Microgaming Indices: Even the Score
by Rob McGarvey
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As many of you already know, I have made quite a bit of money hustling I-casino bonuses, the Internet's version of match play coupons. After reading Bill Haywood's $12 book, BeatWebCasinos.Com, I took the plunge into the money and I am now swimming in checks and credits to my banking cards. I have heard that only 2% of people that use the Internet are willing to enter their credit card numbers online. Well, I am one of these people. I am playing on credit, never had to pay for any transactions, and making around $50US a day.Each I-casino uses software from different gaming establishments. They buy a license to use the software, have it's graphics changed to suit the casino, and then they are ready to go online. Well, almost ready. They also have to have a way to handle the money end of the bargain, probably the most important end of the business. This article will be about Microgaming sites, who use Proccyber Services to handle their money for them.
Microgaming has to be the biggest, most well known, and most trusted operation in the I-casino business today. You can track each and every hand you have played online using Playcheck, and all your transactions using Cashcheck. The are also audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a big name in the game of accounting. Microgaming also offers a single deck Blackjack game with pretty good rules. Dealer stands on S17, you can double with a two card hand of 9 10 or 11, split any pair, no double after splits, and the dealer takes no hole card. The deck is shuffled after every hand. From what I have calculated, a player using the following Basic Strategy will be facing a -.22% expectation.
Flashcards for Single Deck Blackjack
No Hole Card Rules
11 Blackjack Pro
2-910 Blackjack Pro
2-99 Blackjack Pro
2-6A8 Blackjack Pro
6A7 Blackjack Pro
3-6A6 Blackjack Pro
2-6A5 Blackjack Pro
4-6A4 Blackjack Pro
4-6A3 Blackjack Pro
4-6A2 Blackjack Pro
4-6A,A Blackjack Pro
2-109,9 Blackjack Pro
2-9 x78,8 Blackjack Pro
2-97,7 Blackjack Pro
2-7 (stand vs 10)6,6 Blackjack Pro
2-63,3 Blackjack Pro
4-72,2 Blackjack Pro
3-7No Insurance
Blackjack Pro
There are three changes in comparison to the typical hole card game. We don't double our two card hand of 11 into a dealer 10 or Ace up. We do not split A , A against an Ace up, or split 8 , 8 into a dealer 10 or Ace up. This is the proper way to play a no hole card game. You can't soft double in this game either, so disregard the cards for this.Playing with a 100% bonus, the casino edge of -.22% disappears. You're basically playing with a +99.78% advantage! This is the GREATEST advantage you will ever get in any Blakjack game you will every play, PERIOD. OR is it? Wouldn't it be nice to have an even greater advantage? I know the anwser to that question, and just how to get it. Card counting.
Most players here now how to count cards, many of you using the Hi - Low count. For those of you who don't count yet, here is a quick primer. Counters keep track of two groups of cards. They keep track of the cards that help the dealer, the 2 3 4 5 6 cards, and the cards that help the player, the 10 J Q K and A cards. When the deck has more small cards left in it, the house has a greater advantage. When the deck has more large cards in it, the player's advantage increases. The small cards are given a +1 value, and the large cards are given a -1 value. The counter keeps a running count in their mind to know when they have the advantage. The game we are going to play shuffles after every hand, so we will not get to, or have to count more cards than are right in front of us on the screen for each play. Take a look at the following flash cards, and then I'll get into some good playing examples we can use to increase our edge into the 100% range.
Flashcards for Single Level Count Advanced Plays
Single Deck No Hole Card Rules
Insure Blackjack Pro
+1.416 vs 10 Blackjack Pro
>015 vs 10 Blackjack Pro
+410's vs 5 Blackjack Pro
+510's vs 6 Blackjack Pro
+512 vs 3 Blackjack Pro
+312 vs 2 Blackjack Pro
+49 vs 2 Blackjack Pro
+19 vs 7 Blackjack Pro
+316 vs 9 Blackjack Pro
+513 vs 2 Blackjack Pro
012 vs 4 Blackjack Pro
+112 vs 5 Blackjack Pro
012 vs 6 Blackjack Pro
+113 vs 3 Blackjack Pro
-1
First off, the missing cards are doubling 10 vs 10 at +3, doubling 11 vs Ace at -1, and doubling 10 vs Ace at +2. None of these plays are worth the risk since we don't have the dealer checking for Blackjack before we double. Now let's go through each play above to get a good understanding of how these cards will help us.First, Insurance. Basic Strategy says no Insurance, but in a single deck game, you are wise to Insure when the count is +1.4 per Donny S's Illustrious 18. We have a hand of 4,5 and the dealer has an A up. It looks like we have a count of +1 (1 + 1 - 1 = +1), but in this instance, the A is a non 10 card, and you can Insure this hand. Any hand with two cards valued 2 3 4 5 6 can Insure against an A up. You don't have to, the choice is so close. If your hand has a 10 in it, don't Insure.
Stand with 16 vs 10 up with a count over 0. If your hand is a 10,6 hand, the count is -1, you hit. When you are drawing cards to a hand of 2,4,5,5 you stand with a count of +3. These two moves will help you out the most.
Standing with 15 vs 10 up. Same as above. You draw 2,2,4,5,2 you stand with a count of +4. You hand is +5, but the dealer's 10 drops the count to +4.
Skip splitting 10's, we won't get the number to have that happen in this game. Standing with 12 vs a 3 up happens quite a bit. Your hand is 4,3,5 vs dealer 3 up, you have +4, don't hit again. Same vs 2 up.
Double 9 vs 7 with a +3 count happens a lot as well. Make sure you use this play since we don't get to double as much as we would like to in this game. Your hand of 6,3 vs 7 up is +2, using Hi - Low. I would double this hand because the 7 has a + value that is not counted by Hi - Low. Double.
Standing with 16 vs 9 up at +5 may happen. Watch the cards to make you play decisions, especially when you have split hands and can see quite a few cards on the table.
All the rest of these hands are for hitting hands you normally would stand with, which means the count would be lower than the indice shown. This will not happen, so you can forget these plays all together unless you have split into two hands and get these numbers.
There, now that we have all that under our hats, let's go find Microgaming casinos to use this on! Normally, beginning I-casino players will want to get into this slowly, to make sure this really works. A good place to start is with a $20 deposit, $20 bonus. This is a 100% bonus. If you are interested in this bonus, email me at blakjack@idirect.com so I can send you the invitation. This casino will become one of your favorites as they often offer you $20/$20 bonuses every month! This is a great way to keep you as a customer. Many places will give you a big sign up bonus, and when you are done earning the bonus, you're gone. These little bonuses become a nice steady income when you get a bunch of them together.
Once you get comfy with these small bonuses, you're ready for some bigger games to play. After I got my feet wet I got hungry for some big money. The biggest deposit bonus I can find that uses Microgaming is a $110 bonus for a $100 deposit. $100/$110 - A 110% Bonus for Joining! After working them over, I went after all the biggies I could find out there. I didn't have time to play the smaller sites unless they gave continual bonuses.
You may want to take it a little more slowly and try a $25/$25 - 100% Bonus for Joining. There are just too many Microgaming casinos out there to list them all. The fact is, now you have the ultimate resource to get the most from the game they provide you. Print off this page and the two sets of flash cards and put them on your desktop while you play their Blackjack game. This is the modern day California Gold Rush ladies and gentlemen. I highly doubt it will come to an end since these casinos make money faster than they can give it away. It is a limitless resource, unlike its golden counter part that comes in nuggets and veins.
Now, about the money part of things. Do not deposit, play, and take the bonus. Leave your deposit there for about two weeks. Take it back to your credit card and you will not get any charges that you will have to pay. Go back a week later and take your bonus and winnings out. Play each time you go to the casino, don't just go to take the money. If I have a $90 bonus in the account, I will play it until I have $80 or $100, then take my money and run. Make sure you give them the amount of play they require for you to take the bonus. It might be $200 action for a $100 bonus. It is normally 2X the bonus amount, 1X deposit and bonus. You will see that the casino advantage will do little to your money as you play, especially using the indices above. I have played three places that gave $100 bonus for a $25 deposit and required $600 in action. Two I came away with the full $100, and one I came away with $150, all US dollars. Pretty nice for a Canadian boy who gets 1.55% exchange when he switches his winnings into Canuck bucks!
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