What is the best casino to play Blackjack for free online on a Mac?
You can find out by reading the top resource on playing blackjack on a Apple
computer. We will let you know the correct play on any Blackjack
hand either through our strategy charts, our blackjack rules or our
blackjack hand playbacks. Before playing Blackjack online, make
sure you are playing at a online casino that has the blackjack variation
you are interested in playing.
Once you are confident enough to play we suggest you
read our casino reviews on the top Blackjack casinos that are
Mac compatible casinos.
We have written the reviews through the eyes of a online blackjack player.
You'll be able to find what bonuses, if any, allow you to play at
the Blackjack tables (most don't), which blackjack variations are available
in the casinos and which Blackjack games are actually available in the Mac
compatible version of the casinos. None of the casinos reviewed have
all the Blackjack games in their 'no download' casino, but all of them have at
least one variation in their flash casino.
Some of the Mac operating systems built by Apple computers
that we have tested playing blackjack on a Mac include, Snow
Leopard 10.6, Leopard 10.5, Tiger 10.4, Panther 10.3, Jaguar 10.2, Puma 10.1 and
Cheetah 10.0. Although we haven't tested other Mac OS, we are more than
confident that they will work at the casinos that we have listed as Macintosh
compatible or running on Java software.
Different Blackjack Variations
There is many different types of blackjack games to play.
Some allow you to double on any hand, some lets you double only on some hands,
some allow you to re-split Aces and some actually allow you to see both of the
dealer's cards while playing your hand.
The most common
and most popular blackjack game follows the
Vegas Strip Blackjack rules.
The Vegas Strip rules allow you to buy insurance, you can re-split up to three
times, double down on any two cards and you can even double down after splitting
a pair. Some of the other benefits are that the dealer has to stand on a
soft seventeen, blackjacks are paid 3:2 and the dealer will look at the hole
card whenever the dealer's up card is an Ace or a ten value card. The drawbacks include, no
re-splitting Aces, only one card is allowed after
splitting Aces, four decks of
cards are use, no surrender is allowed and blackjacks pay 1:1 when you split
Aces.
For
Atlantic City Blackjack, the
rules are mostly
the same expect that late
surrender is allowed and eight decks of cards are
used.
Playing
Vegas Downtown blackjack is very similar as
well except for one big rule change. The dealer must hit a soft seventeen.
Other minor rule changes include that only two decks would be used and you will
be allowed to surrender your hand.
European Blackjack will
make the dealer stand on a soft seventeen just like Vegas Strip, but there are
many other rules that makes this game less desirable to play. There is no
re-splitting of any pair, you can not
double down after splitting, players can
only double down on a
9,
10 or a
11 and the worst rule of all is that the dealer
will not check the hole card to check for blackjacks until after everyone has
played their hands.
There are also some more obscure
blackjack variations that are nothing like the regular blackjack games that you
play at your local casino.
Pontoon is a variation of blackjack that pays
2:1 if your hands has five cards which is also the best possible hand, a tie is
a loss to the player, you can hit after doubling down and pontoons (blackjacks)
pays out 2:1.
Playing
Blackjack Switch will have you playing two hands at the
same time. The player has the option of switching the second card of both
hands with each other and when the dealer has a 22 all active player hands will
be a
push. Yah, I am not making this stuff up. Also, blackjacks pay
1:1 and no re-splitting is allowed.
Double Exposure is
unique variation of blackjack, because you can see both of the dealer's cards at
all times. This is a huge advantage, so to make up for this the dealer
will win at all ties except for Blackjacks. You will be paid 1:1 if both
you and the dealer has BJ's.
A Spanish 21 deck consists of
48 cards instead of the normal 52. All four 10's are removed from the
deck, this is a big disadvantage to the player. To make up for this a
player's BJ will beat a dealer's BJ, you can re-double once, Aces can be
re-split and there is some special hands that pay out up to 50:1. For a
further review on the rules and about the special hands check out the
Spanish 21 rules.
