Requesting a card or a hit on 17 or above will do two things: it will mark you as a rank amateur and will make other players abandon your table. There are only four cards to improve your hand with a 17, three with an 18, 2 with a 19 and one with a 20. The odds are stacked against you in every case. With 17 as the player's key point, 6 is the corresponding cutoff card for thedealer's exposed card in determining how you play it, with the deuce or 2 beingthe exception to the rule (refer to "The Terror of the Twos") It is importantto remember: everything is relative to the one card the dealer is showing. Ifthe dealer's exposed card is 3-6, the player has a better chance of winning thanif the dealer is showing a 2, 9, 10 (or face card) or ace. Seven and eight fallin the middle.Generally accepted blackjack theory notes that 18.3 represents the calculatedaverage hand needed to win. In other words, a hand with less than a 19 total(you can't get fractions in blackjack), is potentially a losing hand. If thedealer is showing a 7, 8, 9, or 10-value card, you will need to hit if you haveless than a 17.With a total of 17, you are stuck-you can't take a hit, but your chances aren'tgood. The math of the game says you can't take a card to improve your hand, butthe best you can do is hope the dealer has a 5-10 if he/she is showing a seven.With a 10, you tie, or "push." You don't win, but you don't lose. 5-9 makes thedealer hit once more. If the dealer has an 8, 9, or 10-value card exposed, youhave to hope that there is a 4, 5,6, or 7 in the hole. That will make the dealerneed to take a third card as well and this might put his/her hand over the totalof 21, with a busted hand. As there are more 10-value cards than any other, thechances here are not as bad.When you receive a hard 17, 18, 19, or 20, there is nothing to do except sitback and hope that the dealer's hand isn't as good as yours. You merely indicateto the dealer that you don't want a card and want to stand. Obviously, with a21 or blackjack, there's no need to try to improve your position.

Card counting is one of the better known ways of beating the house it is also one of the most difficult. The basic premise is that the counter keeps track of what cards have been dealt out of the shoe and uses this information to base his decisions on. Card counting is not as accurate as many people believe, as you do not know what card is going to be dealt next you just keep track on whether the deck is favourable. You can do this by keeping track of the amount of high cards to low cards that have been dealt. So if very few high cards have been dealt in the first half of the shoe then the deck could be described as favourable. High cards are 10's face cards and aces. It is easier to keep track of cards that score ten, as they are the most plentiful cards in the deck. There are three main reasons that decks high in face cards are favourable to the counter and not the casino. Firstly, the higher the proportion of tens and aces in the deck then the higher the likelihood that you can get a blackjack. It is true that the dealer is also more likely to pull a blackjack as well. However when the dealer is dealt a blackjack you lose all your wager when you are dealt a blackjack you win 3 to 2 so you get 150% of your wager and lose only 100%. So if you and the dealer trade blackjacks at the end you will be up. The dealer must draw when he has a 16 or less. He has no choice. When the deck is favourable, he runs a greater risk of busting. You, on the other hand, can alter your strategy to take advantage of favourable conditions. You don't have to take a card when the odds of busting are great because of a favourable deck. With doubling down on 10 and eleven with a favourable deck it is very valuable as the odds of the next card being a ten or ace is quite high which gives you a very high hand at double your initial wager.

List of Poker Etiquette.

Do not move another player's cards before the winner has raked the pot.

Never touch or move another player's money without that player's permission.

If you put your cards face-down on the table and put a chip on top of them, your cards are safe.

It's traditional for a dealer to offer a cut of the deck to the player to his right. That player may cut, tap or pass the cut to the player to his right. A tap signifies no cut is needed.

Answering your mobile phone in the middle of a hand is considered the equivalent of folding your hand.

It is assumed you know all the rules of a game when it's played.

A player should not talk across a player who is involved in a hand. Chatting is fine, but it never should reach the point where it interferes with the flow of the game.

Use of profanity and obscenities is a violation of poker etiquette.

No player should create a disturbance by arguing or shouting.

A player can quit anytime without criticism, and no one should be rude about it.

At no time should any player make statements that could unfairly influence the play of a hand, whether or not the offender is involved in the pot

Respectful treatment of dealers also is part of poker etiquette.

Cards should be discarded on a low line of flight so that people can't see them, Chips should be placed as far forward as reasonably possible to make it easier for the dealer to scoop them.

Do not stack chips so is stacking chips in a way that interferes with dealing or viewing of cards or conceals how much you really have in play.

Players should speak up when they see an error such as an improper amount of a bet, a card going to the wrong person or a flashed card, or the pot about to be incorrectly awarded.

Players should manage their table space in such a way as to be fair and reasonable to other players be aware if you are infringing on another player's space

Don't lean forward or backward to see a player's cards. It is proper for an opponent to complain when a player constantly has the opportunity to see another's holecards,

A player who repeatedly violates these principles of poker etiquette is a disruption to the game, and accordingly ought to be subject to discipline, up to and including ejection from the game and being suspended or barred from the cardroom.