Would You Go For It Or Play Safe?

by Jim Meador

Online blackjack offers players various versions including single deck, multi-hand and multi-split. Find your blackjack strategy here.

New players have a difficult time keeping safety options on the front burner. Many will carefully study the table trying to decide where to sink the object ball, and never see an obvious game winning safety. I believe it is a mind set, partly due to preconceived notions about the game acquired by years of watching pool segments on TV, or in movies such as The Hustler, or The Color of Money. In the movies, the star is shown sinking several balls at once, or performing beautiful massé shots. One never sees a safety play, because a safety may not "look" impressive to an uneducated movie audience. But in real life, the pros use safeties frequently, and to the applause of an appreciative audience. In fact, a well timed safety can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Ball in hand is the best possible position, and safety shots can often result in a ball in hand foul against your opponent. The best safety contest I have witnessed personally was between Efren Reyes and Nick Varner. They traded four or five consecutive safeties, each player executing remarkable escapes, and in the process, leaving the other safe. The audience stayed on i'ts feet. So, safety play is one of the more exciting aspects of the game. "Going for it", when the situation calls for a safety does not demonstrate courage or fair play. It demonstrates something akin to carelessness.

The time to play a safety depends on several factors. One is the level of play. Another is the number of balls you and your opponent have remaining on the table. The third factor relates to the risks involved in the offensive shot you are faced with- what are the odds of missing, and if you d