Rules of Blackjack

If you like a fast-paced card game, blackjack may be for you. It’s the fastest table game at the casino, so maintaining your bankroll is the most important part of blackjack. It’s a game of streaks so you must learn how to take the bad with the good. That’s what gambling is all about.

The dealer is your opponent in blackjack. Others at the table play against the dealer as well. The goal is to get a hand totaling as close as possible up to 21 without going over. Cards 2 through 10 count as face value. Face cards count as 10. An Ace can count as 1 or 11. You want an Ace, because the value can change from 11 to 1 if you go over 21. Hands with an Ace are called soft hands, while hands without an Ace are called hard hands.

Casinos will use six to eight decks to keep players and card counters guessing. Online casinos use a random number generator (RNG), but your odds are still better online than on land. A tie in blackjack is known as a push and you get your original bet back. A hand totaling 21 pays out 3 to 2. Dealers are usually required to stand on a hard 17, where they can’t take any more cards.

Always hit or double down for a soft hand with an Ace and a 2 through a 6. Splitting hands is tricky. Basic blackjack strategy tells you to split 5s or 10s rather than 8s. Blackjack has a house advantage of 5%, but you can get that down to 0.5% with basic strategy. So, blackjack is a game that you can win with a lot of practice. Just be patient because even the professional players only turn a 1-2% profit over the long term.

Increasing Your Blackjack Odds

Like in brick and mortar casino, blackjack is one of the most popular online casino games. Blackjack enthusiasts will find not only standard blackjack, but blackjack variations and progressive blackjack games.

Not only that, but players will also find online blackjack tournaments as well. Not every type of online casino game will have tournaments offered at online casinos. The only ones that do are blackjack, slots, roulette and video poker. Naturally there are only poker rooms, but they are a bit different from online casinos.

When it comes to playing blackjack online it is not too much different from playing blackjack in a brick and mortar casino. And just like when playing in a brick and mortar casino, you will want to use strategy to increase your blackjack odds. Increasing your odds through strategy is the best way to increase your winnings.

The first aspect of strategy you want for online blackjack is a basic strategy chart. A basic strategy chart tells you the best statistically play to make for every hand against any dealer up card.

These can be found easily online. Most online blackjack games are played with six to eight decks, although online casinos generally will not tell you how many decks. So make sure you find a basic strategy chart for either a six or eight deck game. There is not too much of a difference between the two so either will do.

Once you have found a chart, leave it open in another window so that you can reference it easily. All you need to do is check the chart for the hand you were dealt against the dealer’s up card, and see what play basic strategy tells you to make. Then make that play. Playing with basic strategy can lower your online blackjack odds to around 0.5%.

Next would normally come the advice on card counting. But there really is no advice for card counting in online blackjack. This is because card counting in online blackjack is not possible.

The way the cards are dealt and discarded in online blackjack can be likened to games in a brick and mortar casino that use a continuous shuffle machine (CSM). When a round is finished, all of the discarded cards are not removed from play. They are fed into the CSM and shuffled back into the deck. Without cards being removed from play, card counting cannot happen.

Because the Random Number Generator (RNG) in online blackjack games pulls all game outcomes, including all cards dealt, all cards are in play at the beginning of each round. With no cards being removed from play in online blackjack, card counting is pointless to try.

Using a blackjack strategy is the best way to increase your online blackjack odds. And increasing your odds is your first step to increasing your winnings.