Is Basic Strategy Enough?
Basic strategy in blackjack is actually a table showing you what you actually need to do given your cards and the cards that the dealer is showing. The table is actually shows the most optimal decisions that a player can make given the type of card that the dealer is showing to maximise the returns possible in blackjack. By actually following basic strategy the house edge of a casino is reduced to roughly 0.5%. That actually means that if you gamble $100 you mathematically will only lose $0.50. Is that worth a playing the game where you are geared mathematically to lose? The answer is yes if you want to have fun.
If you know exactly how much you are willing to gamble, but sticking to the basic strategy you will make all the correct decisions. Although the house does have an edge of 0.5%, it is small enough that you might end up with a very profitable session or a losing session, but not where you have to get extremely lucky to actually make some money. Make sure that you have plenty of betting units and choose a limit that suits the amount you are putting up to play with.
Land based casinos actually do not mind if you carry the basic strategy table with you when you play, and online casinos simply can not tell if you are holding a card in front of you. Although the movies often glamorise card counting and the rewards, card counting is actually very difficult to learn and much of it just involves basic strategy. Casinos try to make the most money off the gamblers who are not using basic strategy and just hit and stand based on gut feeling. Although they are still favoured to make money off you, if every blackjack player used basic strategy there would not be enough income for them to pay the bills.
