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Online Casino Blackjack Dealers

Basic Blackjack Playing Strategies

With the assumption that the Casino dealer's down card is a 10, you can now determine whether the dealer has a stiff or pat hand. If the dealer's up card is a 2 through 6, he or she probably has a 12 through 16 hand which is a stiff. Likewise, if the dealer's up card is a 7 through 10, he or she probably has a 17 through 20 or a pat hand.
Once you've determined the stiff/pat nature of your hand and the dealer's, use this simple rule to determine whether to hit or stand.
Player stiff against dealer stiff...STAND. Player stiff against dealer pal. HIT.
For example, you're dealt a 7,8 (15) and the dealer up card is a 4. Your hand is a 'stiff. Assuming the dealer's down card is a 10, then the dealer has a potential 'stiff (10,4= 14). With a 'stiff facing a 'stiff, you should stand.
Suppose you are dealt a 9,7 (16) and the dealer up card is a 7. Here we have a player 'stiff against a potential dealer pat hand. With a 'stiff facing a 'pat', you should hit.

Learning the Rules

Learning to recognize hands as stiff or pat will make learning the Rules for when to hit or stand very easy. Following the stiff/pat rules will allow you to make the correct play in all cases except one, and that's when the player has a 12 and the dealer upcard is a 2 or 3. In this case, the player should hit even though it is stiff against stiff.
Keep in mind that the above rules only hold for player hand totals of 12 through 16 when the hand either doesn't contain an ace or if it does, the ace counts as one (known as hard hands). If you have a 12 through 16 hand which contains an ace counted as 11, the above rules should NOT be used. (Thus you follow the rules if you are dealt a 10,6 (16) or 1O,5,ace (16) but not if you are dealt an ace,5 (16).) Hands which contain the ace counted as 11 are special and are called soft hands. You must always keep in mind the following fact of blackjack. You will receive hands that total 12 through 17 about 43% of the time and overall these are losing hands irregardless of what the dealer's up card is. In other words, computer analysis of each hand vs. different dealer's up card shows that you will always have less than a 50% chance of winning the hand no matter if you hit or stand (with just one exception, standing on 17 vs. dealer 6). The hard standing and hitting strategies if followed will minimize your losses in a losing situation. This is an important point to remember: 12 through 17 hard hands are overall losers and the best we can do with these hands is to minimize our losses by following the basic strategy.

Dealers' Up Card

Understanding the frequency at which the dealer will bust based on his/her up card will help you understand the above hitting and standing strategies. Extensive computer analysis reveals the frequency, at which the dealer will bust or exceed 21, depending upon the dealer's up card, is as follows:
The dealer's worst up cards are 2 through 6 because he/she must hit these hands no matter what the value of the hole card is and his/her probability of busting is high (one exception is the possibility of the dealer having a 6 up card and an ace as a hole card).
FAs long as the dealer must keep hitting, your chances of winning improve. The main advantage the Online Casino dealer has over you is that you must go first, and if you bust, the bet is automatically lost, even if the dealer's hand subsequently busts too. Thus your best percentage play is to stand on low value hands (don't risk busting) whenever the dealer shows a low value up card and a correspondingly high probability of busting (with one exception, hit a hand of 12 whenever the dealer shows a 2 or 3).