Online Blackjack for Real Money in South Africa 2024

Online blackjack in South Africa is a card game SA players can easily master. You play against the dealer and try to overcome them. The game's results are based on the hand values of a player and a dealer. Your goal is to get a hand value that will be higher than the dealer’s, but this amount shouldn’t exceed 21 (otherwise, a player busts). That’s why the game is said to take its roots in the Twenty-One family of casino games.

The game is played with one to eight 52-card decks. When talking about an online casino version for South Africans, the cards are continuously shuffled together, making it impossible to apply the card counting strategy. Before a round begins, a player needs to place a bet (there are also side bets like 21+3, Perfect Pairs, and Royal Match). Mainly, you put virtual chips of certain values on corresponding positions, though in some games, you are offered to regulate the stake via ‘+’ and ‘-’ icons. When the game begins, a player and a dealer get two cards. The dealer’s cards are one face-up and one face-down (the hole card).

Dealers can’t double, split, or surrender. Depending on the game’s type, a dealer may need to stop on hard or all 17s. When the dealer busts (gets a hand value of over 21), a player’s hand wins. In other cases, the hand values are compared, and the winner is the one with a higher value (but it shouldn’t be over 21).

Basically, your bets can bring even money. However, a blackjack combination (an Ace and another card having a 21 total value, for example, A + K) pays 3:2 (though some real money online casinos in South Africa can set smaller payouts).

Since the outcomes of online blackjack games are based on hand values, it’s worth understanding how much certain cards bring and how to count these totals. Actually, it’s easy because all number cards bring corresponding values (eg. 8 points for an eight or 6 points for a six). As for face cards (pictures), they are all counted as 10. Aces are the most attractive in this regard since such cards can be counted as either 1 or 11 (always a value that is better for a player). 

For example, when you have a hand worth 14 and you get an Ace, it will be counted as 1 (15 in total) not to let you bust. And when you have a six, the Ace will bring you 11 to let you get 17 points. Moreover, when you are lucky to get a combination of an Ace and any of the cards from 10 to K, you get a blackjack (21). As for the card suits, they don’t influence the hand values, and you don’t pay attention to them.

Soft and hard combinations

As Aces can be counted as both 1 and 11, depending on what a player needs, they create soft combinations (the ones that can vary, adjusting to the players’ needs). And combinations that have stable values are called hard combinations. This detail is important not only when you are planning your next steps (for example, when you have a soft 15, you won’t take high risks when hitting, while a hard 15, in most cases, makes players stop). Besides, in some blackjack online game variations, the combination type (hard or soft) determines whether a dealer should hit or stand. But it all depends on the rules of the game you pick, so make sure to examine them beforehand.

Though all casino games at online casinos in South Africa are random, table games are based on certain rules and actions players take. That’s why SA players and mathematicians worldwide try to make correct strategies based on the deep game’s understanding. And the most common one is the basic online blackjack strategy. Simply put, it’s a guide that tells you what your next step should be. The solution will be based on your current hand and the dealer’s up card (the one with its value revealed to a player). Due to this knowledge, you can decide when to surrender, split, double down, stand, and hit.

Relying on mathematical research, this strategy minimises the house edge from 2% to 0.5%. However, these are the results provided in the long run. Moreover, the house edge is still present, which necessitates SA players to be careful. The range of steps is complex since there are loads of potential combinations on the field. These are several examples of the steps according to the basic blackjack strategy:

• When you have hard 5 to 7, hit
• On hard 8, you hit either on the 2 to 4 or 7 to A dealer’s upcard. On the dealer’s 5 or 6, you should double
• On hard 9, double on the dealer’s 2 to 6 and hit on the dealer’s 7 to A
• On hard 10, you double in nearly all cases, except for the dealer’s 10 and A when you need to hit
• On hard 11, always double
• On hard 12, you hit on the dealer’s 2 to 3 or 7 to A. In other cases, stand
• On hard 13 to hard 16, stand on the dealer’s 2 to 6 or hit on the dealer’s 7 to A (on hard 16 and the dealer’s 10 or A, surrender when allowed)
• On hard 17, you should always stand
• On soft totals of A + 2 to A + 6, you hit on the dealer’s 2 or 3 (except for A + 6) and the dealer’s 7 to A, and in all the other cases (the dealer’s 4 to 6) you double
• On A + 7, stand on the dealer’s 2, 7, 8, and A, hit on the dealer’s 9 and 10, or double on the dealer’s 3 to 6
• On A + 8 and A + 9, always stand, except for the dealer’s 6 on your A + 8 (double instead)

In addition to the overall guide, you will find charts that display all the possible steps and the cards you and the dealer may have. On this chart, you will see all the possible actions. They are H (hit), S (stand), D (double), Dh (double down if allowed, if not hit), Ds (double down if allowed, if not stand), Rh (surrender if allowed, if not hit), and Rs (surrender if allowed, if not stand). Some charts also have the P (split the pair) option with Ph and Ps variations.

Basically, a winning online casino blackjack hand pays even money (1:1). However, when South African gamblers are lucky to get a natural blackjack combination (when the first two cards are an Ace and a ten-card, such as a ten or a picture card J, Q, or K), it pays 3:2. However, South Africans can try out more risky bets, also known as side bets, for a higher winning potential. For example, 25:1 for Perfect Pairs or up to 100:1 for different combinations on 21+3 bets.

Card counting is a blackjack strategy based on assigning a positive, negative, or zero value to each card. To understand what cards have been dealt, players need to physically watch the games and count the cards according to the determined system. For example, Stanford Wong introduced the idea of back-counting when a player stands behind the blackjack table when tracking the cards. That’s why it’s also named Wonging. But this strategy doesn’t work when casinos continuously use shuffling machines. And it’s always so for an online blackjack dealer since, unlike physical blackjack games at land-based casinos, online games are based on RNG, and players can’t track the cards and try to count them. That’s why online blackjack card counting is impossible; this also refers to high roller casinos.

Blackjack is a table game with sky-high odds and a wide range of betting options. Though the rules are simple, there are many opportunities for those wanting to try various betting strategies and gambling tricks. This allows SA players to opt for bets with even payouts or more risky side bets with a higher potential. To find out about these options, explore online blackjack reviews of titles provided by top vendors like Yggdrasil, NetEnt, Rival, Pragmatic Play, and others. In South Africa, punters have many opportunities to try out the game, learn its rules, and benefit from its variations. You can play blackjack in South African online casinos where all conditions are adjusted for real money games in rands or other currencies. Rely on this ranking and make sure that the RTP of RNG-based online blackjack games is really stunning.