The hardest thing about small pocket pairs (66 and lower) is determining how strong they are. Answer; preflop, not very. The chance of hitting a set on the flop is about 11%, and you’ll more often than not need to hit that set, especially in multi-handed pot.

So, you have a situation where you have a paired hand but a low chance of improving it and a high chance of it being overtaken on the flop or a later street.

Some players, even those focusing on casinochoice.co.uk bingo reviews, like to play a small pocket pair heavily – that is, to play the hand much stronger than it really is. By treating the pair as a premium hand, you will quite often be able to push players off two high cards preflop.

There are times when a small pocket pair will be good enough to play strongly. For example when you are short stacked in a tournament it is usually worth pushing all in with a small pair. Bu t this example is when you are rather desperate, perhaps highlighting the weakness of playing low pairs with any sort of strength.

From a late position small pocket pairs can be used advantageously as you have position over the table and have a better idea of the strength of your opposition. Personally, if I am in early/middle position I almost always throw low pockets away. This is something those assessing the betfair casino choice review will probably agree with.

I certainly never flat call the blind; sometimes I make a raise, depending on the table, my image and how many chips I have at that time.

Of course small pocket pairs can be one of the most valuable hands IF you do hit a set on the flop. The hand is easily disguised – no one really suspects a low paired set on the flop, it’s almost impossible to read.

And this is the main reason as to why these hands are quite troublesome; the rewards can be massive if the cards fall for you. Just remember that 89% of the time, that third card won’t fall for you on the flop.

The 2009 winner Mon Mome ran home at odds of 100/1, which is frankly amazing. I think the main reason people love this race is it’s unpredictable nature. Anyone one of the forty horse running could win, I just checked the Grand National website and found out that the 2010 race is on the 10th of April, so there’s still plenty of time to check out the runners, jockeys and trainers. I normally don’t bother looking at the racing form, I’m old school and pick my horse by sticking a pin in the newspaper on the morning of the race!

Looking for a rock solid casino blackjack game? then Tote Casino is the place to play, Tote is one of the most trusted brand names in gambling, they run on course betting at all of the United Kingdoms race tracks. So they know a thing or two about providing punters with quality service and great odds.

So what can you expect from Totes online casino? Well firstly it’s very easy to join, more importantly it has a fantastic selection of Blackjack games to choose from. Along with standard casino Blackjack you can also play: 21 Dual Blackjack, Progressive Jackpot Blackjack, Surrender Blackjack and Blackjack Switch. You can try all of those new versions of Blackjack for free without even signing up to Tote Casino. Tote allow free play sessions on the instant casino, just click the play button to try it out.

If you decided to play for real money Tote will give you a generous new player bonus, a 100% first deposit bonus (up to max £100). Your bonus will be added immediately upon making your first deposit or transfer into gaming chips, allowing you to use your bonus towards meeting the necessary wagering requirements needed to turn the bonus into withdrawable cash.

All in all Tote is one of the better online casinos, you can play the instant casino (40 games) or download the full casino software (100 games). The games are good quality and along with Blackjack you also get Slots, Roulette and all the other popular casino games to play.

Fancy £500 completely free? Mummy’s Gold casino is offering Blackjack players a fantastic free cash deal. They will give you £500 to play their casino games (including Blackjack) for one hour! Anything you win above the £500 is yours to keep!

To claim this free cash you will need to download and install the casino software and register as a Real Player. (No deposit is required) The timer will start from the moment you click the Start Free Play button. You are then given £500 worth of FREE Casino Credits and need to start playing immediately to reach the minimum bet amount within 1 Hour.

Mummys Gold is has an amazing 32 versions of Blackjack to choose from, you can play the ‘Classic Blackjack’ game or try your hand at Spanish Blackjack, Double Exposure Blackjack, Single Deck Blackjack, Bonus Blackjack, Multi-hand Blackjack and loads more.

You can play Blackjack at Mummy’s Gold in £’s, $’s and Euros, the casino games are powered by MicroGaming, one of the best in the business. The casino is licensed by the Government of Malta giving you protection inside the E.U. Mummy’s Gold is a great place to play Blackjack and when you consider they are giving away £500 for free it’s even better!

Above is a free blackjack game you can play without risking any money. It’s a great way to learn the basics of playing blackjack. To begin the game just click one of the chips to get started, then click the ‘deal’ button to the right of the chips (it’s quite small) once the cards are dealt you can choose to Stand, Hit or Double Down.

To learn more about playing Blackjack Click Here. If you want to play online for real money then check out our guide to the best places to play Click Here.

If you’re new to the game of blackjack then there are a couple of important things to remember before you go hell for leather at the table. Blackjack isn’t a game of luck; knowing how to play the game, using developed strategies and tips will all give you an advantage over the house. 

The casino or house has a 2%-3% advantage at the Blackjack table which believe it or not is pretty good given the house advantage over some of the other casino games. But, despite this low advantage, blackjack tables are the second highest source of revenue for casinos. This seems a little strange – how exactly does a game with such good odds for players bring in so much revenue for the casino?

The answer is simple – players make too many mistakes, through arrogance, ignorance or plain errors. Because the odds are in the players favour, many tend to go out with a ‘beat the house’ attitude and end up losing instead. When enough people play this way the errors mount up and so does the casino revenue!

As a beginner you do not want to fall into this trap so remember these tips:

• Find a table whose minimum is no more than 5% of you total stash – if you have £20 to play with then make sure that the minimum you can play with is £1 per hand.
• Since the dealer has to hit (take a card) on any hand 16 or lower, you’ll never win with less than 17 unless the dealer busts.
• Take a hit on your hand below 17 when the dealer shows Ace, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 or 7
• If you are dealt two cards of the same value, you may “split” them, doubling your bet and playing two hands.
• Never split 10′s or 5′s.
• Always split 8′s or 7′s against a dealer’s card of equal or lower value.

These are only meant as basic beginner tips – if you’ve already gotten a handle on the game you should move on to more advance tips, also available in this section.

So when do you double down?
It’s easy just double down on the following hands:

 
Just remember that you’re betting on the dealer going bust because of the number of potential cards he will have to deal himself due to the low up card. The greater the number of cards he has to deal, the greater the chance he will go over 21 and you will win.

Doubling down enables you to double your money in an advantageous position but it will cost you twice your bet so choose your hands well to minimise your losses.

In a Blackjack game you can follow basic strategy to reduce the houses edge on the game. Use the chart below to work out whether you should HIT, STAND or DOUBLE DOWN. Using this basic Blackjack strategy doesn’t guarantee a win everytime! but it has been mathematically proven to be the correct course of action during a hand.

To work out if you should ‘Hit’ or ‘Stand’ you need to look across the row of small cards to the right of ‘your hand’ under each of the dealers card is a coloured bar. Depending on the colour under the dealers hand you should either ‘Stand’ ‘Hit’ or ‘Double’.

You can print out this guide to basic Blackjack strategy ~ just click on the image above it will open in a new window and you can print it from there.

Betfair Casino offers Blackjack players the best odds online, Betfairs unique ’Zero House Edge’ Backjack game stacks the odds in favour of the player rather than the casino.

Betfair offers two great casino lounges, the Zero Lounge and the Main Lounge. The Main Lounge offers a huge range of the newest and most exciting games making it one of the most diverse and best value casinos on the web. The Zero Lounge is the first casino with zero house edge on every game*.

The Blackjack game at Betfair follows the standard rules of Blackjack, with a few minor twists. Betfair pay out 2:1 for a suited natural Blackjack and also for a five card 21! This extra payout for a five card 21 changes the standard ‘Hit/Stand’ guide slightly. All this really means is you should hit on the following hands…

• Hit 12 against 4, 5 and 6
• Hit 13 against 2, 3 and 4
• Hit 14 against 2
• Hit 17 against ace
• Hit soft 18 against 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8

*The return to player on all zero games is 100.0 per cent. This is correct to at least 1 decimal place based on optimal player strategy.

Fancy £500 completely free? Mummy’s Gold casino is offering Blackjack players a fantastic free cash deal. They will give you £500 to play their casino games (including Blackjack) for one hour! Anything you win above the £500 is yours to keep!

To claim this free cash you will need to download and install the casino software and register as a Real Player. (No deposit is required) The timer will start from the moment you click the Start Free Play button. You are then given £500 worth of FREE Casino Credits and need to start playing immediately to reach the minimum bet amount within 1 Hour.

Mummys Gold is has an amazing 32 versions of Blackjack to choose from, you can play the ‘Classic Blackjack’ game or try your hand at Spanish Blackjack, Double Exposure Blackjack, Single Deck Blackjack, Bonus Blackjack, Multi-hand Blackjack and loads more.

You can play Blackjack at Mummy’s Gold in £’s, $’s and Euros, the casino games are powered by MicroGaming, one of the best in the business. The casino is licensed by the Government of Malta giving you protection inside the E.U. Mummy’s Gold is a great place to play Blackjack and when you consider they are giving away £500 for free it’s even better!