Video Blackjack

Video blackjack are, as the term suggests, video gaming machines that allow you to play blackjack without a human dealer. Video blackjack can also be played on home computers and gaming consoles, and these provide a good way to acquire gaming skills without the expense of a live or casino-based video blackjack game.

The benefits of in-home video blackjack are that you can practice perfect basic strategy, test card-counting strategies and examine money-management progressive-win formulas with no financial risk. A computer will also accumulate data for later review, enabling you to spot costly trends that you can avoid when playing the “real deal.”
 
Any knowledge obtained without a cash outlay “should” make you more money down the road, but “should” is the operative word here, because the video blackjack experience you get at home still might not bring legal tender dancing into your wallet.

The first reason for this is because when you are risking hard-earned money at the casino, your decisions may be less confident than those you make when playing with free credits at home. When betting with real money, many players tend to make careless moves like not hitting a 16 against a 6, forgetting to split your 8’s against a dealer’s 5, or failing to double down or split hands in favourable circumstances.

Also, you might find that you play more hands per hour in the casino than you do on your computer of games console. With any game that has a built-in advantage – and a video blackjack machine in the casino certainly does – the more hands you play, the more the machine will chip away from your bankroll.

We also need to talk about your gambling timeline. Your duration of play, both with your home machine and in a casino, is far too condensed to determine if one method is better than another. It is not anomalous to have ten winning sessions at home and twenty losing sessions in the casino.

Finally, the rules of the video blackjack game that the casino provides might have one slight variation that can turn a winning visit into a losing one. For example, most casino video blackjack machines pay even money on natural 21’s instead of the true value of a blackjack (3 for 2). Because you can expect a blackjack every 21 hands, the loss of that bonus will cost you an additional 2.3 percent. Considering that blackjack has a house advantage of less than 0.5 percent to a knowledgeable player, your losses might very well be tied to this rule change.

Before you rush off to play, be wary of video blackjack machines that round down payoffs. If you do happen to find a machine that pays the bonus for a blackjack, make wagers in even amounts so you can get the maximum value of a blackjack, which is a payoff of £3 for every £2 wagered.

Quiz: and what would a single pound wagered get you for a blackjack? Just a quid, so always bet in two-unit increments.

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