Atlantic City Blackjack
Microgaming’s Atlantic City Blackjack tables off one of the best blackjack experiences and rule sets that you can find online. With late surrendering, liberal rules around splitting and doubling, and the ability to play up to five hands at once, it’s very heavy on action.
Casinos with Atlantic City Blackjack
An Introduction to Atlantic City Blackjack
In North America, Atlantic City has historically been the biggest gambling city in the continent other than Las Vegas. Because of this, they’re known for having their own style of certain table games.
Blackjack is no exception, and the set of rules found at the online Atlantic City Blackjack tables reflect that.
Microgaming has set up the rules in this game to be similar to the types of rules you tend to find in Atlantic City. It’s a great opportunity to experience a very liberal set of rules that offer a lot of strategic depth. With that said, it’s also pretty friendly to new players or people who have a more recreational approach to blackjack.
You’ll also find that this game has a high payout rate compared to other similar titles. In fact, it’s one of the best-paying blackjack games you can find anywhere with a return of about 99.62 percent with current play. However, even if you make occasional mistakes, it’s still not difficult to keep your average payout rate above 99 percent, which is phenomenal in the genre as a whole.
A Few Quick Notes
We want to note a few quick things about the historical significance of this title. In the past, Microgaming has had two different versions of Atlantic City Blackjack games before this one. Most of the core rules have stayed the same, and most of the differences were for updated graphics.
However, an increased mobile compatibility was included with the most recent version that we’ll be showing here. We want to point that out because more players than ever enjoy their play on mobile. Subsequently, we want to make it clear that this game works extremely well on screens of all sizes. Even the “mini” styles of smartphones have plenty of room on their screens for how this game is set up. Additionally, that goes for both iOS and Android devices.
Essential Rules and Basic Gameplay
We’ll be the first people to tell you that there’s a lot going on at the Atlantic City Blackjack tables. You have more strategic options available than most other games. On top of that, you also have the ability to play up to five hands at once. That’s about the most you can find anywhere in any style of blackjack.
Because of this, we want to walk players through everything that’s happening here. If you’re a new player, you’ll learn how to enjoy this game from the ground up. However, even if you’re a veteran of the genre, there’s a lot here that you’ll benefit from reading.
Basic Play and How Winning Works
In this game, each one of your hands is squaring off against the dealer in separate one-on-one contests. All of the cards in the standard 52-card deck are used in this game with their face values being their worth. However, the jacks, queens and kings are always worth 10 points. Additionally, an ace can be worth a 1 or 11, whichever gives you the higher score without “going bust.”
There are two ways to win in this game. If you go over a total of 21, you immediately lose regardless. However, if the dealer busts (and you don’t), then you immediately win. The other way to win is if neither hand busts, but you have the highest total. Ties are a push in this style of blackjack as well.
Additionally, if you’re dealt a blackjack (21 points in your first two cards), you immediately win. Not only that, but you win at a rate of 3:2 instead of even money, which is what all other wins are in this game.
When it’s your hand’s turn, you get to make choices about how your hand is played. These choices can change your bet size to certain extents, and you can also add cards. We’ll get into how those options work further down below.
The Play of a Single Hand
Here’s a quick overview of how the hands are dealt and how play works for a single hand.
- After placing your bet, you’re dealt two cards. Both of them are face up. Additionally, the dealer receives one card face-up and another face-down.
- If the dealer has a 10-point card showing, or an ace, they check for blackjack. If the dealer has blackjack, the hand is over right away (aside from the insurance option, see below).
- Beyond that point, you’re given the opportunity to play your hand according to the strategic options. Those options are listed down in the following.
- If you go over 21, your cards are removed, and you immediately lose the hand by busting out.
- If you don’t go over 21, however, it becomes the dealer’s turn. A card is added to the dealer’s hand one at a time until the total reaches at least 17. If the dealer busts, the remaining player hands win.
That’s all there is to it for this title. However, once you see how the different betting options work, you can see how complicated the Atlantic City style of blackjack can become.
Your Betting Options
In this style of blackjack, your betting options can be different than other styles. This can happen based on the number of cards you have and other factors. However, here we’ll give you an overview of each available option, when it can be available and what it does.
- Stand – You always have the stand option available. It will end your turn while receiving no additional cards.
- Hit – You’ll also always have hitting available as an option. One card is added to your hand, and your turn continues.
- Double – If your hand has only two cards, you can double no matter your total. This receives one card from the deck, ends your turn and requires you to double the size of your wager.
- Split – When your two cards have the same point value, you can split them into two different hands. However, you have to add another bet equal to the size of your first as the wager for the extra hand.
- Surrender – No matter how many cards are in your hand, your can use the surrender option at all times. This allows you to take back half of your wager in exchange for losing the other half and all chances of winning the hand, even if the dealer busts.
You’ll have a few other criteria that you’ll want to know about with these options that we’ll look at below.
Other Details of the Rule Set
Each style of blackjack has its own unique rule set. Additionally, the Atlantic City Blackjack tables from Microgaming are included in that. With that said, here we’ll list out a handful of specific rules for this variation of the game for reference.
- The dealer does peek for blackjack when holding an ace or a card worth 10 points.
- Eight regular decks of 52 cards each are used here. Additionally, they’re shuffled after each round.
- You can play anywhere from one to five hands per round in any of the five available positions you wish.
- The dealer does not hit if they have a soft 17. It’s worth noting that this is the only real rule change that’s generally different if you actually play in Atlantic City.
- Players can double on any two starting cards, even if it’s after splitting.
- Each hand can split up to three times for four total hands. Subsequently, that means it’s technically possible to have up to 20 hands at once in this game.
- You can only split aces a single time, and you only get one card dealt to those aces after you split before your turn is deemed over for each resulting hand.
- If you split aces and receive a 10-point card, that will not count as a blackjack with the 3:2 payout. Instead, it counts as a regular 21-point hand.
- Two cards that are both worth 10 points but have different ranks can be split in this game. However, it’s always a mistake to do this in this game, so this is a rule you should largely ignore.
These above details inform certain aspects of strategy. However, if you’re just getting started or are a recreational player, most of them aren’t all that important to be able to remember.
How to Win at Atlantic City Blackjack
A standard multi-deck strategy is a good place to start with this game. However, we suggest making a few simple adjustments to form a more robust overall strategy.
First, we suggest learning when to double with soft hands. This can give your payout rate a big boost without having to learn very much new information. Second, learn the situations where you should use the surrender option. There aren’t many of them, however, and the real danger of having the surrender option available is using it too much.
Outside of that, there are no other major rules you need to learn to adjust to. That helps to make this a very friendly game in terms of the strategies you need to learn overall.
Overview
The Atlantic City online blackjack tables from Microgaming offer a very robust experience. For one reason, being able to play five hands at once makes things a lot more fun for many players. Additionally, the rule set doesn’t put recreational fans at a disproportionate disadvantage. Some blackjack games really punish you if you don’t know your stuff on a detailed level. However, this thankfully isn’t really one of them.
Finally, we love the mobile interface for this game. Microgaming did an excellent job creating a super responsive layout that fits even small mobile screens.
FAQ
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