Real Money Online Blackjack

It is easy to burn through your money at an online blackjack table if you don’t play smart, but follow our advice and you’ll be playing blackjack like a professional. The game offers some of the best value in the casino to the player, but only if you use the correct strategy and play with your head and not your heart. It's well worth trying online blackjack for free first, so you get a feel for the game.

Here are a few tips which everyone should take into consideration before approaching the virtual blackjack tables:

Quick Blackjack Tips

• Don’t bet money you can’t afford. Never throw good money after bad. Set a budget for yourself before you come to the table, and stick with it.
• Memorize a basic strategy. As you begin to play make sure to keep your basic strategy guide open on a separate window so you can refer to it quickly.
• Never bet more than half your stack on a single bet. This is reckless play, and no one wants to see half their pot disappear in one go. Always bet responsibly.
• Hold your nerve. Sometimes the cards just don’t seem to be with you, and it can be tempting to give up on your strategy. In the long run, following strategy is the only way to make consistent profits.

Ever wonder why the Blackjack tables at casinos are always so jam-packed? It's because Blackjack is ridiculously easy to play. The goal is simple - to get as close to 21 without going over, and to have a higher hand than the dealer. If the dealer goes over 21, he busts. The same goes for you.

Sound relatively easy? It is. But there are still a few rules you need to know about before you play for real cash, which is why we recommend playing for fun first. Let's walk through a typical game so you know how it all works:

1. Every player receives two cards face-up.
2. The dealer deals himself two cards - one of them face-up, the other facedown.
3. With your two cards displayed, you need to decide whether to hit, stand, split, or double down.
   
   
   • Hit - Ask the dealer for another card.
   • Stand - Ask the dealer to move on to the next player and deal you no more cards.
   • Split -Turn your hand of two into two separate hands.
   • Double Down - Just like hitting, only you'll receive just one card and you won't have the option to take another.
4. You'll remain in the game if your hand is valued at 21 or anything less.
5. After all players at the table have made their decisions, the dealer will reveal his facedown card.

Once you have decided that blackjack is your game of choice, the next step is to find the best online blackjack casino for your needs. We cover some of the factors to take into account below, so make sure that your chosen casino ticks the right boxes before you make your first real cash investment.

Huge Bonuses

Many online casinos entice players by offering huge welcome bonuses for signing up with their site. Most of the larger bonus offers you will see involve the casino matching some or all of your initial deposits, sometimes up to as many as your first five deposits to the site. As you can imagine, this can lead to some pretty hefty bonus packages, although it does rely on the player making equally large deposits to get the maximum out of the offer. Of course it is also possible to find online casinos which offer no deposit bonuses when you sign up, although these offers are usually in the range of $10 or $20 rather than the $1,000+ offers related to your deposits.

Payouts %

97%

61%

97%

96%

59%

Payouts in different casinos

Casinos

Understand the Rules

You should never even consider sitting down at a virtual blackjack table until you are absolutely certain about how the game works. If you don’t completely understand the rules of blackjack then you may as well just flush your money away, as this is not a game of chance like roulette. A good knowledge of the mechanics of the game is an absolute must. Remember that different varieties of the game will have different rules which will greatly impact on your chances for success, so it’s best to check out the rules of any variation of the game and try a few practice hands before playing for real money. Playing for fun initially will help you in the long run.

Understand Card Values

Most of the card values in blackjack are self-explanatory, but there are a few cards which can trip up newbies when it comes to their value. In blackjack, 10,J,Q and K all have exactly the same value of 10 points, the pictures on the face cards don’t have any impact on their worth. Aces are the cards which have a unique value in blackjack, as they can be worth either 1 or 11 depending on which is liable to benefit you in a given situation. A starting hand of A5 will have a value of 6 or 16. If the next card drawn is a 9 then the Ace becomes a 1 for a total value of 15. If you draw a 3 instead, then the Ace will be used as an 11 to make a strong hand of 19. A starting hand featuring an Ace is usually known as a ‘soft’ 19 to indicate that it features the Ace.

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games in the world, enjoyed by huge numbers of people every day, both in land-based and online casinos. The history of blackjack is a long and complex one though, as well as one steeped in myth and folklore. Therefore, it is tough to pin down the exact moment when blackjack - or any of its potential predecessors - was conceived.

What is known is this though: the first ever reference to a game similar to blackjack came in a tale called Rinconete y Cortadillo which was written in the 17th century by famous Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes - a man known to often frequent gambling tables during his time. This game, which was called ventiuna, wasn’t an exact replica of today’s blackjack, but still had many similarities - including the key similarity of needing to reach 21 without ever going over. There are others though who think that the game dates back even further, possibly even back to the time of the ancient Egyptians.

There are other theories as to the origins of blackjack though. One of the most widely supported is that it originated in France in the 18th century, with a game known as Vingt-Un. This game saw betting rounds between each card being dealt, as well as the dealer being the only person allowed to double down, but the basic object of the game was still essentially the same as the blackjack played in casinos today. References to this game can be found in the book Round Games with Cards, which was written by Baxter Wray in 1891, and in this book he describes the game as a popular one.

Even Wray fails to pin down the exact origins of the game though, once again suggesting that Vingt-Un had predecessors. He says in the book "Its name would seem to imply that it is of French origin; but in reference to this, as well as in regard to the date of its introduction into the country, we have no definite details."

Regardless of where the original form of blackjack originated though, it can then be shown that the game gradually spread around both France and Spain. It would then migrate to the casinos of the United States, where it was referred to as twenty-one - a name still commonly used to refer to the game today.

Blackjack is one of the classic casino favorites that you're bound to find at every site, but sometimes you'll discover a new aspect that you're not certain about. For that reason, we've collated this list of frequently asked questions so that you can focus on enjoying your game and leave any queries you have behind.