I never play blackjack alone anymore. I used to think it was all in being careful - but I went with a group of friends that play regularly and they all have their favorite table positions. They gave me an education on how to beat the house so the whole table wins.

Certain players are better at certain seats than others - for instance I am a good "centerfield" player and I am wise to NEVER play "third base" and I am not comfortable at "first base" What that means is I do best when I have at least 2 before me and 2 after.

Third base - the last player before the dealer - is considered by many to be the most important player on the table becuase if you have an idiot in the middle who hits on 16 then the players after have to adjust their play. The idea is that everyone on the table stay in and you you force the dealer to bust and pay the whole table. So if the guy at 3rd hits on 16 when the dealer has anything over 13, he's probably just taken the dealers bust card and the dealer usually ends up filling his hand and the whole table loses.

So when we play in groups we play our positions and we may sacrifice a hand here and there to make the dealer bust and pay the rest of us. You can't win every hand - but if you make the dealer bust 9 out of 10 hands then the whole group ends up ahead. ( I think that's where they started to use the baseball analogy - baseball is the only sport to recognize a sacrifice play - the sac fly)

I know that to many it sounds like superstition - but blackjack is the one game that you can see this - if you watch the next hands cards you'll know who would have had what if it was played differently. I didn't believe and they showed me. We started with $50 each and walked out with a table total of almost $4,000 among 7 players. We went to dinner and split it all up evenly. I believe NOW.