Comparison of Live Dealer Blackjack Rules
Comparing Canadian live casinos with the best blackjack rules.
It’s no surprise that live dealer blackjack games are so popular among the internet’s vast gambling community. True blackjack aficionados find the tedium of computer generated, RNG-based games to be far too robotic and monotonous. A live casino offers the same energy and interaction of land-based casino table games, without sacrificing the convenience of playing from home on a computer, or from almost anywhere in the world on a mobile device.
In the early days of live dealer blackjack, just having that option was enough to draw players, much like the legal expansion of gambling in Las Vegas nearly a century ago drew gamblers southwest; not because the games were so good, but because they were so readily available. Now that live casinos are so well established, it’s become a matter of quality over quantity. Now, players don’t just want access to the games. They want the best games, with the most favorable rules, that deliver the highest returns.
Canadian Live Casinos with the Best Blackjack Rules
I wouldn’t call Canadians picky. We’re a pretty laid back demographic. But we aren’t the type to just take whatever comes along either; not when we know there’s a selection worth investigating. For this reason, I decided to cut out some leg work and present you with this detailed comparison of live dealer blackjack rules.
I’ve chosen four distinguished live casino suppliers, all of which license their live-streaming studios to reputable, Canadian-facing online casinos. They include:
- Evolution Gaming
- Extreme Live Gaming
- Microgaming Live
- NetEnt Live
- PlayTech Live
So, without further ado…
Comparison of Live Dealer Blackjack Rules
| Details | Evolution | Extreme | Microgaming | NetEnt | PlayTech |
| Decks in Shoe | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 |
| Dealer Soft 17 | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand | Stand |
| Double on… | Any 2 | Any 2 | 9-11 only | Any 2 | Any 2 |
| Double after Split | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Re-Split | No | No | No | No | No |
| Hit Split Aces | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Surrender | No | No | No | No | No |
| Dealer Peek | Ace only | Yes | No | No | No |
| Blackjack Pays | 3 to 2 | 3 to 2 | 3 to 2 | 3 to 2 | 3 to 2 |
| House Edge | 0.72% | 0.61% | 0.63% | 0.47% | 0.60% |
| RTP w/ Strategy | 99.28% | 99.39% | 99.37% | 99.53% | 99.40% |
Deciphering the Information
The table above shows all the major rule variations supported by each live casino supplier. To the players favor are fewer decks, doubling on any two cards, doubling after a split, and the option to hit split aces. All of the suppliers listed also support a payout of 3:2 for a natural blackjack, which is great. Each of these rules have a positive impact on the expected return.
On the opposite end of that spectrum or rules that negatively impact the player’s theoretical return. For instance, none of these live casinos allow the player to Surrender at any time in a hand. Mos of them do not allow a player to hit split Aces, either. Only Microgaming live blackjack allows it – a checkmark in their favor. Then again, Microgaming (along with NetEnt and Playtech) does not require the dealer to peek at a hole card for blackjack prior to player’s making hand decisions.
The Dealer Peek rule is very important. If the dealer does not take a hole card, or peek at the hole card for blackjack, the player may lose any additional bets made on the hand (double, split) beyond the original bet when the dealer turns up blackjack.
When you combine all of these rules into a melting pot, you get back a computation of the game’s house edge. The house edge is the percentage of overall bets the casino expects to win from all of their players. The opposite of the house edge is what we call the return to player, or RTP, which is the amount of a player’s bets that they can expect to win back from the casino over the long term.
Picking the Right Live Casinos for You
In deciphering this table, you’ll be able to choose which Canadian live casinos offer the rules you enjoy playing by most. Or, if you’re a strategy-minded player, look at the last row of information and choose the game that delivers the highest RTP with basic strategy applied.
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