If you’ve read our guides to blackjack elsewhere on this site you will already know that it’s the casino game which offers the best return to players, assuming you are using the best possible strategy. Microgaming’s European Blackjack is another opportunity to follow basic blackjack strategy so read our review to find out it it’s worth checking out.

European Blackjack is a played with two decks of 52 cards; this discourages card counting in casino play but the random nature of online play makes it a moot point.

The aim of blackjack is to obtain a higher total than the dealer without going over 21. A tied hand will result in a ‘push’ – your stake returned. A blackjack pays out at 3/2.

How To Play Blackjack

The first thing to do is select your chip level using the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ at the bottom of the screen. Then you just need to click ‘Deal’ and you will receive two cards while the dealer receives one.

You now have several choices depending on the cards you receive and how you would like to progress:

• Hit – request another card from the dealer to increase your total
• Stand – stick with what you’ve got and hope the dealer can’t beat it
• Split – if you have similarly ranked cards you can split them and play two separate hands
• Double Down – double your wager if your first two cards have a total value of 9, 10 or 11. They must not have an Ace unless that Ace has a value of 1

If the dealer’s first card is an Ace you have the option to take out insurance; this will cost half your wager and will return at 2/1 if the dealer has a blackjack.

Verdict

This is a perfectly playable version of blackjack although it lacks a little of the graphical polish of some newer games from other developers. We should also point out that Microgaming do not publish their RTP so it’s impossible to say whether this game matches the casino return of 99.83%.