LIVE DEALER CASINOS
Live Blackjack
At present, Live Dealer Blackjack is only available at several high profile live dealer casinos
including Bet365 Casino (No USA) and it is
expected to be added to Microgaming casinos such as River Belle Casino (No USA),
Canbet Casino (No USA) and 32Red Casino (No USA) anytime soon.
For non-live games, there are many variations of Blackjack at online casinos. At 32Red Casino (No USA) and River Belle Casino (No USA) for example you will find European Blackjack, Bonus Blackjack, Multi-hand Blackjack, Spanish Blackjack, Triple 7s Blackjack, Vegas Downtown Blackjack, Vegas Strip Blackjack, Atlantic City Blackjack, Flash Blackjack, High Limit Blackjack, Double Exposure Blackjack and Super Fun 21 Blackjack. Enough to keep you busy! But now you can add Live Blackjack to that list. As you'd suspect, it involved video streaming of a live dealer dealing your hand along with other players at the table. It can slow things down being multi-player, but it's a damn site more fun than playing against a robot!
Picking the right casino, with fair dealers and a good reputation is essential and aside from 32Red Casino (No USA) I have made a list of all the good, safe live casinos online. If you are new to blackjack, you might want to embarass yourself playing against the Random Number generator in one of the games listed above before you peel off to the live card table and get a red face! You will find that each casino listed here has all the above games and the Live dealer games in one download - so that should make things easier. You might also want to read up on the rules and what is widely known as "basic strategy" as outlined below. Of all the table games, Blackjack is the one where knowing the strategy is vitally important to longer term success.
How To Play Blackjack
You probably realised it's a game of "21", not a million miles from Pontoon only with a little more strategy involved. A "Blackjack" is a hand consisting of an Ace and a 10 or a Picture card (which all have the value of 10) thus totalling 21 (where the Ace is 11 - it can also be "1" if you choose it to be). Your aim is to get as close to 21 as you can without going over - or "bust". You and the dealer are both dealt two cards. You get to play first. Draw cards until you are happy you cannot go any further and then "Stand". The dealer will then draw his/her cards but cannot stop until at least a total of 17 is shown. This is the case even if you wnet "bust" yourself, giving a little more chance of a tie and consequently a refund of your stake.When you win you will receive your stake back and the same again unless you had a "blackjack" in which case you win 3:2 - your stake back and 1.5 times again. If you are dealt 9, 10 or 11 in your first 2 cards, you can choose to double your initial stake (or "double down"). Especially worth doing if you have "11" as a "21" is more likley - tens and pictures cards (which count as 10) are the most common cards in the pack.
If you were dealt two of the same card (ie: two jacks) you can choose to "split". This doubles your stake creating two seperate hands, each consisting of a Jack. A second card is then dealt to each hand and you can choose to draw again or stand. the process is then repeated for the second jack. keep an eye ofn the dealer's card before you do this - you need to be careful especially if they drew a 10 or an ace as you could end up losing both hands and consequently both your bets.
If the dealer is dealt an Ace as the first card, you can choose to take out "insurance". This is a side bet which pays you 2:1 if the dealer then draws a "10" to get blackjack. If however the dealer does not draw a 10, you lose the side-bet.
Regards basic strategy for live Blackjack, you'll find all you need to know at the Wizard Of Odds who explains it far better than I ever could!
