At every casino the blackjack games will look just about the same. But when it comes down to the nuts and bolts, each house has it's own little set of personalized "sub rules". How many decks do they use? Can you double down after splits? How many times can you re-split a pair -- if at all? Does the dealer stand or hit on soft 17? What about "surrender?

How much difference can these rules make? There could be as much as a I % difference between the best games and the worst. But the vast majority will fall within a'/2% of each other.

Here's a revelation that is not so obvious to most folks. Did you realize that 46% of the cards in the deck are high-value cards? It's true. Check this out: nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace. You know there are fifty-two cards in a deck; therefore, six high cards times four suits equals twenty¬ four cards, right? Twenty-four is 46% of fifty-two. By that sim¬plistic analysis you can determine your play and betting by watching cards coming out as they're dealt. Let's see how that works. Assume you're at a double-deck