Live Blackjack Online: Real Money Blackjack at The Clubhouse Casino

Playing live blackjack online is as close to the action as you can get from home. Discover 3 special blackjack moves to help you beat the dealer at The Clubhouse.

theclubhousecasino - February 19, 2023

If you love cards, logic and winning cash prizes, live blackjack at The Clubhouse Casino is the game for you. To ensure you get maximum value from our live dealer casino tables and have the best shot at winning, scroll down for our complete guide to live blackjack online.

Play Live Blackjack at The Clubhouse Casino

Live blackjack is a race to 21. That’s the aim and that’s why you’ll be standing, hitting, splitting and doubling during each showdown with the dealer. Before we get into the nuances of how to play blackjack, we need to talk a little bit about live casino gaming.

Online casino games started out as digital offerings. Specifically, they’re animated games powered by random number generators (RNGs) and designed to mimic what you’d find in a land-based casino. These games were hugely entertaining when they appeared in the late nineties and they’re just as fun today.

However, these games have evolved. The advent of online streaming more than 10 years ago gripped the online gaming industry and gave rise to live dealer casino games. By combining webcams with RFID trackers and specially designed digital overlays, developers such as Evolution Gaming were able to create new live casino experiences online.

In the case of live blackjack, you can log into The Clubhouse Casino, fire up a table, and you’ll see a real person dealing the cards. You’ll also see real cards and the same table you’d find in a land-based casino, while able to listen in to all the table talk.

Live dealer online games don’t just mimic what’s available in a land-based casino, they broadcast it directly to your desktop or mobile. Everything takes place in real time with real people, creating a unique and more immersive gaming experience that The Clubhouse Casino players love.

How to Play Live Blackjack

Live blackjack online is the same as it is in any setting. Whether you’re playing live blackjack, watching cards at a digital table, or betting inside a land-based casino, the rules remain the same.

With this being the case, a typical betting round in live blackjack goes like this…

You log into your The Clubhouse Casino account (click here if you don’t already have an account).
Make a deposit if you don’t have funds available in your account. Live dealer casino games are real-money affairs, so you need cash to play.
Go to The Clubhouse Casino live dealer lobby and find a blackjack table you like the look of.
Power up the game, say hello to the dealer, and place a bet (equal to or greater than the table minimum but not more than the maximum).
You receive two starting cards.
The dealer receives one starting card.
You assess the value of your hand and decide whether you want to stand on your total or take another card (hit). If you hit, you reassess the value of your hand and make the same decision: stand or hit.
Once you stand on a total, the action moves to the dealer. If you go bust (hit a total that exceeds 21), the hand is over, and you lose your stake.
The dealer reveals their second card and assesses their total. If the dealer’s total is 16 or less, they have to hit. If their total is 17 or more, they have to stand.
If the dealer busts and you have an active hand, you win. If the dealer doesn’t bust, your final totals are compared and the highest one wins.

That’s how to find live blackjack online and play. As you can see, it’s a fairly simple process. But there are a few more nuances you need to know before you log into The Clubhouse Casino and take on our live dealers.

Live Blackjack Rules & Odds

Once you’ve completed the above steps, you’ll be in the mix. That means you’ll be ready to receive your cards and play a round of live blackjack. The aim is to make the best total possible which, in this game, is 21.

The secondary aim in live blackjack online is to beat the dealer. The “best total” is relative. 21 is the best total and one you should try to get as close to as possible. But that’s not always necessary.

In reality, you’re aiming to beat the dealer in one of two ways:

You can stand on a total that ends up being higher than the dealer’s
You can stand on a total and wait for the dealer to bust (go over 21)

It doesn’t matter which way you get the best total. The only thing that matters is that you don’t go bust and, in turn, have a better hand than the dealer. Do that and you’ll win your bet. How much can you win? Good question!

Live blackjack payouts are:

Straight Win: 1:1 (aka even-money)
Blackjack Win: 3:2

A straight win is where you hit a higher total than the dealer or you have a valid total and the dealer busts. A blackjack win is when your first two cards are an ace paired with a 10 or picture card (J, Q, K). These two cards make a total of 21 and, importantly, an unbeatable total. The only time you won’t win with blackjack is if the dealer also hits blackjack.

Special Blackjack Moves

Those are the basics of live blackjack. The final pieces of the puzzle are the extra moves you can make. We know that hitting and standing are the standard moves. In certain situations, you’ll be given additional options:

Split

If your first two cards are a matching pair, you can split them into new hands. For example, if you’re dealt 9-9, you can pay to split them up. Each 9 forms the first card of a new hand, which means they’re paired with a second card.

So, let’s say you’ve split your nines and now you’ve got the following hands: 9-8 and 9-10. At this point, you’ve got two hands. One is worth 17 and the other is worth 19. You now have all the same options you’d have at the start of a game i.e. you can hit or stand.

Splitting can be a strong move in the right situations. We’ve discussed this in our blackjack strategy article. One thing to note is that it costs an extra bet. So, if your initial bet was €10, you’d need to bet an extra €10 to split. This doubles the cost of the hand but, if you win, you’ll receive double the payout.

Double Down

Another move you can make at a live blackjack online table is doubling down. You can technically double down on any total that’s 11 or less. In general, most rule sets only allow you to double down if you have a starting total of between 8 and 11.

Regardless of what the rules allow, doubling down costs an extra bet. So, if your starting bet was €10, you’d pay an extra €10 to double down. Once you’ve paid the extra bet, you’ll receive one card only. That means you have to stand and can’t hit anymore once you’ve doubled down.

Why would you put yourself in a position where you only receive one card? Because you have an advantage. When the dealer has a weak starting card (such as a 4) and you have a potentially strong hand, doubling can be a good idea.

For example, if the dealer has a 4, we know the best total they can have is 15 (if their second card is an ace). The rules of live blackjack state that the dealer has to hit until they have 17 or more. Therefore, the dealer has to take at least one more card in this situation, which means they could go bust.

In contrast, you have 11 and can’t go bust on the next card. So, by doubling down, you’re adding another bet to the table in a strong position. That increases your potential returns if you hit a strong total that beats the dealer or the dealer busts. This is why players double down.

Insurance

It’s possible to insure your bets in live casino blackjack games. Anytime the dealer’s first card is an ace, you’ll be offered insurance. Taking insurance costs 50% of your initial bet. So, if you wagered €10, insurance costs €5.

You’re insuring your hand against the dealer having blackjack. If you take insurance and the dealer does hit blackjack, you receive a 2:1 payout on your insurance bet. If you take insurance and the dealer doesn’t have blackjack, you lose your insurance bet, but your main bet remains in place.

Live Blackjack Strategy and Odds

The standard odds in live blackjack are:

A win = 43.3%
A loss = 48%
A tie = 8.7%

This means the house edge (i.e. the casino’s advantage) is 2%. What’s interesting about blackjack is that you can follow certain strategies and reduce the house edge. As well as using a blackjack chart that tells you when to stand vs. hit, you can count cards.

Card counting in online live blackjack can help you determine how many high-value cards are left in the shoe. Basically, if you’re proficient at using card counting as an online live blackjack strategy, you can determine when it’s best to increase and decrease your bets.

Counting cards and establishing whether the deck is in your favour (more high-value cards left in the shoe) isn’t easy. Therefore, you should only try it if you’re highly experienced.

Live Blackjack vs Video Blackjack

We’ve already explained the differences between live blackjack and our digital games. To recap and help you decide which games to play, here are the main features of each: