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Review of Playtech’s American Blackjack
One of the things about blackjack that helps it to be such a popular genre of games is that small rule changes can drastically affect what the correct strategies are in a variety of different types of situations. You’ll find that this is the case with Playtech’s American Blackjack game as it has a specific set of rules that will mean some serious changes in how you should play a number of important and common spots. We want to introduce you to how this game looks, what the rules are and the strategies you can use to get the best payout rate possible.
Rules of American Blackjack
First off, you’ll want to know that this is a six-deck game where the dealer always stands with a soft 17 . You can double after splitting, but you can’t split a hand that was already split. If you’re able to somehow get ten cards in a hand without going bust, then you always beat the dealer with a Ten Card Charlie rule as well. It’s probably worth pointing out also that there is no blackjack surrender option in this game in general, but you can double with any total, so there’s some compensation there.
The main rule that drives the gameplay is that the dealer never peeks for blackjack. What this means is that if the dealer has a ten or an ace, this would be a particularly dangerous situation for the player because the dealer could have a blackjack in that situation. In games where the dealer would actually peek for blackjack to speed the game up, you wouldn’t have to worry about that since you’d know the dealer did not have a natural 21 if you made it to the point where you were allowed to make a decision on your hand in the first place.
Betting and Hand Placement
Playtech is a big fan of giving players the opportunity to play with several hand placements. In this title, you’ll have the opportunity to play up to five hands simultaneously, which is the sort of thing that many hardcore blackjack fans love to be able to do. Aside from that, you can wager from €1 to a whopping €3,000 per hand, and that’s a betting range that will definitely let you find wagers at virtually any level that you’re comfortable with.
We’d also like to point out that you can change the colour of the felt between a variety of options using the colour button to the left-hand side of the dealer area. This is an option that many providers don’t offer, and we think that it’s a nice addition to what’s available.
Important Strategic Points
Because you can’t be sure that the dealer doesn’t have a blackjack in this game, you have to really adjust your play when facing ten cards or aces. With that having been said, if you double against a dealer showing a 10, and the dealer ends up having blackjack, then you only lose your original bet. The same is not true when facing an ace, however, and in that situation, you’ll lose both. However, you’ll always lose both bets if you split when the dealer has a natural 21.
As a result, you should never double into a dealer ace, and you should never split against a dealer who is showing an ace or ten. In the latter case, just play your hand like a regular soft hand if you have an ace, and play it like a regular hard hand if you do not.