Sports have been widely postponed in the real world for over a month now, but gamblers are finding ways to get their fix electronically. There are eSports and virtual sporting events dotting the landscape now, but there is an old, trusty version of gambling in online casino games. They’ve been around a while, they’re fun, and you can make a lot of loot if you, pardon the pun, play your cards right.
Here, we’ll look at a rather rudimentary guide on how to play online blackjack.
How to play online blackjack: Starting out
If you’re new to playing blackjack online, start slowly. Don’t get in over your head and start betting high stakes if you’re not exactly sure how it all works. The same rules apply as they do playing in a real casino. Study and understudy your basic blackjack strategy so you’re not hemorrhaging money.
Online casino’s use a computer programme with a random number generator that gets these numbers from fresh deck after every hand. As for live casino’s, it depends on the machine. This is an online casino so it doesn’t apply but just for information purposes, if the casino you’re at is using a continuous shuffle machine, counting cards.
We’ve all been playing at a table in real-life and some new player hits the table and starts gumming up the works. They split their 10’s, they hit on 16 when the dealer is showing a five, etc. Understand the basics of the game before you start sinking your hard-earned money into play. In fact, consider playing a few ‘practice hands’ first to get a feel for the game.
How to play online blackjack: Scoring
Let’s roll it back, though, if you’re REALLY a beginner. Know that an ace (A) can be used as a one or an 11, all face cards – jacks (J), queens (Q) and kings (K) have a value of 10 and know that there are four suits in a standard 52-card deck – clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. The idea of blackjack, or 21, is to beat the dealer.
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You needn’t worry about the other players at the table, as you do not have to beat their cards like in poker. You simply need to be closer to 21 than the dealer. If your cards end up with a total of 22 or higher, it’s called a ‘bust’. Know your terminology, too. If you end up with the same total as the dealer, it’s a ‘push’.
Sounds simple, right? Well, technically blackjack is one of the table games where you have the best odds to beat the house, although, of course, the advantage is still in their favor. If you play wisely, you can come out ahead in the long term.
How to play online blackjack: Strategies
It’s my personal experience when playing to NEVER take insurance. Insurance is offered when the dealer is showing an ace with their other card hidden, or down. One always should assume the dealer is holding a 10 in their hole card. While insurance pays 2 to 1, it’s essentially an extra bet on whether or not the dealer will hit blackjack; while your hand can lose, you could potentially recover any lost monies with a win on the insurance wager. The only time I might do this is if I hit a blackjack myself, and an insurance bet will offer even money if the dealer shows an ace and also flips over a face or a 10 to also get blackjack. Other than that, don’t get roped into insurance.
Also, blackjack is a fun game, as you can double your wager after a hand has started. For instance, you initially wager $5 in chips. You are dealt a total of 11, while the dealer is showing a 6. Again, there are 16 cards in a single deck with a value of 10, so you assume the dealer’s hidden card is a 10, and/or your next card will be a 10. So you ‘double down’, or double your wager. You will receive only one card, while the dealer can take as many as needed. Doubling down on 11 is not always a sound option, however, as if the dealer is holding a 10, it is generally discouraged. Some players like to do it, but you really should only double when there is a high bust potential for the dealer.
You can also ‘split’ cards that are paired up. For instance, you get two 9s, you can split these and make two hands against the dealer. Essentially, it’s doubling down, but you can play them like normal hands with no limit on how many cards you can take. You can also double down on these ‘new’ hands, if you like, making for a lot more action, and potential winnings.
Again, you want to be smart about splitting. The example above, with the 9s, is a sound play if you are playing against a dealer’s 8 or less; however, if they’re showing a 10, you’d want to stand, or stick with the cards you have without any further action. Learn the basic strategy first before getting into the nuances of the game.
Casino Blackjack Games
How to play online blackjack: Play responsibly
Lastly, it might go without saying, but it’s also a good idea to limit your alcohol intake when playing online. It’s no secret alcohol and gambling have gone hand-in-hand in real-life casinos, and free drinks while playing table games is attractive to many players, but more drinks leads to more bad decisions and generally means better results for the house.
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Online Casino Blackjack Casino Games
It is obviously very important to know as much as possible about the blackjack casino rules if you are going to be playing this game on a regular basis and expect to win any of the games at all – and even more so if you are playing blackjack for real cash, such as in an online casino. Thankfully it is very easy to learn the basic rules of the game as they are very simple, and from there it is just a case of spending time on the blackjack strategy in order to really become an expert on everything that there is to know about blackjack.
We will start off our guide to the game by giving you what ought to be a comprehensive guide to the blackjack casino rules, though we can only focus on one form of the game in order to give you a real idea of how to get started. This is because there are so many blackjack rules variants out there that to go through each and every one of them would be a mammoth task; instead we will look at the classic and original version, so that you are starting from the right place and with the least complication to give you a proper introduction to blackjack which does not put you off or leave you feeling confused. This is a great way to get going, and it all starts with placing your bet: you have to understand at this juncture that there is no real choice involved in your bet other than how much of a stake you put down, as you are always betting that you will win. There may be other options in different versions of the game, but we are not concerned with those here and will not be going into them just yet. Once you have placed your bet, the dealer will give you two cards face up, and these form the basis of your hand; with these two cards you have to decide whether you need to add another card or more than one extra card in order to create a stronger hand, or whether to stick with what you have because it is strong enough to not risk losing the game before the dealer even takes his turn at trying to beat you with his own hand.
The aim that you are going for is to create a hand which is worth the most possible points, with a score of twenty one being the highest that you can get. If you go over twenty one – even if you only manage to get twenty two – it is very clearly written in the blackjack casino rules that you have lost the game automatically, and this is known in blackjack terminology as going bust. Going bust means that the dealer does not even have to take his turn because you have lost; however, there is a reverse to this situation – if you manage to get a natural score of twenty one with your first two cards, which is known as a blackjack, then you will win automatically and the dealer just has to pay out without worrying about his own cards again at all. In most situations however you will play your turn and then the blackjack will try to beat your hand total, so it is important to be in as strong a position as possible in order to make sure that you will be more likely to win. The first thing to note is the value of each of the cards: most of them are simply worth the number that you see on their faces, but there are four exceptions – the king, queen, jack, and ace, which are not represented by numbers at all. All three of the picture cards – that is, the kings, queens, and jacks – are worth ten points in blackjack, so these are high value cards and are very useful in getting those high scores. The ace is a strange one in that it can be worth either one point or eleven points, depending on which suits the situation the best in order to give you a good hand without going bust.
We will run through a few examples to make sure that it is clear: a ten and a seven would be worth seventeen; a five, a five, and a three would be worth thirteen; a king and a jack would be worth twenty; and an ace with a five might be worth six or fifteen – so if you stick with it you will automatically count it as fifteen to give yourself the best hand under the blackjack casino rules. This can really be used to your advantage sometimes, as if you know that you have an ace you can sometimes take an extra card with no risk at all – for example, if an ace and a five gives you a score of sixteen, you know that even taking the maximum value card from the deck of a ten would still only give you sixteen once the ace was reduced back to a score of one. This is perhaps the part of the game which is most difficult to get your head around, so it is necessary to spend a little bit of time seeing it in action to be sure that you know how it works more properly.
Once you have all of this in your mind and have played a few games, you will be ready to move on to strategy; and if you are playing online the process will be much smoother, as you will have the blackjack casino rules on your screen to check back to at any time should you need to. This will allow you to really get the most out of blackjack right from the start, as there is so much that you can do in order to advance your play when you have the internet at your disposal and a great site.