For many years, Blackjack (also known as 21) has been one of the most popular games in brick and mortar casinos around the world. A typical Vegas casino has dozens of Blackjack tables, with minimum bets that range from five dollars (if you’re lucky to find a table with such a low minimum) and upwards (it can get pretty high in fancier venues). When online casinos took over the gambling industry – about 20 years ago – Blackjack became just as widely played on the Internet as it is on land. Online Blackjack has a lot going for it – both the built in awesomeness of the game itself and all the benefits of playing the game (any game, actually) online.
To understand where Blackjack sits in the vast range of casino games offered online, it can be explained thus: Blackjack is more laid back than poker, more strategic (less luck-based) than slots or roulette, and easier to learn than, say, baccarat or craps. Blackjack is less intense than poker because players compete with the dealer (and not with each other), and the dealer has set moves. The object of Blackjack is to reach a hand that is closer to 21 than the dealer’s hand, or, ideally, to get 21 with just two cards.
As opposed to games that are based purely on chance, Blackjack players can use a strategy and, by adhering to it consistently, can win quite often. The basic Blackjack strategy was created decades ago with the help of computer simulations that assessed millions of different Blackjack hands. The strategy takes into account the probability/odds of these hands beating the dealer’s hand. The bad news is that a player has to be somewhat committed to the game to remember the various combinations and how to play each hand (hit, stay, split, double-down, etc.).
The good news is that, with online Blackjack, the player can consult a written strategy chart (which is very uncool in a real casino) and take it slow while doing so. Either way, the strategy gives you a really good chance to walk away from the Blackjack table (or the computerized graphic of a table if you’re playing online Blackjack) with a little more cash than you started out with. And that’s why millions of people around the world believe with all their hearts that Blackjack is the greatest gambling game every created.
