---
title: 'How to Play Blackjack and Beat the Casino'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=PljDuynF-j0'
video_id: 'PljDuynF-j0'
date: 2026-07-12
duration_sec: 881
---

# How to Play Blackjack and Beat the Casino

> Source: [How to Play Blackjack and Beat the Casino](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PljDuynF-j0)

## Summary

This video teaches the basics of blackjack, including rules, card values, and basic strategy, and explains how card counting can give players an edge over the casino. The instructors, Colin and David, have collectively won over $1.5 million through card counting.

### Key Points

- **Goal of Blackjack** [00:00] — Beat the dealer by getting closer to 21 without going over. If you bust, you lose immediately.
- **Card Values** [01:09] — Number cards are worth their value, face cards (J, Q, K) are 10, and Ace is 1 or 11.
- **Game Flow** [01:43] — Player goes first, can hit or stand. Dealer must hit until 17 or higher. Player wins if closer to 21 or dealer busts.
- **Blackjack (Natural)** [03:05] — An Ace and a 10-value card as first two cards pays 3:2. Avoid 6:5 payout tables.
- **Player Options** [05:51] — Hit, stand, double down, split, and surrender. Basic strategy chart optimizes decisions.
- **Basic Strategy** [06:30] — Memorizing basic strategy reduces house edge to about 0.5%. It takes a couple hours a day for a couple weeks.
- **Why Players Lose** [12:01] — Most players don't follow basic strategy, and the rule that player loses on double bust gives house edge. Card counting is needed for advantage.
- **Card Counting** [13:29] — Using your brain to track cards and adjust bets/decisions. Casinos can ban card counters.

### Conclusion

Blackjack can be beaten with perfect basic strategy and card counting, but casinos reserve the right to ban advantage players.

## Transcript

and in this video I'm going to teach you everything as well as how it can be beat. Hey, I'm Colin and I'm here with my good friend David
We're gonna teach you how to play the game of blackjack. for roughly 15 years. responsible for beating casinos for roughly $4 million,
through Blackjack Apprenticeship. and eventually how it can be beat. we first need to talk about what the goal,
which is to, in its simplest form, beat the dealer. in blackjack it's all about your game against the dealer.
Basically by getting closer to 21 than the dealer That's why they call the game 21. If the dealer gets closer to 21 than you, then you lose.
Or if you go over 21, you lose right away. What we have right here is a fourth of one deck of cards. the two through 10 are simply gonna be their point value,
and a 10 is gonna be worth 10 points. are also going to be worth 10 points. and then an ace is unique in that it can be a one or an 11,
whichever is going to be the best for the hand. Ace and a two is gonna be a three or a 13, Let's talk about how the game is dealt.
but the dealer only shows one card At this point, the player always goes first, and they have an option to take more cards, or to stay.
we'll get to in a minute, but they always go first with the goal of getting closer to 21 The player has an 18 is going to stay,
and since he has to hit until he has a 17, Now he has a 17 and even though the dealer the dealer has to stay at 17, so the player is going to win.
If the player wins, If they lose, they lose their entire bet. which is to get the same point value as the dealer,
then they don't win or lose, and the next round begins. at blackjack automatically, or what we call a natural, so it looks like this.
as your first two cards, we call that a blackjack. you win automatically. and like it says on this felt, blackjacks pay three to two.
David is betting 400 here, it's going to get paid 600, Beware, because there's some greedy casinos out there where it doesn't pay three to two, it pays six to five,
which would be paying like a normal hand, and you don't want to play those games ever. from the casino or if you learn to become
you're gonna need a three to two blackjack game Let's deal some example rounds and show you how this works.
(cards swishing) So is the second player, Now they would stay.
the first player has a 17, so he's gonna lose. so he's going to win. which is the same as the dealer's hand,
In the second example, If they were to hit, they have 22.
regardless of what the dealer ends up getting. The dealer has a 13, so the dealer has to hit.
This 19 is gonna win, but again, this is really important, if both the player and the dealer bust, the player loses.
Third example, the player is dealt, boom, the blackjack, the player wins right away.
but they get paid just like this says, the player is going to get paid three chips to his two, five dollars or $5000, you get paid 150% of your bet
That's really important because that's part of how The player needs that extra 50% on blackjacks Let's talk about playing decisions.
that you as a player can make at the blackjack table. There's hitting, standing, splitting, and doubling down. But just so you know there's actually a chart,
that will tell you the proper playing decision and it was created by mathematicians, every possible hand in the game.
to memorize basic strategy? Couple hours a day for a couple of weeks That's not going to give you the advantage over the casino,
you're playing every hand properly, to a very small margin, roughly half of 1%. Why would a player hit?
So let's show you what that looks like. so the player's gonna wanna hit. or some form of tapping the table,
Then your next option would be standing, you're gonna want to stand, then your hand is over.
when would you stand? - The third option would be doubling down, or sometimes after you split your hand.
you're going to place an equal bet to your original bet. You can bet up to your original bet, a little pro-tip, and you would always double down
Let me show you what that looks like. a hand you should double down, so this first one's a nine. and place one finger out.
to signify that you can't hit that hand, that hand is over. against a six. it's a soft 18 so this is an eight or 18
and the correct decision would be to double down. and you have to just hope that the dealer's gonna bust. Then you get paid out on all those bets.
as far as proper basic strategy at blackjack, where you have an advantageous hand. While you might feel scared to put another bet out there
and if you don't double down when you're supposed to, Splitting as an option when you have two cards If you have a pair of twos or a pair of sevens
you have the option to split those cards. you're gonna put a second equal bet out and split your fingers like saying two hands.
so you can actually split that again. So you're gonna do the exact same thing. Then you're gonna get dealt into three separate hands.
Here you're gonna stand on each of these. Again, you put two fingers out to say two hands.
With a pair of aces, you only get dealt one card to those. to signify that you can't hit, and those hands are over. Again, if you want to know how to play proper basic strategy
the proper way to play every hand of blackjack. - There's one other option for the player How that works is that if you want to insure your hand
they're gonna do this and say insurance, To do that, you would put half of your bet At that point if the dealer does have a blackjack,
and they have a blackjack but then insurance is going to pay two to one so that would mean basically If you're just following basic strategy,
but that's how that playing decision works. Unless you're a card counter don't ever buy insurance. - Well, basic strategy says, it's not a smart play.
that are gonna say oh, will you shouldn't insure that's all just casino mumbo-jumbo. Unless you're learning how to count cards like David and I,
There's one other playing decision It's only offered at maybe 10% of casinos, it actually is valuable to the player if you know
If you're at a casino that offers surrender, what you're gonna do is slide your finger across the table, just so the casino knows
and how it works is, you forfeit your hand right away You would lose five of the 10 dollars right there, The hand is over.
has a better than 50% advantage over you, At this point you might be thinking, this sounds great,
Is it that simple David? - What if I just am a lucky blackjack player. but that's not going to guarantee profits over time.
Casinos are no dummies, they've designed the game There are really two reasons for that. actually follow basic strategy.
at the blackjack tables? It's really rare. it cuts the casino's advantage to about half a percent.
is probably playing with about a 2% disadvantage than the slot machines. - The second reason why people don't have the advantage
if both the player and the dealer bust, who loses? - That's right. the player loses.
double downs help the player, You need something more, which is card counting. anyone can get lucky on a given day or night.
and even if you're playing perfect basic strategy, You can gain the advantage but it takes more. - Basic strategy, getting that perfect.
- Counting cards. - No, it's using your brain. the casinos have invited you to play a game,
- This is what David and I have done for 15 years. We between the two of us have won over $1.5 million. One of the more notorious ones was called the church team.
through card counting. and when to change your playing decisions I'm going to be honest with you though,
so they have a right to refuse service to whoever they want. that's what we're all about. you can watch our videos on card counting,
or you can check out blackjackapprenticeship.com.