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Unless you’re counting (and you very well might be), the best way to bring in money in black jack is to play the statistics. That not only means study the chart and refer to it like it were your Bible, but knowing every single variation to the general rules – and how those changes affect the odds of you winning, is essential to walking out of a casino in the black.

Here’s a bare bones but thorough run through of some of the common rules or variations and what they do to the odds.

In a game where getting Black jack pays 2:1 instead of 1:1 or 6:5, etc…, the odds increase 2.27 percent in your favor – the largest fluctuation of any rule variation I’m going to go through. For all other rules changes, you’ll just see a number next to it in parenthesis.

If you are allowed to double on any number of cards, it gives you a slight advantage (+0.23). Dealer hitting on soft 17 (this is about 50/50 in American casinos from my experience) will hurt an equal amount (-0.22).

Black paying 7:5 is one to avoid if the rule is present at the table (-0.45), not to mention 6:5 payoff (-1.37). Of course, something that may alter the odds here are the number of decks in play. Oftentimes, the more decks, the better your black jack payoff odds are. And unless you’re card counting or shuffle tracking, I’d stick with the best black jack payoff odds you can find.

Now here’s where some rule variations absolutely kill you. These are more prevalent outside of the U.S., but nonetheless need to be mentioned and avoided. What I’m talking about is losing on a tie. A 17, 18 tie drops your odds 3.58%. A 17-19 tie rises to -5.3%. 17-20 puts you at a dismal -8.38 percent, and a 17-21 tie kills you at -8.85 percent. This alone should highlight the importance of knowing the blackjack rules before you sit down. If you don’t, you could be in for a rude awakening that’s almost sure to leave your wallet empty. These are games that tilt the odds far too heavy in favor of the casinos, and you as a play must be informed.

Oh yeah, one last one. If you see this rule in play, I recommend running out of the casino screaming in horror. Dealer busts on a 22 being a push. I can’t even type that one without laughing. That hurts your odds by almost 10%. That’s a huge number even if you’re only playing for a half an hour.