How to Crush Microgaming's Classic Blackjack Game

Published: August 14, 2014

In Microgaming-powered online casinos, Classic Blackjack is the key blackjack game that you need to know how to play if you're a fan of the genre. This game can give you exceptionally high payouts if you know how to play it right, and we're going to give you a heads-up on what you need to know to crush it. This game follows standard blackjack strategies except for a few key differences thanks to the specific liberal rules and the restriction on doubling to only hard 9, 10 and 11s.

For hard hands 12 to 16, you're going to always hit when facing a strong dealer card (seven through ace) and always stand when facing a weak dealer card (two through six) except when you have a 12 against a 2 or 3 when you're going to hit. With hard hands 8 and lower, you'll hit normally, and you have double options with nines, tens and elevens. Double tens or elevens on nine or lower, and double nines against weak cards. Hit otherwise. Playing hard hands is every easy here since you're always going to hit if you have 17 or higher, and that covers the majority of hands with just a few guidelines.

Soft hands are exceptionally easy in this game. You're always going to hit with 17 or lower (since you don't have the option to double), and you're always going to stand with 18 or higher with the exception of facing a nine or ten with a soft 18 where you're going to hit instead. Just remember that you don't hit against an ace with a soft 18, and you'll be in good shape.

As usual, paired hands can be a little tricky. Instead of covering how to play every single hand, we're going to show you how to play in the general sense. You're always going to hit fours, stand on tens and split aces. You'll always double fives unless you hit against a ten or ace, and you'll always split eights unless you hit against a ten or ace. Twos and threes have you only splitting if you're up against a three, four, five or six, and sevens have you splitting when facing a seven or lower. You'll stand against a ten and otherwise hit if you have a ten facing an eight or higher. Other than that, you can play basic blackjack strategy and usually break at least a 99.8 percent payout in this game.