Las Vegas Strip Blackjack

Las Vegas Strip Blackjack is a very popular variation of blackjack which shares many of the same rules. Game play is almost the exact same but with a few important variations. After the initial decision on what to do with your hand is made, it plays just like every other form of blackjack out there. However, the early hand decisions determine if you will make a profit or if you will just bleed away money.

First, like most forms of poker, the dealer deals all the player cards face up, and the dealer's hand adds one down card and one up card. He immediately checks his hand for blackjack. If he has 21, the round is over. If not, the play continues.

You have three options on what to do with your hand. You can play it normally and take another card, you can double down and take one more card, or you can split your hand and play multiple hands at the same time. Any hand is eligible to double down but unlike many other forms of poker, you can only split a hand that contains a card with a value of 10. For example, if your hand contained a queen and a jack, you could split this hand.

You can only split your hand a maximum of 3 times, which gives you a total of four simultaneous hands. If you split a hand with an ace, you can only take one more card for that hand. If you split a hand with an ace in it, you cannot split it again. As you may have noticed, splitting hands is very common in Las Vegas Strip blackjack.

After the initial action is made, Las Vegas Strip blackjack plays just like any other form of blackjack. The object is to get as close to 21 as possible without going over. If the dealer has 21, he wins. If there is a tie, the bet is returned to the player. The dealer will continue to hit their hand until they reach 17. If the dealer's up card is an ace, you can buy insurance, which can minimize your loss if the dealer does have blackjack, if you double down or split your hand, you loose your insurance money.

Since this variation of blackjack is played with a reasonable amount of decks in the shoe, card counting strategies can become quite profitable. Unlike Super Fun 21 blackjack, the deck is not shuffled every hand, so if you can keep a count going in your head, you can turn quite a large profit. Even if you don't follow any of these kinds of strategies, you still have a pretty good chance of coming out ahead when playing Las Vegas Strip blackjack. The house edge is so small that all it takes is a simple edge and the odds are in your favor to win. Formulate a basic strategy, stick to it, and you will win a lot of money playing Las Vegas Strip blackjack.


More Blackjack Variations:
Progressive Blackjack
Super Fun 21 Blackjack
Pontoon Blackjack