Single Deck Blackjack Review

One of the most interesting types of blackjack in terms of pure strategy is Single Deck Blackjack like the type offered by Microgaming-powered online casinos, though it’s often given the title “Classic Blackjack” sometimes as well.

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Single Deck Blackjack Strategy and Rules

One of the most interesting types of blackjack in terms of pure strategy is Single Deck Blackjack like the type offered by Microgaming-powered online casinos, though it’s often given the title “Classic Blackjack” sometimes as well. Single Deck Blackjack is so interesting because there are so few cards available at any given time and you can use the limited amount of information that you have to play specific strategies based on which cards you and the dealer hold instead of simply relying on your total and whether your hand is soft or hard. Some of the lowest house advantages in any online casino game are available in Single Deck Blackjack games since you can often get payout rates of over 99.8 percent with correct play.

How to Play Single Deck Blackjack

You cannot surrender in this game, and the dealer does not peek for blackjack. With these two rules in mind, there are a couple of obvious adjustments to make. First, you should be more conservative with doubling and splitting when facing a dealer showing a ten or ace since it’s more likely that he has blackjack because of the no peek rule, and you don’t want to lose a double bet because of a dealer blackjack. Second, you’ll have to play out difficult hard hand scenarios like hard 15s and 16s against strong dealer cards.

How to Double Aggressively in Single Deck Blackjack

For the most part, you can play a doubling-aggressive game against the dealer in the Single Deck Blackjack games and do well as long as you take care against tens and aces. However, there are some cases with difficult hard hands where the correct strategies will depend on which cards are used to make your hand, and that’s what we want to focus on here because that’s the aspect of strategy in these games that people will overlook the most often.

Most of these cases happen when you have a hard 12. If you made that 12 with a ten in your hand, then you should be more aggressive and hit always unless you’re facing a dealer with a five showing. The ten in your hand makes it sufficiently less likely that either you or the dealer will bust that it turns what are typically routine stands into thin hits. If you make it with a nine and a three, then you should stand against fours, fives and sixes only. If you make it with any of the other combinations, then play the standard hard 12 strategy of hitting against a two and against cards of seven or higher. You will get a few tenths of a percentage point of an advantage by using these card-specific strategies.

Typically with a hard 13 you will stand against any card between two and six. However, if you make that 13 with a ten in your hand, then you should change your strategy to hit when you’re facing a two. The logic here is similar to the logic above, and it involves the differences in how likely you and the dealer are to bust out. You have to be more aggressive here since it’s less likely that you bust on a hit and it’s less likely that the dealer busts if you stand.

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