Why Claim Blackjack Bonuses and Promotions?

Is using bonus money to play blackjack worth your while? Are you a beginner? This guide gives you all the answers in less than 5 minutes! (Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash)

Whether you are a beginner or an intermediate player, blackjack is a challenging game. The rules are simple enough, but there is more to playing blackjack than knowing when to double down, split, stand, or hit.

Bonus Money is Great For Beginners

To become a seasoned blackjack player, you will need as much free cash as the casino will throw at you via bonuses and promotions. You can run through as many hands as possible to get a feel for the game.

It is like learning to drive or taking up a new sport. The more you do it, usually the better you become. A few extra bets using bonus money is one of the perks of playing at online casinos. However, the process you should take is (1) free play on virtual tables and (2) bonus money. Plus, if you play through the wagering requirement, your bonus money converts to real money!

Use your Bonus and Play Basic Blackjack Strategy

Most blackjack games offer a house edge of just 1% or less. In other words, the theoretical return to player (RTP) is 99%+. I recently created a casino guide that gives you Blackjack games with the highest RTP. However, it would help if you played a disciplined blackjack game according to the RTP the casino has attached to it. I say this because blackjack players give the house a higher house edge than the game offers because they lose a percentage of their RTP through lousy decision-making. I.e., hitting when they should stand or splitting when there is no need to split (the worst example being splitting 10s).

Therefore, learning basic strategy is critical to becoming a successful Blackjack who minimises your losses and maximises your winnings. However, this only applies to anyone who knows and understands basic strategy, otherwise called optimal strategy.

Use bonus money to perfect your basic strategy: If you are done with playing the demo versions of virtual blackjack, and you want to hit the live tables where the atmosphere and realistic vibes of the game are, but you are still classed as a beginner, then look for an online casino that offers bonuses available to use on the live blackjack tables.

Learning Basic Strategy – Bonuses can help you perfect the art!

Ready to beat the house and take as high a percentage from your wins as possible? The only infallible way you can do this is by using the correct basic strategy charts that fit the rules on the blackjack table.

Learning basic strategy is not particularly difficult. However, it rather depends on how good your memory is. It would help if you also had the correct basic strategy chart according to the rules of the table. This includes knowing how many decks of cards are in the shoe. Whether you can use the surrender rule. You also need to find out if you can double down after splits or whether the dealer stands or hits on soft 17. These small quirks in the game can pull the house edge in favour of the casino or your favour. More importantly, your decision-making according to these rules also helps you maximise your win rate in the long run.

If you prefer, these tables (or charts) tell you what to do next according to your hand total versus the dealer’s up-card. If you are an absolute newbie to the game, the dealer will deal you 2 face-up cards, while he/she will also have 2 cards, but only one of those cards is face-up.

Surrender rule tip: Not many tables use the surrender rule. However, if you can use it, it means after you receive your first two cards, you can surrender your hand for 50% of your bet back. This is called ‘Early Surrender’. If a table allows ‘Late Surrender’ it means you can surrender your hand for 50% of your bet back even after you have hit. Whether to use the surrender rules is a mathematical decision, and your basic strategy chart will help you with this.

How do basic strategy charts help you?

They are the mathematical odds of winning or losing a hand in the abovementioned situations.

• The perfect explanation of a lose-lose situation: They can also be confusing. For example, if you hit the dealer, it has an 80% of winning. If you stand, the dealer has a 70% chance of winning. Either way, this is a lose-lose situation. Yet, unless you can surrender and get 50% of your bet back, your only option here is to do what? The correct move is to stand and hope the 30% odds of winning go in your favour.
• The perfect explanation of a win-win situation: If you hit, you have a 70% chance of winning; if you stand, you have a 90% chance of winning.  Which one will you choose?
• Splitting: You have 8-8. The optimal strategy here is to split because 16 is considered the worst starting total in Blackjack. If you hit, you have a high probability of going bust. If you stand, the dealer can easily beat your 16-hand total. Yet if you are lucky enough to have 8-8, can split and have a higher chance of winning one or both hands. With splits, you do need to put an extra bet on the new hand, but if you lose one and win one, you break even.

Varying Rules all Blackjack Players Need to Learn

Where and When to Use Basic Strategy Charts

Using these charts is not easy if you are playing blackjack at a live table in a land-based casino. On the other hand, if you play blackjack online, you can have these tables printed out in front of you, on your phone, or another screen.

By using a casino bonus or promotion that gives you free cash or bets, you will not only be playing versus a house edge of 1%, but you will also increase the number of hands you can play, giving you a higher chance of winning.

You will need to be aware that the basic strategy will change according to the variation of Blackjack that you are playing. Some tables will not allow you to split or double down. Other tables will have multiple decks in play.

In the accompanying table, there is an extremely basic explanation of how basic strategy charts will help you make the correction decision. The decision provided is based on two concepts (a) The highest percentage/probability of you winning. (b) The lowest percentage probability of you losing.

Examples of Basic Strategy Moves

Note: These rules are for a 4-8 deck game S17 (Dealer hits soft 17), DAS (Double Allowed after Split)

Take Advantage of Welcome Bonus Codes

If you are a blackjack player, and this is the first time you have understood how basic strategy applies to the house edge, then the best advice we can give you is to start a new casino account. You can use the welcome bonus and start playing the basic strategy. Most welcome bonuses will give you a 100% deposit match bonus. That means if you deposit £100, you will be awarded an additional £100. As a result, your starting casino balance will be £200. Most online casinos offer the chance to double your money up to an average of £500.

Warning – some bonuses exclude blackjack! Not all casino will allow you to use bonus bets on blackjack games, or any table games for that matter. Therefore, you need to make sure the terms and condition specifically mention that the bonus does not exclude blackjack games.

Use Your Blackjack Bonuses and Promotions to Play Bonus Bets

If you can find a blackjack table that offers bonus bets, then using your bonus cash can spice up the action. Blackjack side bets come in many shapes and forms. Some of the most common include betting on t a progressive jackpot or 21 + 3, perfect pairs, and more. Look at the blackjack tables at your online casino and see if there is a bonus bet option on any of them.

Most pro blackjack players ignore side bets: With most side bets, the house edge is 3% and can be as high as 8%. This is why serious blackjack players who use basic strategy will never bet on them. Another bet pros will ‘NEVER’ take is ‘Insurance’. By ignoring these bets, you maximise your winnings by sticking to the 0.5% to 1 % house edge by following your basic strategy chart.

Live Casinos that Offer the Best Blackjack Bonus Deals

Play LIVE Blackjack Tables

LIVE Blackjack tables are situated in a land-based casino location, but no players visit the location. Instead, there are HD-quality webcams linked to the blackjack tables. There is also a live dealer dealing with real cards. The webcams stream this back to your desktop or mobile device so you can place bets. In some casinos, you can also interact with the dealer.

The live webcam action is the closest you can get to playing blackjack without setting foot in a casino. However, if you are a low-stakes casino player, it can be tough to play on the live tables because they come with higher minimum bets than virtual blackjack games.

However, if you have a decent casino bonus and promotion plan with your online casino, you can use bonuses to help you justify increasing your stakes.

Read Livecasinocentral Blackjack Guides

Using Regular Casino Bonuses

If you have already joined an online casino, you have most likely already used your Welcome Bonus code. In this case, you should head over to the regular bonuses section. Several promotional offers should allow you to double your cash or get free bets playing blackjack.

• Cashback on your losses: If you consider how low the house edge is on Blackjack tables, then the cashback is one of the most valuable regular bonus deals out there. You can get up to 25% of your losses returned. Even better still, there are casinos that offer wagering requirements of just 1x, 5x or 20x on the losses returned.

Some casinos don’t have a promo section and instead send custom bonuses to your phone or email. The casino should recognise that you are a regular blackjack player and offer bonuses to increase your casino balance to get more bets on the blackjack tables.