Online Blackjack Guide for South African Players
What is online blackjack?
Online casinos like to offer parallels to the games seen in traditional casinos. For this reason, many online casinos have online blackjack games, based on the famous table game of the same name. Though the tactile experience is lost, online blackjack graphics improve all the time and the games feature a broad variety of play styles.
The beginner’s guide to online blackjack.
Blackjack is perhaps the most popular or most widely offered casino game ever. This game is also known as ‘21’ and features in many films and TV shows as the quintessential casino table game. Blackjack uses cards and takes place between a dealer and one or more players. The name 21 comes from the objective of the game, to score as close to 21 as possible without going over. Online blackjack follows very similar rules, so the key to online blackjack is understanding traditional blackjack.
Blackjack is played against the dealer, with players trying to beat the dealer by having a score as close as possible to 21, without going over. You lose the game if your score goes over 21, but the dealer can also lose the same way, so it becomes a game of daring. Your score is determined by adding the numerical value of your cards together. The King, Queen and Jack cards are usually counted as 10. Aces are counted as either 11 or 1, which is the origin of the phrase ‘aces high’. Variants on the rules do exist, which is part of the popularity of online blackjack.
The game begins with the dealer dealing two cards to the player, at which point they can stay or hit. Staying refers to keeping your hand as it is, while hitting means asking for another card, which is a wise choice if your combination is far from 21. The game continues until everyone stays or goes over 21, also called ‘going bust’. The highest score then wins. The ideal way to win is for your first two cards to add up to 21. This hand is called ‘blackjack’ and cannot be beaten in the standard rule set.
Because online blackjack is essentially a software program with a random generator, not reliant on a dealer and cards, games can be played 24/7 and with all sorts of variations. Many online casinos offer various versions of the game, with different rules or graphic styles. Almost all casinos offer some form of blackjack and many will have help sections to explain the rules. Online blackjack plays a lot like card blackjack, with the same strategies applying. The key is to know when to risk asking for another card; if you’re very close to 21, you take a huge risk by hitting. When your score is in the low teens, you risk being beaten by the dealer’s score, so players often feel they need to take a chance on another card. The online game uses the same terminology as the offline game, with terms like hitting, staying, blackjack and bust being commonplace.
