About American Blackjack
Virtually every variation of “Blackjack” is based on Vegas Strip
Rules, so, it stands to reason that American Blackjack would be based on
these rules too. It is the time-honoured game of “21”, that in the UK
is called “Pontoon”, in which game the rules vary slightly. One thing
that rarely differs in any form of this game – is that and Ace together
with a 10 point card wins and is called either a “Blackjack” or a
“Natural”. In the UK when playing Pontoon, this hand would be called a
“Pontoon”.
This is a popular banking game, it is played widely online, and at
casinos
all over the world. The beauty of playing online is that newbies can
play for free, which is great practice without having to lose any money.
Features
There are a number of variations to be had when playing American
Blackjack; features such as Insurance, Surrender, Splitting, and
Doubling Down. These features entail a slight change of rules and
basically offer the player an alternative wager that might not normally
be found in the game. Generally speaking they are “optional” additional
bets, but then many players have found they prefer a particular
variation that they enjoy, and play specifically to take the optional
bet.
It is played with a standard (International) deck of cards, and some
variations involved using up to as many as eight decks of cards. This
discourages card counting, as Blackjack is actually one of those games
that can be won if a player is a sharp card counter. A card shoe also
speeds up play.
Objective
The objective for the Blackjack player is to get as close as humanely
possible to the number 21 without going bust. The aim of the game is to
beat the banker who has a slight edge on his side, but the house edge
is not very high and it is easy to break even or win this game when
sticking to basic strategy. Two cards are dealt initially, the player my
stick at a certain point, while the dealer generally has to draw
another card on a 16 count, but may stick on 17.
Bonus Features
There are no bonus features per se when playing American Blackjack,
although the additional bets we mentioned earlier, could be considered a
bonus. What some online software developers have done however is offer a
progressive prize – the game we have in mind is produced by
Microgaming. It includes an additional wager for the player to enter the
Progressive Jackpot Prize feature, which if won, would definitely be considered to be a bonus.
