When the surrender is in play, it can take away some of the edge that the house will hold over the player. Every little edge that the player can enjoy increases their chances of winning, and properly utilizing the surrender will add to that. It’s not a play that’s recommended very often, and should only be employed in specific situations where it will be to your advantage. In most games the dealer will be allowed to look at their cards before the surrender choice is available. If the dealer has blackjack your choice to surrender will usually not be permitted.

When to surrender is simple enough to remember. The first thing to know is that whether the dealer hits on soft 17 or not will have no bearing on your surrender decisions. In an average game with six decks, where early surrender is permitted, it’s best to generally surrender all totals of 12 to 17 (including your pair of 6’s, 7’s, or 8’s) against a dealer’s ace. You can surrender totals of 14, 15, or 16 against a dealer’s 10-value card, and surrender your 16 to the dealer’s 9. Additionally, you should consider surrendering a pair of 3’s to the dealer’s ace. If the only choice is late surrender, you should surrender your 15 totals to the dealer’s 10-value card, and you should surrender your 16 to the dealer’s 9 through ace.

Surrendering your hand is another small edge that you can add to your overall game to increase your chances of winning. Remember to ask the dealer about the surrender choices in the game before you start to play; finding games with the surrender in play is becoming more and more difficult in live casinos, but they can be found online rather easily.

Aficionados are now advising players to pay special attention to their attire as dressing for the part can be key to fitting into the environment. Tidiness is essential with many of the most successful whales managing to strike the perfect balance between casual and smart attire. Players are also advised to avoid ordering drinks at the table and should collect their own beverages from the bar. Alcoholic looking tipples are preferable. Other tips, meanwhile, include chatting to the dealer as you establish your newcomer status at the online casino. Saying hello is important as is asking questions and reviewing the free rules chart. Tipping is considered a must as this will lend you a certain amount of style. It is a particularly good idea to tip when the count is in your favor.

More cautious players, on the other hand, should attempt to increase their confidence by practicing their game online. Players should take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the internet based casino in an attempt to sharpen their skills and get ready to earn a nice purse at their gambling resorts debuts.

His two stiff hands were now a 20 and an 11. He doubled on the 11 and hit a king!
Way to turn a losing situation into a big winner! It was now my turn to play my 9-7 and 3-J. I muttered how I wish I had remembered to bring my wand to the casino when the dealer looked at me and said “You don’t need a wand to play Online Blackjack Switch. That other guy is Mr. Potter and he just likes to make a show of it!”

That’s right, you don’t need magic to switch your second cards in Online Blackjack Switch. You just need to sit down at a table. You can leave your magic wand at home, but you better bring a brand new strategy with you.

Online Blackjack Switch was invented by Geoff Hall, and Shuffle Master is now the exclusive distributor of the game. There are over 100 games in the marketplace and it is growing fast. You can find it at dozens of casinos around Las Vegas already.

The game rules of Online Blackjack Switch are fairly straight forward. The player must play two hands of Online Blackjack with equal initial wagers. After being dealt both cards for both hands and seeing the dealer upcard, the player can choose to switch the second cards of his two hands.

From there, play continues pretty much as usual. Of course, the player doesn’t get this huge benefit without giving something up in return. In Online Blackjack Switch, a dealer 22 pushes against all non-busted player hands except a natural Online Blackjack.

Also, a natural Online Blackjack only pays even money. Switched Online Blackjack counts as a regular 21. But, other than that, the player can double on any two cards, can split his hands and play by normal Online Blackjack game rules.

So, while the game rules are as per regular Online Blackjack, the strategy is anything but. First, the player needs to know when to perform the “switch.” The only way to know when to do this is to compare the expected values (EVs) of the dealt hands with those of the potentially switched hands.

Whichever combination provides the highest total EV is the proper play. Fortunately, I’ve already done this hard work for you, so just do some quick lookups of the dealt hands on the Online Blackjack Switch EV table and compare them.

Note that you should expect to switch often. The switched hands are just as likely as the dealt hands to have the higher expected values. Thus, excluding the times it won’t matter (i.e. dealt four face cards), you should expect to switch 50% of the time.

Including the situations where it doesn’t matter if you switch, you’ll switch about 36% of the time.
Once you’ve gotten past the switch decision, you’ll also need a brand new hit/stick strategy. The dealer pushing on 22 causes significant changes on how we play our hands. Many of our double down situations are a result of the dealer’s poor hand.

Normally, we double down hoping the dealer will bust as often as when we draw well. A dealer 22 pushing is now far less likely to truly bust. As a result, the number of double down conditions goes way down.

Also, a 2 as a dealer upcard goes from a so-so upcard to a rather powerful one. Thus, we never stick against a 2 (with any hand below a 17).

Online Blackjack Switch affords the player an opportunity for a more exciting version of Online Blackjack while still offering a comparable payback. The overall payback of Online Blackjack Switch, assuming you switch when you are supposed to and use the proper hit/stick strategy, is 99.55%. Use standard hit/stick Online Blackjack strategy and you’ll take it down to 99.12%. Don’t bother to ever switch and your payback would go all the way down to 90.88%!

The first thing to do when you play online Blackjack hand is to look at the dealer’s exposed card. Then you can look at your holdings, and if it’s a soft hand that contains an ace you have to base your decisions on this set of rules: If you have Ace-2 or Ace-3: Double if the dealer has 5 or 6, otherwise hit. If you’re holding Ace-4 or Ace-5: Double if the dealer has 4 – 6, otherwise hit. If you have Ace-6: Double if the dealer has 3 – 6, otherwise hit. If you have Ace-7: Stand if the dealer has 2, 7, or 8, double 3 – 6, otherwise hit. And finally, if you have Ace-8 or Ace-9: Always stand.

Soft hands have a different Blackjack strategy because the ace offers extra options; they offer a good opportunity to double up your bet with the best of it. In most games you’ll only be able to double it up once. Continue to play your soft hands until it turns into a hard hand.

One should also take the time to find out how the dealer plays their soft hands. Some games force the dealer to stand on soft 17, while others will be forced to hit. If the dealer is able to hit on soft 17, the player loses a 0.20% edge to the house. The dealers will get more opportunities to hit bigger hands by hitting on the soft 17, and they will win more often than if they were just holding on soft 17.

Counting cards while playing blackjack could give you that 1%-plus advantage, but expect a pit boss to come up and pleasantly say: “Excuse me sir, we appreciate your patronage, but we’re going to have to ask you to stop playing blackjack here. Feel free to play any of the other table games we offer at our establishment.”

Not all casinos bar counters. Atlantic City, by law, cann’t ask you to back off a blackjack game. Of course, it’s legal to use your brain. A few ways casinos do to keep skilled counters at bay are by having tougher blackjack rules, multi-deck blackjack games and limited deck penetration.

The first thing to do when you’re playing a hand of online blackjack is to look at the dealer’s cards. counting on what the dealer is showing, you will make your moves depending on the cards you are holding. After you see what the dealer has, you can look at the cards that you hold in your hand and make your decision as to what move will be the best play under the specific conditions. Here’s how you decide what to do:

If you hold an 8 or less, always hit; you can make your next decision depending on your new total. If you have a total of 9: Double if the dealer has 3 – 6, otherwise hit. If you have 10: Double if the dealer has 2 – 9, otherwise hit. If you have 11: Double if the dealer has 2 – 10, but hit if the dealer has an Ace. If your total is 12: Hit if the dealer has 2 or 3, but stand if the dealer has 4 – 6, otherwise hit. If you have 13- 16: stand if the dealer has 2 – 6, otherwise hit. If you have 17 – 21: Always stand.

This is basic strategy for any combination of cards for a hard hand. Once you learn these hand conditions, you can move on to other conditions – such as soft hands that contain an ace. Following a hunch that varies from this blackjack strategy will, even if you win, cost you money in the long run of your play. And staying away from distractions like alcohol, or how the other players at the table are playing, will help you remember how you’re supposed to play each situation. Then all you’ll need is a bit of luck.

Learning Blackjack
The first things you’ll want to do before playing blackjack on an internet casino for real money is to learn the game. Blackjack is a simple game to learn but there are some strategies that are important to know to maximize your success. The basic game is easy to understand: Your goal is to get a point total closer to 21 than the dealer without going over, with face cards worth ten, aces one or eleven and everything else face value. However, there is a correct play for every situation, and you should learn these by accessing a basic strategy guide online before you start to play.

Getting Online Blackjack
Once you know the game, you’re ready to get online blackjack on your mobile. Not all mobile devices will support all Online Blackjack games. Go to a mobile casino portal online and look at the list of approved devices. If yours isn’t on it, you will need a different mobile casino or a different mobile device. If you are approved, just input your phone number and the code provided online to send the game to your mobile. You can then set up an account and load it up with funds. If you are in the United States, you may be out of luck due to current anti-online gaming legislation.

Playing Online Blackjack
Playing Online Blackjack is simple. Just go to the application, select blackjack, select a bet amount, and press deal. The hand will be dealt and you will be given options to select from. In many Online Blackjack games, the best or most likely choice is automatically highlighted. Play wherever you want for as long as you want, keeping in mind that if you lose, you are losing real money, so you may want to limit your session to ascertain amount that you are willing to risk.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, it’s only fair to netion that in blackjack, when your first two cards match, you can “split” them, basically turning one hand into two. When you split aces, you get only one card for each ace. When you split all other cards (including 10s, though cardrooms frown upon this), you can play the hand in whatever way you choose to.

Obviously, you will only split cards if it will help you win (or in doing so you’ll get a stronger hand to stand a chance against the dealer) – this takes us into a discussion about splitting 8s.

Some blackjack experts claim the reason to “split” is to enhance your hand: A 16 is not a strong hand, and the chances of turning each 8 into an 18 is obviously strong (Decks have 16 10s each). Still, justification for this move is marginal at best.

Mathematicians claim that over playing millions of hands, there is a certain percent factor in favor of splitting these hands. Yet because many blackjack players will most likely not live long enough to play millions of hands, other game experts offer different explanations.
Some experts advise against splitting 8s against anything but a 7, or unless the dealer shows a bust card of 3, 4, 5 or 6.

Progressive Online Blackjack games pay out the following table with a one dollar progressive bet and a minimum $2 wager on the hand;
• 4 aces of the same suit wins 100% of the pot
• 4 aces of any suit wins 10% of the pot
• 3 aces same suit wins $2500
• 3 aces any suit $250
• 2 aces same suit $50
• 2 aces any suit $25

Whether the progressive bet is good or not depends on your bankroll. For low rollers the bet can be costly to play every time. If you normally bet $1 on each hand, adding the progressive bet doubles the wager, but the progressive bet is a big long shot. If you play at bigger stakes, then the one dollar progressive bet is a much smaller percentage in increase of your overall bet on the hand. When it only increases your regular bet by 10% or less, it’s a better bet to play.

This feature changes the decision-making process when deciding to hit for another card. It’s wise not to chase too many aces in the hopes of hitting the progressive payouts. Don’t jeopardize soft totals if they’re within basic Blackjack strategy to win the hand, especially if you’re wagering more than $2 on the hand. Don’t jeopardize losing a smaller progressive payout if you could bust out and lose what you have with one card.

In Vingt en Un, only the dealer was allowed to double and players could place bets after each round. The goal was to reach a total of 21, just as it is today. The English name ‘blackjack’ is derived from a feature of that original French game, which was a special payout a player received when he had a hand consisting of a jack and an ace of spades – hence the name Black Jack.

The blackjack game has changed over the past several years from a game for the wealthy in 17th Century French society to live online blackjack that is today played extensively both in hotetl and resort casinos and online. After the French Revolution, the game made its way to America where it became quickly popular as there were no laws on the books governing gaming. By the start of the 19th century, blackjack was so popular that the then-US government believed that gaming was corrupting society and encouraging organized crime so gaming was banned outright. But in spite of the ban, backroom blackjack games continued to take place in cities across the U.S. as people were in love with the exciting card game.

Blackjack remained an ‘underground’ game for decades in the United States as federal marshalls were hot on the trail of illegal casinos and gaming houses. During the 1920s, the game became even more popular as the US government put forth even more efforts to do away with gaming. Eventually, the state of Nevada legalized gaming during the early 1930s and the great gaming mecca of Las Vegas was born. Blackjack was finally able to come out of the shadows and into the limelight as casino after casino on the Las Vegas Strip offered blackjack action.

It is really quite remarkable today to look at live online blackjack being played online and to think just how incredibly far this game has come. With video feeds coming straight to a player’s home computer featuring live dealers, players from around the world can now sit at home at odd hours, playing one of the world’s most loved and oldest card games.

If you have yet to play live blackjack online, you should consider doing so because there is nothing quite like it. Today, on the net you can find live online casinos that offer some great live online blackjack action every day of the week with friendly, good looking dealers. It’s a far cry from the game first played in France and that’s a truly good thing!