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Blackjack is my favorite card game and I spend most of my time playing it at sweepstakes casinos. I’ve also had bricks and mortar experience so wanted to create a guide on how to play blackjack for your benefit.
If you’ve always fancied becoming a blackjack wizard, but don’t really understand how the game works, or want to learn the basics like blackjack dealer rules then read on – by the end of this guide you’ll be ready to start your card game adventure at one of our recommended sweepstakes casinos!
Blackjack is a card game. It uses 1-8 decks of 52 cards. There is a dealer, and at least one player (live dealer or multiplayer blackjack can have multiple players). The aim of blackjack is to make a hand of cards whose value is as close to 21 as possible, while also beating the dealer’s hand.
There are multiple different varieties of the classic blackjack game such as single deck blackjack, and blackjack wide side bets. For the purpose of this guide on how to play blackjack, I’m going to concentrate on the classic version with standard rules. We’ve got guides on things like how to play single deck blackjack and the other variants if you are interested, but I recommend starting here with this classic guide.
When you’re playing online blackjack you’ll see a heap of different terms and phrases and it’s vital that you understand what these mean otherwise you’ll make bad decisions. Below is a simple table that explains the most-used and most-important blackjack terms:
| 📌 Term | 📑 Description |
|---|---|
| Blackjack | Any combination of an Ace and a 10/Face card. |
| Bust | Your card values exceed 21 and you automatically lose. |
| Double down or Double | You double your initial stake but only draw one more card. |
| Hit | You receive another card. |
| Split | You split a pair of the same cards to create two hands. |
| Stand | You stick with your current hand. |
In blackjack, you are playing against the dealer and you need to beat their hand. Each round of blackjack will take the following path:
There are exceptions to this also depending on the game variant. In some games a dealer only gets their first card and doesn’t get anymore until you resolve your hand.
By “resolving your hand” I mean that once your first two cards are dealt, you then have to decide on what you want to do, i.e. stick, hit, split, or double if available. A round is resolved when both all player hands and the dealer’s hand are resolved. Prizes for blackjack are as follows:
When looking at sweepstakes blackjack you need to know what the dealer can and can’t do and what you can and can’t do.
That’s most of the blackjack rules explained – just remember that there can be variations to these rules for special games like Gravity Blackjack, and blackjack with side bets. To give you more insight, I want to delve into three core blackjack features – doubling, splitting, and insurance.
Just bear in mind that when I talk about a ‘bet’ this refers to the Gold Coin or Sweeps Coin play amount you’ll decide on when you’re playing blackjack at a sweepstakes casino.
After your first two face up cards have been dealt, you have the option to double-down. With this feature, you double your initial stake, so if you played with 5 SC, it would go up to 10 SC. You then only get to draw one more card. Because of this, doubling-down is a high-risk high reward feature – you’re banking on your next card being enough to win the hand, for which you’ll then get a double prize. Some general rules I follow for doubling-down include:
Splitting is only possible when your two face up cards are a pair, i.e. two 3s or two Queens. If you choose to split, you essentially break your one hand into two hands and make an additional stake for the second hand, equal to your initial stake value.
So, if your stake was 5 SC, and you split two queens, you would now have two hands at 5 SC each, both with a single queen as the initial card. You then resolve each hand as normal in turn. Splitting is incredibly risky and I rarely use this feature. Instead, I typically follow these rules:
Insurance is a special side bet that you can take if the dealer’s first face up card is an ace. If you take the side bet, you make an additional wager equal to half your original stake. So if your stake was 5 SC, the insurance side bet would be 2.5 SC.
If the dealer gets a natural blackjack, your insurance side bet gives a 2:1 prize and essentially covers your original stake so you break even. I know that this might seem appealing, but the general consensus from blackjack strategists is that the insurance side bet is not worth it in the long run and you should never take it.
I also want to cover some basic blackjack strategy as there is more involved compared to simple games like sweepstakes slots and if you want to play effectively you need to know what to do in different situations.
I know some of these rules might seem strange, but if you stick to them, they should give you the best results in the long run.
Out of all the sweepstakes casino games, I think blackjack has more pros than cons, BUT, as you see below, it’s not without its flaws and you need to be aware of its drawback:
Now you’ve learned the rules of blackjack, all that’s left is to find somewhere to give it a try! Luckily I’ve got five awesome sweepstakes casino recommendations lined up and ready for you:
Let’s start with my favorite site – Stake.us. This is an awesome social casino and if you use the JAXONSOCIAL code during registration you get a welcome bonus of 56 Stake Cash, 560,000 Gold Coins, and a 5% rakeback. For blackjack, you’ve got the Stake Originals version, but also a few different live variants from ICONIC21. I’ve always had a blast here and this is made easier by the superb range of promotions they have. Aside from the welcome bonus you can also get 10,000 GC and 1 SC every day, plus random SC bonus drops of 5-10 SC from the live chat several times per week.
Modo.us is another top site and it offers a great range of single player blackjack games if you aren’t bothered about the live experience. There’s also heaps of slots from Pragmatic Play and Hacksaw Gaming. When you create a new account here, you get a solid welcome bonus of 20,000 GC and 1 SC and there’s up to 20,000 GC for grabs every day from the daily login bonus. I think this site has one of the better refer-a-friend schemes too as you can get 100,000 GC and 15 SC per referral.
Pulsz is one of the oldest social casinos and I’ve always had a blast here. It features live dealer games from ICONIC21 so you can enjoy the legendary Gravity Blackjack which is one of my favorite versions of this classic card game. When you sign up at Pulsz Casino you get 5,000 Gold Coins and 2.3 Sweeps Coins, and there is a daily SC promo of 1 SC which is one of the better bonuses available.
High 5 Casino is well-known for its 1,750+ casino-style games and while most of these are epic slots, they also have both single player and live dealer blackjack variants. The game collection seems to have grown every time I login here, and they make them easy to enjoy by the fantastic range of promos available. New customers get 5 SC, 250 Game Coins, and 600 Diamonds, and you can get 0.50 Sweeps Coins every 24 hours. Not only that, but active players can benefit from a 4-hourly harvest that gives you 10 GC and 15 Diamonds.
Hello Millions kicks things off with a welcome bonus of 15,000 Gold Coins and 2.5 Sweeps Coins when you create a new account. There’s also a daily prize wheel that gives you a random amount of GC and/or SC. I like the mail-in bonus here too as you can get 4 SC for every successful request you make. For gameplay, you’ve got 1,000+ titles to browse through including slots, classic slots, Megaways, jackpots, and of course live dealer games and blackjack!
I hope you’ve found my guide on how to play blackjack useful and you now have a clearer idea of the blackjack rules and nuances of the game. Once you learn the basics, and perfect your optimum strategy, I think you’ll have a blast with this game. It’s just a classic and easily one of the best table games available at sweepstakes casinos like Stake.us, Modo.us, and High 5 Casino. So, all that’s left is to pick one of my recommendations, sign up, and get started!
It’s impossible to count cards in online blackjack as the decks are continually shuffled after each round.
You can take insurance if the dealer’s first face up card is an Ace. For this side bet, you make an additional wager at half the value of your original stake. If the dealer gets a natural blackjack, insurance gives a 2:1 prize.
This depends on the game type. Deck numbers can vary from 1-8 decks, with 6 being the most common.
An ace can either be 11 or 1 depending on the situation.
The aim is to make a card hand as close as possible to 21 and beat whatever hand the dealer has.
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