When new players look at poker from the outside, actually sitting down and playing the game can be a bit daunting and there are a few reasons for this. For starters, you will most likely be playing against people that have played before which instantly puts you at a disadvantage. Another problem that you face is the fact that learning about all the different hand values can take time and that’s before you even start to think about putting together a strategy and learning how to bluff.
If factors such as the above are putting you off then you may want to have a go at blackjack which is another popular card game but it’s a lot easier to play. The rules are simple, you play against a dealer rather than other people like yourself and the aim is to get card values as close to 21 as possible without going over.
What makes blackjack easier to play than poker is the fact that the dealer just follows a set of casino rules which in most cases is hit on card values of 16 or lower (get another card) and stand on 17 or over. Because of these simple rules that are being followed, you don’t need to worry about being beat by a more skilled player or anything like that.
Learning all about blackjack strategy is also a fairly simple task because there are just two sides to it. The first is what’s known as “basic” or “perfect” strategy which is basically a set of instructions that tells you whether to hit, stand, double down, split or surrender on each hand. These come in the form of what’s called a strategy card and there are loads of these online and they’re completely free for anyone to use.
The second side to blackjack strategy is wagering which basically means how much you bet on each hand. For example, you could just bet the same amount on each hand and this is known as flat betting but this will likely result in a loss long term because you have would have to win more bets than you lose which is very likely.
To get around this you can use a few progressive strategies such as the Martingale which is a system that involves you doubling your bets after each losing hand until you get a win. Systems like this can certainly prolong your winning streaks but things can soon come crashing down if you experience just one losing run. Regardless of which way you decide to play, blackjack is certainly an interesting alternative to poker and it makes a great tune up game.