European Blackjack Review

European blackjack is one of the more interesting types of blackjack when it comes to which adjustments are needed from typical strategies to perform well in the game.

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European Blackjack Game Review

European blackjack is one of the more interesting types of blackjack when it comes to which adjustments are needed from typical strategies to perform well in the game. The key feature of this type of blackjack is that the dealer does not ever peek to see if he’s holding a blackjack. What typically happens is that the dealer immediately peaks on an ace and/or ten-value card. If the dealer does have a blackjack, you lose and move on to the next hand. Without peeking, you are given the opportunity to double or split (or double after a split) and lose a double bet (or larger) to a dealer blackjack.

Strategy and Rules of European Blackjack

In terms of strategy, this means that you have to be extremely careful when putting in extra bets with doubling or splitting in European blackjack if the dealer is showing an ace or a ten. In fact, there is only a single time that you will make either of these plays when facing an ace or ten, and that’s when you split aces against a dealer showing a ten. Your hand is still strong enough to split in that scenario, but that’s about it for putting in extra bets against either of the strongest dealer cards. There are a few other rule changes for European blackjack, but this is the rule that the casinos hope you ignore because doing so drastically decreases your payout rate.

Another rule that changes things a bit is that you can only double on hard totals of nine, ten and eleven. As such, you should double tens and elevens always unless you’re facing a ten or ace, and you should double with nines against any three, four, five or six. Having this restriction on doubling can be seen as a disadvantage, but it does make playing soft hands exceptionally easy with no real room for making mistakes. On soft totals of 17 or lower, you always hit. On soft totals of 19 or higher, always stand. When you have a soft 18, you always stand unless you’re up against a nine, ten or ace, and in those three cases, you hit.

How to Double After a Split in European Blackjack

With two major disadvantages, you might be wondering what the player gets in return for not being able to double soft hands and not having the dealer peek. The first thing that you earn is the ability to double after a split. This is a pretty big deal because you’ll drastically increase the value of your splitting with this option, and you’ll do a lot of splitting in this game. You’ll split twos, threes and sevens when facing a two through seven. You’ll split fours when up against a five or six, and you’ll split sixes when you’re facing a six or lower. You always split eights, except when facing a ten or ace, and as we’ve already mentioned above, you’ll always split aces except when you’re facing an ace. Never split fives or tens in this game, and always split nines unless you’re facing a ten, an ace or a seven. You don’t split sevens because the dealer stands on a 17 making you win fairly often.

Rated 4/5