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What Can I Do to Relax and Enjoy Playing Blackjack?
Everygame Casino has a full range of games in many categories. Slots, of course, occupy the largest category. One of the most famous casino games is blackjack. We at Everygame online casino have found that many gamers are still a bit confused by blackjack so here we will open a discussion for those gamers who would like to play blackjack for the fun and the challenge but don’t know exactly how to get going.
Blackjack is a Game of Skill
Your decisions affect the outcome of every session. Even as we say over and over again that blackjack is a game of skill, we have to recognize that there is also a lot of luck involved. If you stand with 12 points and the dealer is showing16 points, she has to hit and the chances are very good that the dealer will go over 21 and you will win.
However, there are also four aces, four deuces, four threes, four fours, and four fives (not counting the cards in your hand). That leaves a lot of cards that can come up and win the hand for the dealer! Luck doesn’t always fall on the most skilled player. Luck sometimes falls simply on the luckiest player!
This is one of the reasons some gamers are a bit intimidated by blackjack. In this article, we hope to dispel all of your confusion regarding blackjack. After all…
Blackjack Has a Very High Return to Player Rate
The return to player rate in blackjack is very close to 100%. This means that if you begin a session with $100, you will likely finish the session with very close to $100! You might win a few dollars - or more if you're lucky - and you might lose a few dollars!
If you are lucky in slots, in contrast, you might win a big jackpot. Maybe you won’t win a million dollar progressive jackpot but you could win a big five figure or six figure jackpot.
The key to achieving a 99% or more return to player rate in blackjack involves paying very close attention to every hand and making the best decisions on every hand.
Players Always Go First in Blackjack
The key to the house’s edge in blackjack is that the player has to go first. If the player goes over 21 points he or she loses automatically. Even if the hand were to be played out and the dealer would have gone even further over 21 than the player did, the player loses because the hand is not played out at an online casino!
By the way, at a land based casino, where there may be seven or more players at the table, it does happen quite often that a player gets, say, 22 points and loses automatically and the dealer, in the end, gets more than 22 points and all of the other players who did not go over 21 win but the player who got 22 points still loses!
There are Several Ways the Player Evens the Odds against the House
Blackjack is set up to compensate for the quite obvious disadvantage players have by going first. These are:
- A Blackjack pays 3-2.
- Players can split cards of equal value.
- Players can double down.
- Players can take insurance.
- Players can surrender.
Each of these are advantages to the players and taken together can give a good player who uses the best strategy for the variation of blackjack he or she is playing a slight edge over the house.
Some players who are quite new to blackjack, get confused by the strategy behind doubling down or splitting. In fact, these are quite different strategic plays. When you split cards, you get two hands instead of one. In many variations, you can split again if you get a card of the same value.
Once you split cards, each hand gets played out in full as an individual hand. So, the key to splitting is to do so when you have a holding that is a weak hand, one that you will probably lose. This means that you have to look at the dealer’s up card. For example, let’s say that you have two nines. If the dealer is showing a seven, you might choose to stand and hope that the dealer gets 17 points which wins for you. But if you split the nines, you might get more than 17 points twice and you’ll win two hands instead of one!
So, splitting is a great strategic play when it can give you better chances to win and you can possibly win two or even more than two hands!
Doubling Down
In this play, you double your bet and get one card and one card only. This is a good play when you have 10 or 11 points and possibly when you have 9 points depending on what the dealer is showing. Doubling down is a move in which you take a very powerful hand and make it potentially doubly powerful.
Doubling down is a very poor play with most card counts! It is a very special play for when it can make a powerful hand more powerful.
Insurance
If the dealer is showing an ace, you can take insurance against the possibility that the dealer will win with a blackjack. Statistically, insurance is not a good play. You will end up winning more in the long run if you avoid taking insurance.
Surrender
Some gamers get confused between insurance and surrender. Whereas insurance is a statistically poor choice, surrender, in those cases where the chances that you will win the hand are very small, is a very good decision! Surrender means that you lose half your bet only.
Many players don’t like to use the surrender strategy because, statistically, they might win the hand. But it is also very true that in the long run you will win more if you surrender when your hand is quite hopeless based on the dealer’s up card than if you pay on in the hopes of winning the hand against formidable odds.
How to Get Started
Of course, you do need to have the type of personality that likes a challenge. If you are tired, not feeling well, involved in deep thought about a work project that is due soon, or you just want to relax and unwind, then blackjack may not be the best game for you at those times. That is another reason why many gamers feel that blackjack is not for them.
But we at Everygame Casino Red run a full range casino and we think that you would be missing out on a lot of gaming pleasure if you never play the games of skill of which blackjack is one.
So, we suggest that you begin by playing blackjack in free play mode. We offer unlimited free play in all games so you can play blackjack as long as you wish without committing any money to the game. When you are ready to play for real money, you can play for the minimum bet.
Learn All of the Rules of the Variation You Want to Play
Each variation has slightly different rules so learn the rules well. It will put your mind at ease and will dramatically increase the pleasure you get from playing.
Finally, you need to get a strategy card for the variation you wish to play. The strategy card should show every possibility that can come up in the course of a blackjack gaming session. It is very important to accept the strategies as they are produced on the card even when you think that that cannot be the best strategy. It is!
Enjoy Playing Blackjack
Many players who never played blackjack at a land based casino, or who were intimidated by the other players at the land based casino, discover that playing blackjack online at Everygame Casino Red is a great entertainment and a very fun way to an exciting time!