Live Blackjack

Casinos with Blackjack Online in Canada

Casinoble’s Blackjack Guide

Blackjack is certainly one of the most popular casino games around. It has been since the modern version of the game came into existence. Players love this simple card game versus the house because it’s easy to play and offers the closest thing to a break-even gamble that a casino operator is prepared to accept.

If you’re a bit new to the world of online casinos and would love to get started playing blackjack, you’re in the right place. Casinoble has produced this extensive game guide to give you the lowdown on all aspects of one of the casino industry’s most enduring games.

In the following exploration of blackjack, you’ll learn:

• Differences between online and real-world blackjack.
• The importance of responsible gambling.
• How free play blackjack can help make you a better player.
• Blackjack’s rules.
• How to learn to play optimally.
• Information about counting cards.
• The different variations of blackjack that are available these days.  

Clearly, there’s loads to get through if you’re to fully understand everything there is to know about blackjack. Let’s get started.

Real-World Blackjack

Like almost every other casino game, blackjack started out in a live setting. Prior to computers and the internet allowing for near-instant communication across great distances, people needed to gather round a table with one or more decks of cards to bet on this classic of the casino floor.

Although many different card games have come and gone over the years, blackjack has remained popular. Its simplicity and potentially low house edge make it an enduring favourite, enjoyed by the millions who drift through the planet’s brick-and-mortar casinos every day.

Online Blackjack

With the invention of the internet and subsequent advances in web payments and development, online casinos burst onto the gambling scene in the mid-1990s. One of the first games adapted for the new digital form of the pastime was blackjack.

Since first transitioning over to the online world, blackjack has remained one of the most popular table games around. It has also managed this with very few variations to the basic rule set played for many years now.

Some online gambling venues do offer unique versions of this classic game. Most, however, are only slight variations on the now well-established theme.

In terms of gameplay, object, and rules, online blackjack is identical to live blackjack. Apart from obvious physical differences between the two games, the only other distinguishing factor is how much faster it is to play online. Players needn’t wait for everyone else to finish trying their luck against the dealer, they can get right to their own next hand immediately.

Live Dealer Blackjack

More recently, online casino operators have been keen to restore some of the charm of playing blackjack in the casino to the online experience. Live casino games feature live streams of a real-world table along with a human dealer. Players make bets from their computer or cell phone and follow the action via a webcam feed.

Naturally, being one of the first and most popular games at the online casino, live casino developers were quick to offer blackjack as soon as the format became available. Even today, with much larger selections of casino games on offer at live casinos, you’re very unlikely to find an operator not hosting at least one or two games of live blackjack.

Real Money Blackjack

For many folks, a lot or all of the fun of playing blackjack and other casino games is the chance to win money. Of course, with the chance to win there is also the chance to lose. With gambling being a potentially addictive pastime, it’s important to ensure that you partake responsibly.

The following guidance should help players understand when it’s time to walk away. Doing so will ensure that a good time doesn’t turn into a serious problem:

• Make sure you allocate a budget before you start playing. No matter how quickly you run out of funds, you should quit when you planned to. Continuing playing risks compounding losses as your ability to make good decisions becomes further clouded.
• Don’t get drunk! Drinking can make people act in a way that they wouldn’t normally. This can result in massive gambling losses.
• Walk away if you start to get angry. No one likes losing, and repeatedly losing when you were the mathematical favourite to win can make even the most measured gamblers lose their cool. If the quality of your decisions starts to decline, you should take a break until you’ve calmed down.
• Don’t play when it’s no longer fun. It sounds obvious but if you aren’t enjoying yourself at an online casino, you shouldn’t continue playing. Take a break. Do something else until your focus returns and you feel ready to give the game your full attention again.

The advent of the internet allowed for all kinds of innovations in gambling. One of them that is often overlooked is the free play casino game.

Before the internet, to play blackjack would involve a trip to the casino. If you didn’t know the rules, you could learn them from a published guide to the game or by trial and error. This latter option would likely be expensive, particularly when you still have barely the first idea how to play.

The idea of a real-world casino setting up a free blackjack table for players to learn how to play on simply isn’t feasible. Dealers don’t work for free and free tables don’t generate any money for the casino.

With the arrival of the internet, the cost to host a casino game suddenly dropped massively. Since software serves the role of dealer and equipment, operators can allow players to try out their games without committing any of their own money.

Free to play casino games are popular for the following reasons.

• Players can gain experience without risking their own money.
• They can learn the rules of a game or try a variation that’s new to them.
• In blackjack, players can practice perfect strategy – more on this later.

Blackjack History

As one of the oldest games of chance still found in casinos, the actual history of blackjack is somewhat hazy. However, historians generally agree that the game has its roots in the casinos of France during the eighteenth century. A game called Vingt-et-Un (Twenty-One) began to grow in popularity in the European country. It had several similarities with the modern version of the game of blackjack.

According to some sources, there were a number of other card games that influenced the creation of Vingt-et-Un. The Spanish game of Trente-Un and the Italian Sette e Mezzo predate the French game, with historians reasoning that these games likely directly influenced those early French gamblers.

As the game found its way to the Americas later in the century, it started to mutate into the game we now know as blackjack. By the early twentieth century, the Nevada Gaming Commission had formalised the rules of blackjack and with this came its official rebrand. The rules determined at the time are still very much similar to those played around the world and online today.

How to play Blackjack

As mentioned, blackjack is one of the easiest casino games to understand and play. This likely has a lot to do with its enduring popularity. In the following section of this definitive blackjack guide, Casinoble will explain exactly how to play blackjack. You should find it useful whether you want to play online or at a real-world casino.

Blackjack Basics

Players play against the house in blackjack. This makes it quite a bit different from games like poker where players play against one another.

Despite being a game in which the player plays against the house, there are more decisions for players to make when playing blackjack than there are in the likes of roulette or craps. Each new card drawn changes the odds and influences what is the best decision available to a player at any one time.

Both the dealer and player have the same objective. They must draw cards to make a hand as close to the number 21 in value as possible without exceeding it. Hands over 21 are “bust”. If the dealer busts, any players still with a valid hand win. If the player busts, the dealer wins the bets associated with any bust hands.

To receive a hand in blackjack, a player must first make a bet. The size of the bet is up to the player but most tables will have both a maximum and minimum bet. There are a few opportunities to increase the bet throughout the hand and the dealer will always match any increases with an equal one of their own.

All players making an initial bet will receive two face up cards. Meanwhile, the dealer will receive one face up and one face down. Players complete their hands first and then the dealer gets to play. On each turn, the player can hit or stand. Hit means they receive another card. Stand indicates that they are happy with the value of their hand and believe it to represent the best chance to beat whatever the dealer has. A player who stands will receive no more cards.

After all players have taken their turn, the dealer turns over their other card and proceeds to hit until they reach at least 17. Most rules of blackjack force the dealer to hit on any hand worth 16 or less. They must continue to hit until their hand not only exceeds 17 but also beats that of the player. If they go over 21, the dealer is “bust” and all player hands not exceeding 21 are declared winners.

If the player wins, they take back their own bets and those of the dealer. If the dealer has the stronger blackjack hand, they take down the money on the table.

Blackjack cards and their value

Blackjack uses at least one standard deck of cards without Jokers. Since suits are entirely irrelevant to the game, multiple decks are most commonly used. This allows more hands to play out before the dealer needs to shuffle the deck and makes it much more difficult for would be card counters.

Each number card in the standard deck represents the value pictured on it. Aces can be either high or low (1 or 11), depending on which creates the more favourable blackjack hand. Finally, all face cards are worth ten.

Blackjack Hands

Unlike in other card games, there aren’t really “hands” in blackjack. Whereas poker has different hand rankings – pair, trips, full house, quads, etc., blackjack only has the hand that the game itself takes its name from.

The hand itself comprises any combination of a 10 (or face card) and an Ace. Blackjack beats all other hands except another blackjack. It even beats hands of 21 that comprise more than two cards.

Players making blackjack usually also receive an additional payment from the dealer. Whereas a player victory would typically mean they receive back double what they initially wagered, when winning with blackjack (A, 10), they will receive payment at 3 to 2. Put simply, if they bet $5 originally, they would receive their original $5 back plus $7.50 from the dealer.

All other hands in blackjack go without names. The numerically higher of two competing hands always wins, providing it is 21 or less.

Blackjack Advanced Rules

As you can see, blackjack is a very basic game. However, there are a few additional rules that make it a lot more exciting. Many of these rules directly increase the player’s likelihood of beating the dealer, if they know how to use them to their advantage.

• Double down – after seeing their cards and that of the dealer but before drawing any cards, players can choose to double their initial starting bet. They usually only receive a single additional card if they decide to “double down”.
• Split – Players can split any two cards of the same value. If they decide to split, each of their two starting cards will form the start of a new hand. They add an additional bet (equal to their starting one) and play out each hand as they would any other. They can take one or more cards and even double their first bet or split again. Most rules state that players splitting Aces will only receive one additional card per hand.  
• Insurance – If the dealer shows an Ace, the player can often insure themselves against the dealer having blackjack. They add a side bet that will pay at 2 to 1 in the event that the dealer does indeed have blackjack.

Blackjack Odds

Since there are a lot of variables and decisions for the player to make, the odds in blackjack are not fixed as they would be in roulette, for example. A player making the best decision mathematically at every opportunity will stand a far better chance of winning than if they were to split a pair of tens versus an Ace or some other equally ridiculous play.

The rules themselves actually influence the odds that a player can hope for too. Whereas some versions of the game will allow players to bet against the dealer with a less than 0.5 percent disadvantage, others can be much less lucrative. For example, Casinoble has actually seen versions of blackjack that consider the house the winner when both player and dealer hit the same total. This seemingly small change to the rules has a massive impact on the actual odds the player receives.

It’s important to pay attention to such rule changes, particularly when playing blackjack in the real world. Casinos on cruise ships, for example, are ruthless for playing slightly different variations of classic games that result in big increases to their own bottom line.

Blackjack Strategy

Since there is so much known information in a game of blackjack, there is always a mathematically optimum strategy to play in every possible situation. A very basic example would be that it is clearly the best decision to stand on 18 versus the dealer showing 6. The probability of you going bust by drawing another card far outweighs the probability of the dealer drawing to a 19, 20, or 21.

Obviously, when the hands get a lot closer in values, deciding on the best course of action on the fly becomes less intuitive. Some decisions are so marginal that they give up fractions of a percentage to the dealer. These soon add up and make the house’s expected value greater.

Fortunately, you don’t need to do the hard work yourself with regards to perfect strategy for blackjack. You can save getting out the calculator for now! To easily familiarise yourself with the optimum way to play blackjack, just search Google for a blackjack perfect strategy chart.

Card Counting in Blackjack

One of the most intriguing elements of the entire game of blackjack is the idea of counting cards. People love an opportunity to beat a casino and this technique has been proven successful at doing just that. Given that there is so much information available it’s possible to glean an edge against the casino by paying close attention to which cards have already been dealt.

Counting cards is a system by which players monitor the deck or decks of cards being used. They keep track of which cards have been out already, giving them an idea of which cards are likely to be where in the deck. Since dealers don’t shuffle the cards between every hand, an astute and skilled player can work out if the remaining cards are more likely to be high or low.

High cards are more valuable to players than low ones since two of them together form high value hands capable of winning regularly in blackjack. When card counters identify a potentially profitable deck loaded with high cards, they will increase their bet. This allows them to profit big when the deck is favourable.

If blackjack was only ever played using a single deck, card counting would be ruthlessly efficient. A good counter would very quickly understand exactly which cards were still in the deck at any given time. They could vary their bets accordingly and take the casino to the cleaners.

This is why casinos use many decks for their blackjack games. It’s much more difficult to determine how profitable the spot you’re in is likely to be when trying to keep track of eight decks or more.

Whilst card counting isn’t illegal, casinos don’t like it. Despite players only using information that is readily available to everyone at the table to glean their edge, casinos consider it in the same light as overtly cheating. For this reason, they will employ various strategies to fight back against card counters. These include random shuffles of the deck and even evicting those they suspect of gaining an advantage against the house.

It’s important to note that card counting is not only frowned upon by casinos, it’s also incredibly difficult. You need incredible focus and a brain for numbers. It’s also only possible in a live casino setting. Since digital versions of the game use a random number generator to create randomness, there are no cards to actually count at all!

Do Betting Strategies Work?

Although some people champion various systems for all kinds of casino games, the truth of the matter is that none can actually give you an edge over the casino. If there was some easily applicable strategy that would consistently generate profits for the player, the casinos would be out of business incredibly quickly.

Casinoble has seen other articles talk about progressive betting systems and other such strategies. Varying the size of your bet in accordance with previous results has no bearing on future results whatsoever. Players might enjoy using one of these systems for whatever reason. However, they will not help them win versus the casino since the rules of the game itself ensure that all the player bets slightly favour the venue in terms of expected value.

Blackjack Bonuses for Profit

There is one way to gain an advantage over the house mathematically – use its own money. Bonuses can make playing blackjack legitimately and consistently profitable. However, casinos are onto this tactic too.

There was a time at the beginning of the online gambling revolution of this century that casinos would allow players to use their welcome bonuses to play blackjack. Just by playing through the bonus at low stakes using perfect strategy, a player would actually have a mathematically positive expected value (since half of the money they used was not their own).

These days, however, casinos enforce incredibly strict wagering requirements for their welcome bonuses. Any game that has a close to break even return-to-player rating will not contribute fully towards the play through requirements. It’s common to see blackjack and high RTP slots contribute just one percent or nothing at all to bonus wagering these days. That said, every so often bonuses do crop up that don’t exclude blackjack in such a way. This can be highly lucrative indeed.

Blackjack Variations

As well as the traditional form of blackjack described above, there are numerous other variations of the game. These include, but are not limited to:

• Progressive blackjack – players also stand a chance to win a progressive jackpot alongside a game of classic blackjack.
• European blackjack – European blackjack introduces additional options for the dealer.
• Spanish 21 – This version removes all cards with a value of 10 from the deck. This gives the dealer a considerably larger house edge.
• Blackjack Switch – Players receive two hands and can swap either of the four cards between them.

Blackjack FAQ