ONLINE BLACKJACK PLAYING STRATEGIES

Published: January 16, 2014

Blackjack is a favored game of many casino goers. Though the game is still random chance at its core, it does allow players some control over the action, and it's undeniable that knowing your odds of winning at each stage of the hand and playing accordingly will improve your long term winning percentage and earnings. Playing online affords you the benefit of using a chart to track whether you should be betting, holding, surrendering, or splitting. Let's take a deeper look at two of these options, which is where fortunes are won or lost.

Splitting

Splitting can be done anytime the player's first two cards are a matchng pair. What this does is create two new hands with one of the cards in each, to which the dealer then deals an additional card to. You also not have two bets in play. Splitting properly can prove the difference between making a profit and taking a loss. You should never split 10's, one of the biggest mistakes of many blackjack players. The common and incorrect thinking is that you're giving yourself two nicely started hands each with a 10 in them. But you're giving up a very high percentage hand to do so. You should split aces (naturally), and 8's every time, and never split 5's or 4's, which have better potential to form a winning hand together, with much lower odds apart. Other splits are dependant on the dealer's strength of hand.

Surrendering

Surrendering is giving up your hand before its conclusion, which may seem like a waste (and a move many weaker players either avoid entirely or overplay), but is wise under certain conditions, and a move that will statistically save you money in the long term. Not every casino allows surrendering, knowing the slight advantage it provides to skilled players. Surrendering should be done whenever your odds of winning the hand are less than 25%, which you can track with a good chart or program.