Soft 17 in Online Blackjack
April 22nd, 2011
The game of blackjack has many different rules that tend to vary from one online casino to the other. Playing online casino blackjack can sometimes be a little too much for some players, especially for those who tend to seek the easier online slot machines games or more simple games like keno.
When playing any type of online casino blackjack game players will generally get access to the rules of the game near the main screen or located in a visible area. Players must also take into consideration that just like with all casino games, blackjack will add a “house edge”, which is an advantage for the casino built into the game. The advantage of the dealer’s position in the game of online blackjack relative to the player derivates from the notion that is a player busts, the player loses, regardless of whether the dealer busts eventually. Nevertheless, in online blackjack players that utilize a winning technique such as the basic strategy stand a chance of losing less than 1% of their total betting amount with pure average luck; this is very positive to the player compared to other casino games. However, there are many variations to the game that can also be used to the players advantage or vice versa.
One of the most popular variations to the rules of online blackjack is called “soft 17”. When the blackjack dealer is allowed to hit on a soft 17 the house will have an additional two tenths of a percent to their edge. When the totality of players at the table have completed the play of their hands, the dealer must go ahead and finish their own hand. First, the dealer is prompted to show their down card so that the players can see both of the dealer’s cards (including the up card). Then the dealer will then draw additional cards until his hand totals 17 or better. Some online casinos and blackjack tables will let the dealer ask for more cards if they have a “soft 17″ which means a blackjack hand with an ace, with a total value of 7 or 17.
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Online Baccarat Betting Probabilities
April 8th, 2011
The game of online baccarat may seem like a complicated and stressful betting option for the unexperienced casino player; when in fact, baccarat is great fun and easy to comprehend if players have the time to learn the basics. There are many types of online casino players who enjoy the game of baccarat, including high stakes players and even those players who are simply looking to try out something different. Baccarat suits all types of player because there is just one decision to be made in the game: place the chips in the table area marked ad ‘player’, ‘banker’, or ‘tie’.
In baccarat the rules of play have been created in a way that they offer an advantage for both player and banker bets as well as an advantage for tie bets. There are a number of calculations that are used to determine that the banker will win 50.68% of all non-tie hands and the player 49.32%. When a player uses 100 coins worth of bets against these percentages, they can expect to lose 50.68 and win 49.32. The 1.36 difference between the two is known as the house edge against the “player” bet.
It’s clear that the banker bet offers no real house advantage since it wins more than half of the time and online casinos are no strangers to this advantage. However, if they were to let the game be played while giving up an edge to players, they wouldn’t be attracting players at all and therefore making no money on this casino game. The way online casinos make their money in this situation is by tilting the advantage back into their favor by way of a 5% commission on winning banker bets. The banker bet probabilities when betting 100 coins, if players take into account the 5% commission on winning banker bets, they will win 0.95 for every one credit wagered. Players can expect to win 50.68% of the time and lose 49.32 which ultimately results in a 1.17% house advantage.
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