Blackjack is a game that divides opinion among casino players. There are plenty who have it as their favourite table game because it allows them an element of control, while others find it maddening because the basic strategy leaves you open to losses. While some online casino fans enjoy that it has a low house edge, others are irritated by the fact that it rarely contributes anything to bonus wagering.
Simply put, Blackjack has its fans and its critics, and it is reasonable to put yourself in either of those camps based on your own experience. However, a lot of your success and failure in Blackjack can come down to your own attitude with regard to the game. If you can keep in mind certain facts about this table game while playing Canada’s best online blackjack games, you’ll notice that you do better when playing, and it all comes down to a subtle mindset change.
Your target isn’t 21, your target is the dealer
If you’ve drawn 14 and the dealer is showing 5, you may well be thinking that 21 is achievable, and you should hit here. After all, when does 14 ever win a hand of Blackjack? The answer to that question is “more often than you’d think”, and especially so when the dealer is showing 5. Just to match you, they’re going to need a 9. To beat you, they realistically need to hit twice – and this massively increases the chances they’ll go bust. Always take the dealer’s face-up card into account when deciding whether to stand or hit. You’ll rarely hit 21, but you can win a lot of hands by playing the dealer.
Yes, that bonus is probably useless for Blackjack
When you pick up an online casino bonus, it’s some handy extra bankroll for your efforts at the slots and tables. But, let’s be clear, mostly the slots. The key point about Blackjack, and other table games to a lesser extent, is that modest betting can see you retain a decent chunk of your bankroll – and if that bankroll is a bonus credit from an online casino, then you could theoretically turn it into free money just by making less risky Blackjack bets.
That’s exactly what some early online casino players did, so the casinos implemented rules meaning Blackjack bets didn’t count towards wagering requirements (or only counted 5%, with the result being you’d need to make far more bets and lose far more money). So if you want to make money playing Blackjack, you need to risk your own money.
House edge, RTP% and probability all even themselves out over time
That sentence above can have different meanings depending on where you place the stress. For the purpose of this piece of advice, place a short pause before “…over time”, because that’s the part that matters. It’s not like stocks, where there are natural trigger points to invest. Yes, if you play Blackjack for long enough, your returns will be broadly in line with the average, and they will reflect the house edge. So if you’ve lost four hands in a row, don’t be sitting there thinking you’re about to win four to even things out. If you imagine probability as a long, winding street, one visit to the Blackjack table isn’t even a house on that street. It’s an ant on the pavement outside a house on that street.
Put another way, it’s as likely you’ll lose the next four as win them all. So rely on reading the cards in front of you and ignore the idea that things even out in time. They do, but time is forever.
