Playing Chemin de fer — to Win
Posted in Blackjack on 09/26/2026 09:25 am by Cristina
If you like the blast and adventure of a good card game and the anticipation of winning and earning some money with the odds in your favour, betting on vingt-et-un is for you.
So, how do you defeat the croupier?
Basically when wagering on chemin de fer you are watching the odds and chances of the cards in relation to:
1. The cards in your hand
2. What cards could be dealt from the shoe
When enjoying vingt-et-un there is mathematically a best way to play every hand and this is known as basic strategy. If you add card counting that helps you determine the odds of cards coming out of the deck, then you can increase your action amount when the odds are in your favor and lower them when the odds are not.
You’re only going to win under half the hands you play, so it is important that you adjust action size when the risks are in your favour.
To do this when playing vingt-et-un you must use basic strategy and card counting to win.
fundamental tactics and counting cards
Since mathematicians and academics have been studying 21 all sorts of complex schemes have arisen, including "card counting" but although the theory is complex card counting is all in all very easy when you play chemin de fer.
If when playing 21 you count cards effectively (even if the game uses multiple decks), you can tilt the edge to your favour.
Vingt-et-un Basic Strategy
21 basic strategy is centralized around a basic plan of how you wager depending upon the cards you are dealt and is mathematically the best hand to use without card counting. It informs you when wagering on vingt-et-un when you need to hit or hold.
It is remarkably easy to do and is quickly memorized and until then you can get free guides on the internet
Using it when you play vingt-et-un will bring down the casino’s expectations to near to even.
Card counting shifting the odds in your favour
Card counting works and gamblers use a card counting plan realize an edge over the gambling hall.
The reasoning behind this is easy.
Low cards favour the casino in vingt-et-un and high cards favour the gambler.
Low cards favor the croupier because they aid them make winning totals on her hands when he is stiff (has a 12, 13, fourteen, fifteen, or 16 total on her 1st two cards).
In casino vingt-et-un, you can stay on your stiffs if you want to, but the house can’t.
The house has no decision to make, but you do and this is your advantage. The rules of betting on vingt-et-un require that dealers hit stiffs no matter how rich the deck is in high cards that will bust him.
The high cards favor the player because they could bust the house when he hits his stiffs and also Aces and Tens means blackjack for the player.
Despite the fact blackjacks are, equally distributed between the croupier and the gambler, the fact is that the player gets paid more (3:2) when he receives a blackjack so the gambler has an advantage.
You do not have to add up the numbers of each of the individual card to know when you have an advantage over the house.
You only need to know at what point the deck is loaded or poor in high cards and you can increase your action when the expectation is in your favour.
This is a basic commentary of how card-counting systems work, but gives you an insight into why the logic works.
When playing 21 over the longer term card counting will assist in changing the odds in your favour by approximately 2%.