Beating The Casino At Blackjack

The Random Number Generator (RNG) is at the heart of the modern online gambling industry and is prevalent in all online games, blackjack included. The RNG’s purpose is to ensure random, i.e. unpredictable outcomes, guaranteeing fairness for everyone involved.

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Roulette Prediction Software Helped me win over $4000Online Casino 13 day Winning Streak, Robin-hood Stocks Updates and Bitcoin Update Tip me some BitCoint. BeatTheCasino.Com is second to none, as a club. Our members are truly engaged in helping each other to succeed in winning at Baccarat, Blackjack, and many other Casino games. We are like a brotherhood in holding nothing back, in sharing our knowledge to new members and sharing with every seasoned player who are members. To begin with, you need to find blackjack variations with favorable rules that reduce the house edge enough so you can beat the game. Some of the things you need to consider in advance include the payouts for blackjacks, the number of decks, and the doubling and splitting rules.

Blackjack is by far the only casino game where players can turn the tables in their favor through the implementation of advantage play techniques such as card counting. This is possible because blackjack is a game of dependent events, meaning that previous outcomes affect the odds of future outcomes. Players use the knowledge of past cards dealt to make better informed playing decisions about the hands to follow.

Is this the case in online blackjack variations that run on RNGs, though? Rather than having a human dealer to shuffle and randomize the card order, online blackjack uses algorithms and mathematical formulas to ensure each card that appears on the virtual felt is dealt at random. This prevents the games from showing bias toward the dealer or the player.

For years, gambling buffs have speculated as to whether or not such games are truly random and unbeatable. Some swear by the unpredictability of randomly generated online blackjack while others believe the games are exploitable.

Here at SuperCasinoSites, we give you the full lowdown on all you need to know about Random Number Generators in online blackjack as well as an answer to the question are such games beatable or not.

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The RNG and How It Works?

The RNG made its entry into the gambling industry as a new way to operate slots. Slot machines previously had physical reels that rotated to determine which symbols would eventually appear and potentially create winning combinations.

Slots gradually developed into more complicated games with multiple paylines and special features. The need to introduce a new way of ensuring random outcomes arose. Physical space was limited on old-fashioned reels and did not allow for the ever-increasing number of symbols and winning combinations in advanced slots.

It is this need that led to the introduction of the Random Number Generator. The RNG is a built-in program that relies on mathematical computations to generate fully random events. Frequently implemented in scientific simulations, it also found its way into the gambling industry with the rise of online casinos.

The RNG can be used to simulate random independent events such as the roll of the dice, the spin of a roulette wheel or the flip of a coin. In the context of online blackjack, the RNG shuffles the cards, ensuring every single hand is randomly dealt and has an unpredictable result.

The software achieves this by generating lengthy strings of random numbers. It has no knowledge of previous results and lacks a predictable pattern. The implementation of RNGs is essential when it comes to ensuring fair and unbiased online casino games, whether it is blackjack, roulette, slots or any other game with an element of chance. They are also used in brick-and-mortar venues for electronic roulette and blackjack, keno, and video poker.

True Random and Pseudo-Random Number Generators

There are several types of RNGs, the first one being the True Random Number Generator (TRNG) which relies on some external input to spit out random results. The TRNG is significantly more expensive to maintain. It is mostly used in the field of cryptography where its main purpose is to spew random cryptographic keys to transfer data safely.

The vast majority of online casinos rely on the so-called Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG). Unlike the TRNG, the PRNG is deterministic and uses complex algorithms to produce unpredictable results in casino games like blackjack. Let’s have a more detailed look at the differences between these two main types of RNG.

One-to-One Comparison between TRNGs and PRNGs

True Random Number Generators (TRNG)

TRNGs rely on different natural phenomena or external sources to produce random numbers. To use a simple example, suppose you place 1,000 microphones in multiple noisy areas worldwide. You can use their combined sound output for the purpose of randomization. The TRNG will use these obviously unpredictable random sounds and translate them into strings of numbers.

This type of RNG lacks a computer algorithm to make computations, which means the numbers its spews are indeed an unpredictably jumbled mess. The TRNG extracts random numbers from physical phenomena such as the movements of a computer mouse, keystrokes, radiation waves, and atmospheric noise.

TRNGs are also known as Hardware Random Number Generators because they use hardware transducers to transform certain aspects of physical phenomena into electrical signals. This physical output is then converted into random digital numbers with the help of analog-to-digital conversion systems.

There are many ways to achieve absolute randomness but most TRNGs usually rely on external sources such as radiation waves. One great example is the HotBits service which creates random numbers by timing the decay of consecutive radioactive pairs, an inherently unpredictable process. This information is detected and fed into a computer straight from a Geiger–Müller tube.

Atmospheric noise can also be used for this purpose and so can background noises like those in office buildings or laboratories. In the second case, you will have to watch closely for discernible patterns as those can hurt randomness.

Another cool example of a highly functional TRNG is Silicon Graphics’ lavarand generator. It extracted random data from snapshots of the shapes made by the floating material in lava lamps. The data was then used to produce truly unpredictable seeds for a Pseudo-Random Number Generator.

Regardless of what physical phenomenon is implemented for the generation, the TRNG is non-deterministic, which means the number sequences it produces cannot be recreated, intentionally repeated, or predicted in any way.

With that said, certain number sequences can repeat themselves several times but this repetition happens entirely by chance. As for efficiency, TRNGs often lack in this department. Unlike PRNG, they require more time to generate numbers.

Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG)

Many online blackjack variations run on the so-called Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) to give randomness a kick. Rather than relying on completely unpredictable physical phenomena, the PRNG uses complex algorithms and computations based on a predetermined set of rules.

The difference here is that the PRNG does not necessarily require an external input to produce random outcomes. All they require is a fixed algorithm and seed numbers to kick off the process of random number generation. Each random number corresponds to a particular card value and suit.

The PRNG is highly efficient at its task because it is capable of producing very long strings of numbers every millisecond. Unlike TRNGs, the PRNG is deterministic, which is to say it can reproduce a specific number sequence at a later date if need be. It is also periodic in the sense that number sequences, no matter how chaotic they appear to be, will sooner or later start to repeat themselves.

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It makes sense this periodicity is an undesirable trait in the context of online gambling games such as blackjack. It takes away from the unpredictability of the hands’ outcomes. This renders online blackjack games theoretically exploitable.

In practice, though, the period of repetition of sophisticated casino PRNGs is extremely long and involves billions of hands. This fact alone prevents players from detecting any patterns in the outcomes whatsoever.

The casino software communicates with the PRNG each time it must reproduce a random result. The PRNG then generates a number and feeds it back to the software. Each number is related to a potential outcome or card value and the software displays it accordingly.

Assume, for instance, you are playing blackjack in a landbased casino and you choose to hit. The dealer will simply draw the next card from the top of the deck or shoe. This is not what happens in online blackjack since here cards are not dealt from a “real” shoe.

The casino software would simply instruct the PRNG to generate an arbitrary number, which will determine the value of the card you are dealt next. This process repeats itself after every single hand. Once you finish a round, the discards are reintroduced back into the virtual shoe and reshuffled. In essence, you are always playing from a fresh and therefore, neutral shoe.

The table below is a one-to-one comparison between Pseudo and True Random Number Generators.

Measures Taken to Ensure Fairness in RNG-Based Blackjack Games

Online blackjack utilizes Random Number Generators in place of dealers, which causes some players to question the authenticity of the games. Are they rigged in favor of the house or not? One typical scenario is when a player goes through several hundred hands, loses half or the majority of them, and quickly jumps to the conclusion the game is rigged. It seems the virtual dealer always manages to outdraw them no matter what upcard they show.

The trouble is this scenario is not all that uncommon in gambling, even if you play games like blackjack which combine elements of skill, strategy, and chance. The above-mentioned reasoning is a classic case of confirmation bias.

Us humans have the tendency to look for, interpret and sift out information in a way that reinforces our prior individual beliefs. Some players’ line of thinking is “I am losing a hand after hand so the game most definitely is rigged against me!”. However, a sample size of several hundred or thousand blackjack hands is hardly sufficient when it comes to drawing any such conclusions.

We would like to point out honesty and fair play are not something you should worry about if you play blackjack at reputable, licensed, and properly regulated online casinos. Here is why:

Tests and Evaluations of the RNGs

Tests and evaluations of the RNGs used in blackjack games are performed regularly to make sure the software works efficiently. The available blackjack variations undergo frequent audits by third-party testing companies like eCOGRA, Gaming Laboratories International or Technical Systems Testing.

These are all independent auditors to prevent any conflict of interest. The audits assess the games’ RNGs, using sample sizes that involve millions of blackjack hands. This is the only way to determine whether the outcomes of a given game add up to its built-in payout percentage or not.

Certificate From the Testing Agency

Once an online casino passes the audits successfully, it is granted a certificate from the testing agency to post on its website. This badge of approval indicates the blackjack variations, along with all other available games, are random and therefore, fair. Moreover, online gambling operators are expected to report the results of these audits, along with their games’ payout percentages, to their regulators. If something is amiss, the casino faces serious repercussions.

Randomness in the Blackjack Games

Finally, randomness is of utmost importance for casino operators as well. It preserves the integrity of the blackjack games and ensures the casino generates sufficient expected value to continue operating. Remember you are already playing against the house at a small disadvantage, roughly 0.50% in blackjack games with more favorable rules.

There is no need for online casino operators to cheat you and risk losing their licenses in the process. They have already secured their cut from the virtual blackjack tables thanks to the built-in house edge. Casinos face a heavy financial penalization and license suspension if an audit determines their blackjack games are rigged.

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The Attributes of Exploitable Blackjack Games

Now that you have understood what the RNG is and how it is implemented in online card games, we shall return to our original question, namely “Can you beat the RNG in online blackjack?”. And more particularly, is this feat achievable through the implementation of techniques like card counting. To answer this question, we must first examine the attributes of profitable, i.e. beatable, blackjack games.

Favorable House Rules

To begin with, you need to find blackjack variations with favorable rules that reduce the house edge enough so you can beat the game. Some of the things you need to consider in advance include the payouts for blackjacks, the number of decks, and the doubling and splitting rules.

The more liberal the rules are, the lower the house edge becomes. The rules of some variants are poor enough to render the games unbeatable. Other rules like Late Surrender are favorable to players and decrease the casino advantage.

Games that offer reduced payouts of 6 to 5 for blackjacks have considerably higher house edges and should be avoided at all costs. Luckily, the majority of online blackjack variations pay for naturals at standard odds of 3 to 2.

Good Penetration

The second attribute of beatable games is good enough deck penetration. For the uninitiated, the term designates how deep the dealer would deal into the shoe before reshuffling the cards. The deeper the penetration, the more information a card counter gets as to what cards remain to be dealt.

The main issue with RNG-based blackjack is that it gives advantage players no penetration whatsoever. This renders techniques like card counting completely useless. RNG blackjack is equivalent to live-dealer games where Continuous Shuffling Machines (CSMs) are used. The software automatically reintroduces the discards into the shoe and reshuffles everything after every single hand. This is an instant put-off for versed blackjack players.

It is impossible to beat a game where the cards are shuffled after each round. To use card counting to your advantage, you need good enough penetration. An example of adequate penetration is a six-deck game where the dealer shows you around five decks before reaching the shuffle card.

With RNG-based games, you start each round from a neutral, newly reshuffled shoe. Respectively, you base your playing decisions on limited information since you only get to see the cards dealt to your hand and the upcard of the virtual dealer. The best you can do against the RNG is stick to perfect basic strategy, in which case, you are still playing an unbeatable game with negative EV.

Hands Played per Hour

Speed is a double-edged sword when it comes to online blackjack. RNG games play at an exceptionally fast speed, which may appeal to players who prefer greater dynamics. Since you play against the software, there are no other players at the virtual table to slow you down while making their decisions.

The main trouble here is this increased dynamics can be extremely costly in the long run because you end up playing significantly more hands per hour than you would in a traditional landbased casino. There is no natural pause in the game for reshuffling, either. The RNG knows no rest, tirelessly reshuffling the virtual shoe round after round.

Consequently, you play a greater number of hands at a disadvantage, which ultimately causes you to lose more money to the house edge in the long term. Each result is unpredictable and entirely independent from the rest. Every round starts from a neutral shoe that favors neither the player nor the virtual dealer.

You can benefit from playing more hands per hour only if you count cards in a game with decent penetration and this is not something RNG-based blackjack offers. Here, the more you play, the bigger your hourly losses will get.

Conclusion

Some players assume that Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG) in online blackjack are beatable due to their determinism and periodicity. They reason such games are exploitable because sooner or later the sequence of numbers will begin to repeat itself.

While it is theoretically possible to use this “pseudo” randomness to your advantage, very few people are capable of achieving it in practice. The algorithms in RNG-based blackjack are simply way too sophisticated so predicting the outcomes of the hands borders on the impossible. Furthermore, the software undergoes regular audits. Rigged or hackable blackjack games will never slip through the net during testing.

I analyze all sorts of blackjack strategies and rank them for your fun and profit.

In every single movie about Las Vegas and the gangsters that run it, some character says to another character, “The house always wins.”

Yet that doesn’t stop all of us from trying to beat the casino. Specifically blackjack. We all think we’re better than blackjack.

We’re not, of course. But we think we are. I compiled this list of 11 popular strategies for beating blackjack and ranked them here, starting with the least effective and building toward the most effective.

11 Superstitions

I’ve seen tons of blackjack superstitions. None of these actually do anything — but either do lucky shirts, avoiding black cats, turning off the light switch three times to keep Charlie from dying, or any of the other day-to-day superstitions people swear by.

So it’s not going to change your blackjack fortunes if you violate your superstitions — even if you let new players enter during a shoe… you don’t bother saying “Nice hit” to someone who gets a six on a 15… you wish yourself good luck on your first-card ace… you tap twice instead of scratching the felt to hit… or forget your lucky cowboy hat. Gamblor is immune to superstition.

10 Gut feelings

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It seems that most people who sit down at a blackjack table have a rough understanding of textbook blackjack strategy. At least on the most basic level. The “gut feelings” strategy is a mix of playing with basic blackjack strategy but also having feelings. For example: “I’m going to stay on this 16, I just know the next card is a 10.” (I’ve seen my friend Bruce almost attack people for that statement. More than once.)

The problem here, from a mathematical perspective — aka my favorite perspective — is that blackjack strategy is constructed to give you an edge if you adhere to it without deviation and play for a long, long time. It’s like a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters — eventually they’re going to write A Tale of Two Cities. But as soon as you deviate from the strategy for a gut feeling, that’s like telling your monkeys that they’re now trying to accidentally write Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue: An American Life.

9 Easy card counting

I have three different levels of card counting on this list, because not all card counting is created equal. Some methods are so basic that you can learn them in 15 minutes. Some take months or years of practice.

Easy card counting might give you a small bump. One strategy like this is called ace/five — that’s where you start with the number zero, add one for every five dealt and subtract one for every ace. If the count is more than two, you double your previous bet. If the count is less than two, you bet the minimum. It’s simple, and marginally effective across a large data set.

Another easy card counting style is the famed “I feel like I’ve seen a lot of big cards” strategy. This is the one where you’re paying like 80 percent attention, but you feel like you’ve seen a lot of big cards come out already so you scale back your bets. This somewhat resembles wearing shorts outside in February because you feel like there have been so many snowy days that some sun is due.

8 Avoiding elderly female Korean dealers

This isn’t necessarily a winning strategy but more of an “avoid losing” strategy. Simply put: If you stand up and walk away every time there’s a dealer switch and an elderly female Korean assassin takes over your table, it will probably save you thousands of dollars in your lifetime.

7 Bet incrementing

Bet incrementing is like card counting without the card counting. It’s more like streak counting. There are different systems but they all basically come down to this: If you’re winning, keep increasing your bet; if you’re losing, don’t increase your bet.

This certainly helps avoid the break-even rut that blackjack can fall into — where you sit there for hours and never swing more than 25 percent or so from your buy-in. With incrementing, you’re either blowing money quickly or raking it in quickly.

But it’s not really a system to beat the house… just one to help you channel your luck. Incrementing coupled with counting can actually increase your winning percentage (or, more accurately, shave a small amount off the house edge). But incrementing without counting is like having sexual relations with multiple people and eschewing condoms until you catch an STD, then going back to condoms again.

6 Cheating

I put this in the middle of the list because it can go either way. If you spend hours going from casino to casino searching for a rookie dealer who might occasionally expose the very bottom burn card, that’s ineffective and inefficient cheating.

If you hide cards in your sleeve or try to subtlety double your bet when you get a good hand, those are more effective cheating strategies. Sure, you’ll end up getting dragged into a windowless room in the bowels of the casino and getting beat — fittingly — with a blackjack. But you’ll win some serious cash in the process.

5 Shuffle Tracking

In most of the big Vegas casinos you can’t do this anymore — the dealer doesn’t shuffle, he just puts the cards in a machine that automatically shuffles them. (Or, if you’re more of a conspiracy theorist, that sequences them to make sure you all get screwed.)

But if you’re playing blackjack and the dealer is manually shuffling, this actually can be moderately effective. You have to pay detailed attention to the sequence that the cards come out, because you’re looking for clusters. Maybe you try to remember the number and suit of the two cards that lead up to every ace. You expect that, during a human shuffle, some of those clusters will stay together — and you might have a little edge in knowing when the aces are coming.

It requires a lot of concentration, but might actually help you make a better decision on one or two hands every two or three shoes. It’s a long-term play. Continuing the analogy motif of this list, it’s like getting three green shells on the first lap in Mario Kart 64 and holding them indefinitely, hoping that you’ll be in a situation eventually where they’ll benefit you.

4 Basic strategy and time

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Basic strategy is the calling card of blackjack — if you play with proper strategy, blackjack gives you the best odds in the casino over time. (People forget the “over time” aspect. We’re a culture that freaks out over small sample sizes. They’re the only thing keeping Around the Horn on the air.)

And over time, basic strategy really can make a difference — infinite computer simulations have proven it. But you need to have the discipline to hit 12 and 13 against a 2… hit soft 18 against a 9, 10 or ace… split 8s against a 10 even if you’re on a cold streak… and refuse to take even money for blackjacks. Every single time you play, with no exceptions, for your entire life.

3 Medium-difficulty card counting

This is the kind of card counting that the common man can learn and try to employ. You don’t need an entire team of MIT-educated math geniuses to work as spotters and helpers and trainers to make it work. (It’d be hard to get that team together anyway, what with them knowing they’d be whitewashed if a movie was made about your adventures.)

These medium strategies are more advanced than the counting strategies I talked about earlier. Here you might try something like the current “hot” counting style, called the Zen Count. (You subtract one for an ace; add one for a 2, 3 or 7; add two for a 4, 5 or 6; and subtract two for a ten.) This requires practice and concentration, *might* get you kicked out of a casino but probably not, and will give you more of an advantage than you’re used to.

Of course, if you’re doing this, you can’t really drink — so that’s a $6-$32 per hour loss, depending on the efficiency of your waitress and your willingness to consume Long Island iced teas in the middle of the afternoon. So make sure to factor that in.

2 Hard card counting team effort

These are the card counting systems you would see in movies like 21 and others. (No, I can’t actually name others, I just assume there are others.) Basically, you and your genius friends develop an advanced card counting strategy. Then you all watch and card count different tables and signal each other when a table is about to start paying off. The money guy goes to that table, bets a ton, then gets the hell out as soon as the pit bosses start whispering to each other and casting furtive glances in your direction.

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On the downside, this is the kind of thing that casinos are on the lookout for and that might only exist in fantasy at this point. On the upside, if you do choose this method, you get to wear cool disguises and play different characters at the table! So if you and your friends from differential calculus class started an improv troupe, you were born for this.

(Side note: I bet that improv troupe would have a kitschy name like “RDRR” or “Nothing Derivative” or “Kristen Cavalieri’s Principle.”)

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Show me the money! Feel the need for speed! I want the truth! You’re glib!

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