
Las Vegas News - Issue 2
Chief Editor - Geo Paton.
Helpful Tips - BlackJack.
By Edward Cullen
I recently hit the blackjack table and walked away with 2.5 mil. I had only been in this thing of ours for a day. Was I lucky? No, not really. No such thing as luck at the blackjack table. Well you might get lucky and win a hand or two but over all if you rely on luck then you will walk away a loser all the time.
Just like in life there are certain rules one lives by. The same applies to the blackjack table. If you play by the rules you will more often than not come out a winner. Keep in mind though that all games of chance are stacked so that the house makes money. SO let the house make money on the other guy, not you. What I am about to tell you applies to the street game where the dealer has to hold on sixteen. The rules are the same as in jail except the dealer has to hold at seventeen. If you play in jail use the same concepts except remember the one exception.
First let’s go over some basic rules. An Ace can count as a one or an eleven. Two through nine counts as the face value of the card. The ten through king has a value of ten.
The object of the game is to force the dealer to bust or get as close to twenty-one as possible without going over.
The term bust means that either you or the dealer has a card value of over twenty-one.
You win if the dealer busts or your card values are higher than the dealers without you busting.
The key to the game is the dealer’s face up card. If it is a two through five and your card count is over ten then you hold. The dealer is forced to take another card and the strategy is to make him bust. If your card count is less than ten you may take cards until your card count is over ten then hold.
If the dealer is showing a six or above or an ace, and your card count is fifteen or below then you take cards until your card count is at least sixteen. If your card count is sixteen or above you hold.
If you have a hand that is a ten through king and an ace, that is a blackjack and is usually an automatic when. If the dealer has a blackjack as well, then it is a push. A push is when the dealer and you have hands that are equal. With a push, you neither win nor lose money.
In the street version of the game you can double down. If you win you win twice your bet. If you lose, you lose twice your bet.
To double down your hand must equal ten or eleven. You tell the dealer you are doubling down and he will deal you one card. That is all you get. The dealer plays his hand and if you beat him, you win twice your bet. Like I said earlier if you lose you lose twice the bet as well.
There are a lot more complicated strategies which I won’t go into now as this is just for beginners. However, if you practice the rules that I laid out you should walk away from the tables a winner more often than not.
Behind Bars - Will it Ever End?
It has been reported that the cops are cutting down on criminal activity dramatically and us criminals are paying the price for this on a large scale. It seems that every time any of us get locked up, we are being sentenced to a lot longer in jail. In the past year, average jail times have gone from 6 months to 3 years. Who knows what this will be by the time we reach the next year. It has been reported that this has made a difference, maybe not on a scale people would have hoped, but there has been less and less men and women convicted of criminal activity after the introduction of the harshes punishment. There have also been rumours spreading that the death sentenced will be brought back in some states of the United States. This may be what is putting the gangsters away from crime for the time being.
The Time Has Come - Made Men.
Over the past few days, there have been talk of the godfather starting to take notice of the current street bosses. It seems that there will be a few Made Men running the cities around America in no less than a few days. After speaking with the gangsters, a general conclusion has been come to that these streets need a few made men as the cities are lacking a ruling figure at the moment. There are a few men who are level in what could be called 'the race' but a few stand out, of course.
A few families have started to form already. Well, maybe they should only be called street crews just now. It is suspected that these crews that are up and running just now will be the rulers of the cities they are set up in. However, there are a few people in the shadows who have big plans and have very intellegent ideas and people backing them. The next few weeks should prove to be very interesting in this life of crime, and there will possibly be some blood shed. But, what's new there, eh?