Even people with lots of blackjack experience can be intimidated by playing on the computer without the knowledge of online blackjack strategies. Not to worry, though, the strategies for online casinos are very much similar to US casinos.
For starters, you need to know how to play the game. It is simple, really, everyone gets two cards with the dealer getting one card up and one card down. You are playing solely against the dealer and not the other players, so their cards only matter if you are counting the cards. You want to get your card’s total to 21 or as close as possible without going over, and if your total is higher than the dealer’s you win! What could be simpler?
Now, because the dealer only has one card showing and there are more 10’s in the deck than anything else, one usually assumes that the hole card (or the card that is face down in the dealer’s hand) is a 10. This can lead to some interesting strategies.
If the dealer’s card for example is a 4, 5, or 6, you can assume that they’re holding a 14, 15 or 16 and are more liable to bust by getting another 10, so be very careful about hitting your hand. As a general rule, if you are holding anything higher than a 12, you just want to keep your hand the way it is and let the dealer go bust. This will happen more often than not.
All US casinos and online casinos will have certain house rules about when you can double down. Doubling down means you put another bet for equal the amount of your original one, and you only get one card from the dealer no matter what it is. If you are allowed to double down on anything, you generally want to limit doing this to 9’s, 10’s, and 11’s since it is more than likely that you’ll get a 10 from the dealer.
Many US casinos will limit doubling down to 10’s and 11’s, but online casinos can have much looser rules in that respect.
If you get two cards of the same kind, you have the option to split them. This means that you put up another bet equal to your original one, and are dealt two more cards (one for each of the split ones) and now have two separate blackjack hands. All the strategy books say that you should always split Aces and eights. With the aces, this gives you the option of getting two blackjacks which pay out more than just a winning hand. With eights, this gives you the opportunity to upgrade your hand from a 16 to getting two 18’s. Always remember to add up your original hand first, if it’s a good one like a 20, you don’t want to risk splitting two tens and getting a bad hand, or worse, to bad hands.
With these basic online blackjack strategies, you can play quite well whether it’s in a US casino or and online casino. Is there a difference really? Well, the main difference is that with online play, the casino is not paying a dealer to deal, nor are they waiting for cards to be shuffled so more hands can be played in an hour. Because of this, they can offer bonus bets or bonuses on special hands. This will vary from site to site, but they are a lot of fun and can net you quite a bit if you win. So have fun, enjoy, and shuffle up and deal!
By rich vial
Rich Vial is a article writer for US Casino Player Sites & US Casino Reviews.