Online blackjack distinguishes from other online casino games in that employing correct strategy can significantly control the outcome. While there are correct approaches to many online casino games, few games allow you the ability to control the outcome that online blackjack does.
To be successful in blackjack, you will foremost have to follow basic strategy. You can get a basic strategy chart that will tell you the correct plays to make in any situation that should arise. Beyond basic strategy, however, keep the following blackjack strategies in mind to help you keep the House edge down.
Never Take Insurance
When the dealer is showing an ace, you will receive an opportunity to take insurance. Insurance is a 2-to-1 wager that the dealer has blackjack. You take insurance by betting an amount equal to half your original wager.
If you take insurance and the dealer’s bottom card is a ten point card, you win 2-to-1 on the insurance bet and lose your regular bet. Essentially, you break even for the hand.
If the dealer does not have a blackjack, you lose the insurance bet and play the hand as normal. The ratio of non-ten point cards to ten point cards is 36-16, or 2.25-to-1. In other words, you get 2-to-1 on at best a 2.25-to-1 shot no matter the circumstances.
This is always a bad bet. If you have blackjack, you can take “even money.” This means that when you take insurance, you will either win the insurance bet and tie on the regular bet or lose the insurance bet and win 3-to-2 on the regular bet. Both have a net gain of one unit.
Although guaranteed money sounds tempting, insurance is still a bad bet that you should avoid. Remember that you are playing for the long haul, not to win one individual hand.
Don’t Count on It
Blackjack is notorious for card counting. Card counting involves calculating how rich the deck is in ten point cards, something that is advantageous to the player.
In online blackjack, a random number generator determines the cards. It can represent eight or even more decks of cards, making counting difficult if not impossible. You should not expect to gain an advantage card counting in online blackjack.
Aces and Eights
You should always split aces or eights. Splitting two aces makes it likely that you will get two very powerful hands, possibly even two twenty-ones if two ten point cards should hit. Two eights is 16, the worst hand in blackjack. You have nothing to lose by splitting it up to try to make two stronger hands.
