There are many variations on the traditional blackjack or 21 games. The blackjack games that you will see most often at the casino are Vegas Strip Blackjack, Atlantic City Blackjack and European Blackjack depending on where you are playing. Vegas Strip Blackjack is the version in most USA casinos. You will know this version because the dealer will Hit on Soft 17. You can Double Down on any 2 cards and you can only get 1 card dealt with Split Aces. Atlantic City Blackjack is the version of blackjack played on the East coast of the United States. In this version, the dealer must Stand on Soft 17. You can Double Down on any 2 cards and you can also Double Down after a Split. A Split Ace and a 10 does not count as a Blackjack. Late Surrender is allowed.
European Blackjack is obviously played in the European casinos. You will recognize this game because the dealer will not deal himself with a 2nd card until after the players have acted. The dealer will Stand on Soft 17. You can only Double Down with a 2 card total of 9, 10 or 11. These games are either played using a single deck of cards or with multiple decks (usually 6 or 8 decks). There is a slightly lower house edge with one deck than with multiple decks. When you are playing at the casino, you are going to need to know what motions or hand gestures are common practice. For instance, you will tap on the table if you would like to Hit and cut a horizontal line across the table if you want to Stand. To Double Down, you will need to place a second bet directly behind your first bet. You can ask to have the 3rd card face down, so you can wait for the dealer acts until you see what total you have. To Split, you will place the 2nd bet to the right of the 1st bet.
Online Blackjack
In online blackjack games, you won’t need to know those table manners. There will be buttons with each of the available choices. The game plays much faster as well. A normal blackjack player can get at least 5 hands per minute without a problem. The regular blackjack game that you will encounter most often at online casinos is a form of Vegas Strip blackjack. Most the other variations like European Blackjack will be labeled with their variation in the name.
Unless you are told otherwise, the online blackjack games will consist of 6 decks of cards. There are some online casinos that offer Single Deck blackjack, but it is labeled as such. You have to assume that card counting will not work in online blackjack. This is because some of the casinos’ blackjack games will reshuffle the cards after every deck. It is very difficult to tell because of the 6 decks used. The odds that you will see all 6 of a particular card out of a deck within a few hands is very low.