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It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious. - Unknown

Despite this, I’ll mention some common myths.

Myth: If player at third base misplays his hands, he will make you lose.

Related: Splitting 10’s causes everyone to lose.

Related: Changing the number of hands changes the “flow”. If you do this after a win, you will never get on a roll.

Reality: Let’s assume it is true. But It’s easy to imagine a situation that it’s false. Just pretend the dealer will pull 21 if you don’t split your tens (or change the number of hands, or violate basic strategy), and busts otherwise. Therefore it cannot be true, hence it’s false. Q.E.D.

Perhaps what people mean is that you are more likely to lose when this happens, not that it’s a guarantee. But unless you know something about the distribution of cards to come out, how can further randomizing the cards change the long term result?

Myth: You will lose if you don’t follow proper money management. That is, if you keep playing while you’re ahead, you’ll lose it back. And if you don’t press your bets while you’re winning, you won’t win enough to cover your losses later.

Reality: Money management is not “quitting while you’re ahead” or “pressing your bets when you’re winning”. Quitting (regardless of whether you’re ahead or behind) is the best policy if you’re playing a losing game. But if you’re playing a winning game, playing more is the best policy. As for pressing your bets while you’re winning, the only time I can imagine this to be useful advice at the blackjack table is if you somehow run into a positive game by accident.

Myth: You must keep your emotions in control in order to win.

Reality: The cards do not know whether you are angry, ecstatic, upset, laughing, or crying. As long as you’re making mathematically correct decisions, your emotional state is irrelevant. Now, if you get upset, you may be less likely to make correct decisions, so it makes some sense.

Myth: Conservation of luck. Your luck is limited. If you’ve been unlucky, you’ll be lucky soon, just to balance out your bad luck. Or conversely.

Reality: We haven’t noticed this. We have noticed the opposite. Some people seem luckier than others, but we attribute this to greater skills and preparation. In a global sense it is true. If you’re playing a zero-sum game, luck evens out between both players. But this is a useless observation.

Myth: It takes genius to count cards.

Reality: Card counting is not memorizing every card in the deck, or even keeping track of how many high cards, low cards, and medium cards there are. The base skill is just adding or subtracting 1 — literally, counting. The average fifth grader has the intellectual skills to count cards. If you’re 70 years old, you might not be up to that, but otherwise any adult of average intelligence is capable of doing it.

This does not mean that everyone of average intelligence or better would play a winning game of blackjack if they tried. There are other factors, namely discipline and honesty. You need discipline to stick to the system through thick and thin, and honesty with yourself to recognize if you’re not playing well.

Related myth: To win, you cannot make any mistakes if you count cards.

Reality: Some mistakes are extremely costly, but others are relatively inexpensive. You can make a fair number of inexpensive mistakes and still play a winning game. Inexpensive mistakes are things like occasionally over- or under-betting by one unit, or being off by the count by 1. Some misplays don’t cost much, and in fact if you count cards but don’t alter your strategy, your basic strategy will change somewhat.

Misconception: If you reduce your bets while you’re winning, you’ll come out ahead with greater likelihood, at no cost to your long term results.

Reality: This is a corollary to the conservation of luck myth. If this happens during a shoe when the count is rising, you’re costing yourself in the long run. Essentially, you’re leaving the table when the cards are in your favor, and coming back with lower bets. In the end your win will be far less than if you bet properly. Yes, you will decrease your chances of losing your win in the short term, but if that’s your concern, why not stop playing altogether?

Myth: My progressive system is guaranteed to win!

Reality: No betting system can change a losing game into a winning one.

Myth: You should always take even money.

Reality: Taking even money is the same as taking insurance. Unless you are keeping track of the cards, or your bet is a huge fraction of your net worth, this is a bad bet.

What other myths have I missed?