Basic Blackjack For New Online Casino Players

Added: October 14, 2016

The tales of the MIT Blackjack Team and others busting the blackjack tables still abound. This is one reason that every online casino player will at some stage try out the blackjack games on offer. There are some basic tips that new online blackjack players should keep in mind and this article elaborates on them.

Online blackjack is a game that involves both considerable skill and luck. This means that even if you play using the optimum blackjack strategy, you will not be guaranteed a win because the outcomes also depend on the cards dealt. Getting favourable or unfavourable cards is a matter of luck. And if you depend only on luck and do not master the skill, then in the long run you will lose a lot of money.

Therefore, the first tip for online blackjack is that you must play using optimum strategy. You cannot reason out the optimum moves in various situations at the blackjack table. You must know the right moves for the different situations. Fortunately in online blackjack you can use strategy cards. These are not allowed in land casinos. The strategy card is a table that indexes the player’s hand values against the dealer’s face up card and displays the optimum move in each case. You just read the move from the blackjack strategy card and execute it on the table. If you are playing at an online casino powered by Microgaming, this is very easy. The strategy card for the particular game is provided within the game by Microgaming.

The next tip concerns the choice of the blackjack variant and there are many on offer at Australian online casinos. Most online blackjack variants offer an average return of about 99% to 99.5%. For the casual player this narrow range may not be important. But if you intend to focus on online blackjack then you must look to maximise your returns. The core blackjack variants are Vegas Strip Blackjack and European Blackjack. In Vegas Strip Blackjack the dealer is dealt a second card face down and is allowed to peek at it for a blackjack chance. In European Blackjack there is no second card dealt and no checking for blackjack. This puts the player at a slight disadvantage. Therefore Vegas Strip Blackjack and other variants based on this practice should be the preferred ones.

Finally there are many online blackjack variants that come with optional side bets. These bets have much better payout ratios than the main game payouts and are therefore attractive. But usually they offer lower average returns and should be wagered only after due consideration.