Blackjack

Blackjack has to be one of the most popular card games in the world, especially in the online world. Online blackjack has flourished like no other game, thanks in large part to easily understandable rules which translate with ease into computer programming languages. From the early days of the Internet, hacked together blackjack games found their way from PC to PC as more and more people found the computer a wonderful dealer who never has a bad attitude.

When the time was right for online casinos (that time being one with secure online transactions and secure game-play available), blackjack was just sitting and waiting, ready for the real money bets.

Playing blackjack is a fairly easy activity to get used to, but if you are a casual player who has never tried to employ a strategy beyond logic, you are facing a house edge that can reach upwards of 5% (depending on how logical your logic is). To cut this edge down there are a few things you can take note of, and work into your blackjack strategy.

You have probably heard of 'basic strategy' by now, but if not let's run over the concept quickly. A few years ago researchers finally began using computers practically, to help us with blackjack! They were working out the best decisions to make in any given situation that you may run into over the course of a game of blackjack. Having the computer to run simulated trials, the researchers were able to determine which choice is best, hit, stay, double-down, split, or surrender, for any hand you're dealt. This might seem like an awful lot to memorize, but fortunately it's not too slow to look up once you get used to referencing a table. Take a look at the basic strategy chart presented below.

The tables assume the following dealer rules.

• Always hit a hard total of 7 or less.
• Always stand on a hard total of 17 or more.
• Always stand on a soft total of 19 or more.
• Never take insurance.

To use the chart follow the top row across until you find the dealers upcard, then work down that column until you hit the row corresponding to your hand. There are different strategy charts for hard and soft totals (a soft total is when an ace is present and can be used as either a 1 or an 11, so the total is not concrete, or the total is soft) as they require slightly different play. There is also a chart for when you are dealt pairs (which give you the opportunity to split into two hands).

What's important to note is the fact that each of these decisions is absolutely the best thing you could do with your hand. In the long run, what the basic strategy chart tells you to do is more likely to make you more money. Some people take this to heart but not entirely. Take for instance the last time you were dealt a total of 9 on your first two cards, and the dealer had and 8 as the upcard. Is your first instinct to double down? It should be! Following basic strategy is said to reduce the house edge, but that edge doesn't fall unless you take advantage of the times that basic strategy recommends doubling down. The edge only falls when you make an active effort to lower the house's 'hold' (the actual amount of cash they keep over your session). Many people presume that if basic strategy says to double down, it must be because the player is more likely to win, so it doesn't matter if they double down or not, they are favoured to win. While there is truth in this, if you don't double down when it's advantageous to, you're upping the house's hold for your session, and effectively upping the overall house edge of the session you're playing in.