you meet the wagering requirement, you can withdraw your winnings.
Playing at Tilted Roulette Wheels
In land-based casinos, expert players of roulette hunt for roulette wheels that are tilted. How do they know this? They observe the wins that the roulette wheel produces. They stay in an observation spot and list down the results of each round.
From these results, they can make mathematical calculations to decide if there is a tilt on the wheel. What this means is that the ball is more likely to land on one side because of the tilt, and they can prove this with math. Of course, the tilt is not obvious. If it were, then the casino management would have seen it already.
Here is the thing: you cannot do this online. There is no roulette wheel in online roulette. All the results of the games are generated by software—a random number generator. If you have observed that the ball seems to be leaning towards a side of the wheel based on previous results, it just happened because of sheer luck.
However, you can possibly make this tip work if you play live roulette. You would do the same exercise as you would in land-based casinos, and do the math to find out if the ball seems to land on a particular area.
While this can improve your odds, it still does not guarantee. Even if you split the wheel into four parts, there are still many numbers in there to choose from. Also, the arrangement of the red and black pockets are alternating, so there really is no way you can figure out where the ball is going to land.
Counting Cards in Baccarat
Baccarat is like blackjack, but your goal is to make a combination of cards that sum up to nine. Unlike blackjack, there is no bust in the game. In baccarat, the dealer distributes two cards to a player and a banker. The winner is the card set that is close to nine after the two cards are added.
The 10 and face cards have a value of 0. If the hand exceeds 9, the number 10 is removed, and the remaining number is the count. For example, if the banker’s hand is made of 10 and 3, the hand is not 13, but 3. Here, you do not hold the cards. You only bet on the hand of the player, banker, or tie. If the hand that you wagered on wins, then you win money.
Because of this game set-up, the trick that people do is to count the cards. As you know, each card value only has four varieties in a card. If you know which cards have already shown up, you can assess if there is still a likelihood for a tie, or if there is still a likelihood that a natural hand can be drawn.
Like blackjack, most casinos use eight decks of cards for the shoe. In an online casino, you do not know how many decks there are, so you cannot do card counting. You have no idea how many decks there are, or if the computer automatically shuffles the deck. Like roulette, your alternative is to find online live baccarat, but still, you do not know how many decks are used in the game.
Summary
These strategies may work in land-based casinos. Physical gambling has its benefits and disadvantages, but computers are 100% based on luck. You will never really know if the computer system is using a 4-deck or an 8-deck blackjack method, so counting cards do not work. The same thing applies to the rest.
In online gambling, you need to rely on skill, such as making decisions when to hit and when not do it. In roulette and other games of chances, what you can do is to stick with your bet size, and then be patient. Wait until luck gets in your favour, and then bag your winnings and call it a day.