The first thing you can do to master blackjack is to play it as much as possible! Rather than diving straight into real money blackjack games, start by honing your skills by playing free online blackjack games like the one above. This way, you'll learn to avoid beginner's mistakes when you start playing for real money. We also recommend doing the same for all other table games, and even for our free slot machines you want to try.
Online blackjack in Canada 2024: play for real or play money
Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games in the world. In addition to being easy to play, the best online blackjack games also offer favorable odds that few other formats can match.
Here is our ultimate blackjack guide, which will provide you with the rules of the game, the best strategies, and our expert tips for beating the dealer! We also offer a free blackjack game for you to practice, and a list of each top online blackjack site we've reviewed, so you can play for real money safely. No more endless unsuccessful searches, all the relevant and reliable information to play blackjack like a pro is gathered here in our guide.
Play blackjack for real money or for free
While we offer a version of free online blackjack without download on this page, many players also enjoy playing blackjack for real money. Free or not, each version stands its ground because both offer advantages and a gaming experience unique to them. Here is a brief overview explaining the interests of these two versions of blackjack, so you can choose the one you prefer!
Advantages of free online blackjack
- Ideal for learning the rules of blackjack
- No risk of losing money
- Allows you to try out new strategies
- Useful for learning the variations of blackjack
- Free online games are fun and stress-free
Advantages of real money blackjack
- Allows you to win money
- Wins and losses add to the excitement of the game
- Ultimate test for card counting systems
- Can help you unlock casino bonuses
- Win or lose with friends in multiplayer blackjack mode
Our top casinos for playing online blackjack in Canada in 2024
If you think real money blackjack is for you, we can help you get started. Our team of experts has selected the best casinos to play online blackjack. The real-blackjack.online team has evaluated the cream of blackjack sites to retain only the safest, most trustworthy casinos that offer players the best options for playing blackjack. By following our recommendations, you can have fun in a serious, secure environment.
How we evaluate the best online blackjack casinos
Our team uses a sophisticated evaluation method to determine which Canadian casinos deserve to be in our selection. Each of our online casinos must not only show us that it offers a quality experience for blackjack players, but also that it is safe and trustworthy. Here is an overview of the main aspects we look at when evaluating online blackjack sites.
How to Play Blackjack Online
If you're eager to dive into online blackjack games, you first need to master the basics. Here's a step-by-step guide that will familiarize you with the rules you need to know before you start playing.
1
Basic Setup
Blackjack is played with a standard 52-card deck. The shuffled cards are placed in a "shoe" consisting of multiple decks in land-based casinos, while in online blackjack, the number of decks can vary from one to infinity. Before the game begins, you must place a bet to participate.
2
Start of the Game
In blackjack, each player receives two cards to start their hand. In most variations, these cards are dealt face down. Additionally, the dealer also receives two cards: one face up and the other face down.
The goal is for your hand to be closer to a score of 21 points than the dealer's, without ever exceeding this total. Thus, in blackjack games, cards have different values:
- Ace: 11 or 1
- King: 10
- Queen: 10
- Jack: 10
- Ten: 10
- Nine: 9
- Eight: 8
- Seven: 7
- Six: 6
- Five: 5
- Four: 4
- Three: 3
- Two: 2
3
Do You Have a Blackjack?
Before the action of the game unfolds, you and the dealer will check for blackjack. It's a winning hand right from the start, consisting of an ace and another card worth 10 points, for an ideal score of 21. If you get it right away, your bet will pay off at a 3:2 odds.
If the dealer's face-up card is an ace or a face card (10 or picture card), in some blackjack games, they can check for a blackjack by looking at their face-down card. When the dealer's face-up card is an ace, they will ask if you want to take insurance. This is a bet that costs half your stake but will pay at 2:1 odds if the dealer indeed has a blackjack. Therefore, you won't suffer any losses if the dealer does have a blackjack and the insurance pays out.
If both your hand and the dealer's are blackjack, you will get your bet back. Before checking for a blackjack in their hand, the dealer will offer you even more money on your own blackjack. Mathematically, this amounts to offering you an insurance bet.
4
Play Your Hand
In blackjack games, if neither you nor the dealer have blackjack to start with, you can then begin to play your hand. When multiple players are seated at the table, the turn proceeds clockwise, starting to the right of the players.
In both online and casino blackjack, you have two main options. You can draw a card, "hit": the dealer will then deal you an additional card. You can also choose to stand on your hand, "stand": this means you keep your hand as is, without getting any more cards. Remember, if your hand exceeds a score of 21 points, you bust or burn, or as the English expression goes, you are "busted": you immediately lose your bet.
In blackjack games, there are other more specific options available to you under certain circumstances. If your first two cards have the same value, you can split them to create two separate hands ("split"). When this happens, you must then place a new bet, identical to your initial bet, so that you have a bet for each of your two hands. Each of your hands will then receive a new second card, and these hands are played independently. These two separate hands are theoretically splittable again, but keep in mind that there is often a limit to the number of splits you can make from a hand, depending on the blackjack casino where you are playing.
When you have received your two starting cards, you also have the opportunity to double, "double down". With this option, you can double your bet, but in return, the dealer will deal you only one additional card, and you must then stand on your hand. This can be very useful when you have an advantageous hand and want to maximize your winnings.
Finally, many online blackjack games allow you to surrender, "surrender". If you choose this option, you will give up half your bet and end the game for that hand. Surrender is used in particularly unfavorable situations where it is better to lose half your bet than to take a chance on playing a bad hand.
5
End of the Game
In blackjack games, as soon as a player exceeds 21, they burn, and their game ends immediately. Once the other players have finished drawing their cards and stand on their hands, the dealer reveals their face-down card ("hole card").
Following clearly predefined rules, they then finish playing their own hand. If the dealer has a score of 16 or less, they always draw a new card. If the dealer has a score of 18 or more, they always stand on their hand. In some blackjack games, the dealer always stands on their hand whenever they have 17. However, in other games, the dealer draws a new card if they have a soft 17 (a hand containing an ace that can be valued at 1 or 11 points). However, if they have a hard 17 (no ace in hand), they always stand on their hand.
If the dealer exceeds 21, they too burn, and all remaining players win their bet. If the dealer does not exceed 21, it is then time to compare their hand to yours, or to yours if you have split your cards. In the vast majority of online blackjack games, if your hand has a higher score than the dealer's, you win your bet, which will pay you your stake in winnings. In the event of a tie, your bet is returned to you. Finally, if the score of the dealer's hand is higher than yours, you lose your bet and therefore, your stake.
How to Win at Blackjack with Basic Strategy
Before you dive into an online blackjack game, one of the most important things to consider is that it's not purely a game of chance, unlike roulette, for example. Strategy in blackjack is crucial, and every decision you make will have a major impact on the outcome of your game.
Don't panic! We've prepared solid advice for you to establish a basic strategy that will help you get off to a good start. Here are some simple and easy-to-remember blackjack tips that will prevent you from making big mistakes, as well as our basic strategy chart, which is the mathematically correct way to play in each situation, including card counting techniques. Here's an overview of the most important elements to remember if you want to win money playing blackjack.
The best tips for playing blackjack:
Play blackjack for free
Don't take insurance
One of the most fundamental blackjack tips experienced players will give you is that insurance is a sucker's bet. It's better to take your chances, even if it means losing your bet when the dealer has a blackjack. The same goes for the money the dealer offers on your own blackjack. Although the wording is different (probably to confuse players), it's essentially another way of offering an insurance bet.
Learn the basic strategy
Before you can implement counting techniques or advantage strategies, you must memorize a basic strategy chart to know what to play in every situation, or at least keep it handy during your online blackjack games.
Distinguish between soft and hard hands
In blackjack games, the vast majority of hard hands do not contain an ace, but if they do, it's valued at 1 point (if it were valued at 11, you'd already be "busted"). Soft hands always have an ace, which can be counted as 1 or 11 points, to the player's advantage. You'll quickly see in your online blackjack games that your soft hands at the start of the game can quickly turn into hard hands after drawing one or more cards. Soft hands offer a certain level of security: with them, you cannot exceed 21 points by drawing a card. That's why it's often wise to draw even if your soft hand has a high score at first.
Always split aces and eights
Thanks to the basic strategy chart, you'll have an overview that will allow you to know when it's wise to split your cards when you have the opportunity. But if you want to play blackjack on the Internet right now, you should at least know the basic rule that aces and eights should always be split regardless of the situation.
Know the rules that work in your favor
Every online blackjack game has its own set of rules, and some variants offer you better chances than others. Among the configurations that tilt the balance in your favor are: shoes composed of few decks of cards, games where the dealer always stands on their hand when they have 17 points, and games that allow players to draw after splitting aces.
Avoid low payout blackjack games
Some blackjack games will pay the player at odds of 6:5 instead of 3:2. This is one of the most disadvantageous rules, although it is often encountered. This means that if you bet $10 on your hand, you'll only win $12, instead of the usual $15. This rule significantly increases the casino's advantage at the player's expense, so be sure to avoid it at all costs. Fortunately, it's much more common in land-based casinos than in online blackjack games.
Ignore the advice of other players
While other players may have good intentions, they will most of the time give you poor blackjack game advice. Stick to your own strategy and don't worry about what others think, especially at land-based and live casino tables. Some players may blame your decisions for their bad luck, but your choices do not change their chances in the long run.
The Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Chart
Each online blackjack game uses different rules and configurations, meaning there isn't a universal strategy perfectly suited to every situation. That's why we've created our own ultimate blackjack strategy chart.
With it, you'll have a basic blackjack strategy at your fingertips, allowing you to play almost optimally in any classic online blackjack game, thus putting all the odds in your favor to win.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when referring to our blackjack strategy chart:
- Never take insurance.
- If you can't split your cards, adjust your play based on the score of your hand.
- If you can't double your bet, draw a card instead, but always stand with a soft 18 in hand.
- Don't be afraid to surrender.
How to Count Cards in Blackjack
Card counting is one of the most well-known aspects of blackjack strategy, yet it's greatly misunderstood. There are several different strategies for counting cards in blackjack games, ranging from simple techniques that even the odds between the player and the dealer to complex systems that can give you a huge advantage during the game.
Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing illegal about counting cards! However, casinos have the right to refuse service whenever and to whomever they wish, and land-based casinos are likely to no longer let you play blackjack if they think you have an advantage through card counting. So, whatever your method, you need to avoid getting caught.
While each counting system varies more or less, all largely have the same basic principles. Throughout the games, you need to keep in mind the cards that come out of the shoe, taking into account both the cards that are advantageous to you (such as aces and faces) and the weaker cards (like the 4s, 5s, and 6s).
When enough bad cards have appeared, you can then increase your bets because the shoe then contains more good cards for your upcoming hand. Conversely, if many good cards have already come out, it's better to place smaller bets or refrain until the shoe is shuffled again. Some systems may also prompt you to change your basic strategy, advising you, for example, to take insurance in certain cases.
Unfortunately, card counting is not viable in most online casinos. Indeed, these systems rely on many cards coming out of the shoe before it's shuffled again. However, online blackjack games generally shuffle the entire virtual shoe between each game, meaning that the cards played in previous hands have no impact on the next games, as they return to the shoe. You'll also encounter this problem in land-based or live casinos that use continuous shuffling machines.
Blackjack FAQ
You can win real money when playing online blackjack. With a bit of luck, the odds of online blackjack are interesting because the casino's advantage is very limited if you play with a good strategy.
Given its low statistical advantage and with a bit of luck, you can clearly beat the dealer in online blackjack games. The bonuses offered on our top gaming sites are another way to win money at blackjack.
Some blackjack casinos have their own applications (Android or IOS) to play blackjack online for real money. Blackjack games are also often available with your favorite browser. In any case, you can play blackjack online for real money via mobile on our recommended casinos.
The legality of online blackjack depends on the laws of the place where you are. In general, no restrictions prevent players from playing real money on blackjack sites even if you play in a country where online casinos are not regulated.
Even though we advise you to play blackjack for free at first, to get the hang of it, the game's pleasure is more significant in real money blackjack. We offer the best casino sites with online blackjack games.
