Hold'em Blackjack

[mathare]

Anyone played it?

I have seen adverts for it for a few months now, in Inside Edge and Poker Player magazines and only this afternoon have I bothered to find out what it really is.

Hold'em Blackjack is Cryptologic's hybrid poker/blackjack game and is available through William Hill, UK Betting etc, although currently only in real money tournament form with ring games expected early next year.

The game is played at tables of 6 players maximum. Each player puts in an ante equal to half the small blind. The players to the left of the dealer button then put in small blinds and big blinds as in normal hold'em.

Players are then dealt 1 card face down and a round of betting takes place, starting to the left of the big blind. Betting is fixed limit (bets/raises equal to big blind) and the blinds are live, as in hold'em.

Players are then dealt a second hold card, face up, and another round of betting occurs, this time starting with the first active player to the left of the button. Betting is fixed limit in increments of twice the big blind.

Players then complete their hand starting with the frst active player to the left of the dealer and working clockwise round the table. Players hit or stand as they desire. If they exceed 21 they must stand. Cards are dealt face down. A hand may consist of a maximum of 7 cards. There is then a final round of betting, spread limit this time with bets/raises being 2x to 10x the big blind. A showdown then takes place, losing hands may be mucked without being shown. Winner takes the pot, tied hands split the pot.

The ranks of hands is:
1) 7 card charlie (7 cards totalling 21 or less)
2) 21, 20, 19 etc.

If all hands have exceeded 21 the lowest total wins the pot.

Cards have their standard blackjack values (2-10 are face value, court cards are 10 and Ace is 1 or 11 to the players advantage)

There don't seem to be many tourneys running for this (I can find 1 running this evening on the Cryptologic network, a $5+0.50 tourney) but it sounds interesting. I'd prefer to get into a cheap ring game when they come about to get used to I think but it's a nice idea.

[vegyjones]

There was a tourny on Betfair a while back that I played!

It was limit though which was frustrating!

It was fun! I enjoyed playing once the blinds went up!

[mathare]

It was limit though which was frustrating!Seems the first two rounds are always limit with the last round being spread limit. Doesn't sound like there are pot limit and no limit versions.

[mathare]

Played an MTT for this last night to see what it was like and quite enjoyed it. But the MTTs don't start till 7.21 tonight so I played an STT just now and walked it. When we went heads-up the chip leader had be covered about 5 to 2. But I won every hand heads-up and it was soon all over.

I am starting to get a feel for the strategy now. I'll post something on how I think it should be played soon.

[mathare]

Right, I'm going to start putting a strategy together for this damn game. I have a few ideas so what I will post at the minute is notes and tidy them up into a more formal strategy later.


The winning hand is usually 20 or 21, sometimes 19. It is rarely lower than this and remember than any bust hand is beaten by any non-bust hand no matter how low the points total, i.e 2 beats 22
When you can see your oppenents' upcard they can have a max of 10 or 11 in the hole so you know the maximum they can have in their hand. So if you have 21 and your opponent has a 10 showing he cannot beat you and can split with you at best so don't be afraid to jack the pot.
Remember a 3 (or more) card 21 is just as good as a 2 card 21 (blackjack)
The chances of someone hitting a 7-card hand (an automatic winner) are really tiny so don't even think about it. If your opponent has 7 cards then you can still take him on. If he hit the 7-card charlie then you've been unlucky and things like that happen. But don't fear the hand.
The chances of you successfully bluffing from either a 17 (or lower) or a bust hand are small. Check it down or fold in the face of betting and wait for the next pot.
If your opponent has a 10 or A up and draws he was not that strong to start with, remember that and think back over his betting on previous rounds.
Raise in late position with a 10 or A in the hole
If you have a 10 upcard and everyone else shows low cards (7 or less) raise to try and take the pot there and then.
At a full table fold anything less than 8 or 9 (not decided which yet) unless you're in the blinds
Call the big blind from the small blind unless facing a raise


More as it comes to me...

[mathare]

The Cryptologic sites are now running cash ring games for this with 6-seater tables.

I had a play at William Hill earlier, playing on a $1/$2/$2-$10 table which seems to be the lowest limit. They had at least one table at the same limits but in £ and some $2/$4/$4-$20 and $3/$6/$6-30 tables too.

The one thing I would say about this game is it can be terribly volatile. I sat down at the table with $50 just to give it a try and pretty soon I felt I was playing off too short a bankroll. I would suggest sitting down with 100 times the big blind ($100 in this case) if you're going to play. That's a lot more than I would suggest for a standard hold'em game.

I played pretty much to the above strategy and it saw me alright, pretty much. There isn't much opportunity for bluffing as such so you need to make sure you actually have a decent hand most of the time. And that means 19, 20 or 21 really, and even then 19 is often pretty weak.

Although I said there aren't many bluffing opportunities don't pass up those that do come along. As I said above, a 10 upcard for you when everyone else shows weak cards is a good opportunity to try and take the pot down there and then. But forget any ideas you may have about stealing the blinds - it won't work and you will get callers. Another chance to think about a bluff is if you have a bust hand (22, 23 say) and your (only) opponent has drawn at least two cards also. If you act first a small bet ($2 or $3) is probably enough to find out where you are in this hand. If he raises you then forget it, he has you beat. But he may also be bust and will probably just fold in that case leaving you to steal the pot with nothing.

At the level I played this afternoon the average pot was around $15 I would say. I did see a few pots that were $30+ and in fact I won a $42 pot right at the end of my session. Or rather that seemed like an excellent point at which to end my session ($18 up). I also saw a $95 pot when two guys got into a raising war at the end. It was bet the maximum ($10), raised, re-raised and re-re-raised so they each had $40 in on the end. It was of course a split pot, so all they were doing was feeding the rake but...

It's not a game for the faint-hearted I must admit. You need that 100 x big blind bankroll and a good set of balls on you I'd say. You will experience ups and downs to your bankroll but the key is to not panic and to play a solid game. I think the strategy above is solid enough. It certainly provides a good enough outline for your game.

And remember - there is almost nothing written about this game. What I have written above is about as much as I have seen anywhere. So the chances are you are playing quite inexperienced opponents. The ring game requires a different mindset to the tourney version and as the ring game is so new (only a couple of days old at the time of writing) no-one has had much of an opportunity to perfect their approach.