I Found the Best Online Blackjack in Atlantic City

As an online blackjack fanatic and occasional Jersey Shore visitor, I visited many online casinos in Atlantic City looking for blackjack tables.

I think I’m a minor league blackjack expert in AC.

Even after the tumultuous past few years of casino closings and projects that failed to launch, Atlantic City is a little Mecca of online blackjack. If you compare the atmosphere of my favorite AC online casinos to Las Vegas, there is absolutely no similarity. In South Jersey, you have miles of beaches, the beautiful boardwalk, and a very pastoral countryside, and the area used to be home to health spas. In Vegas, you have acres of desert and dreary weather most of the year.

I finally did it. I have played or and gathered details on every online blackjack game in the city. In this post, I immediately discuss the best online blackjack games at Xgtiger Casino.

The Best Blackjack Odds

When most people hear the phrase “the best blackjack,” they think of this game as offering the smallest house edge. That’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, but I don’t think it’s all that the story states. I’ll start there, because that’s what most people want to know.

The best online blackjack game in Atlantic City (in terms of odds) is at the Golden Nugget. This is a game played with a six-deck shoe, which gives a smaller house advantage than the standard eight-deck shoe. Other rules that favor players – dealers can stand on soft seventeen, and players are allowed to surrender late. Last surrender is a common rule used in AC that gives the player the right to lose and keep half of his bet after the dealer checks blackjack.

Combined, these rules give the online casino a 0.34% advantage over players who follow the basic strategy. The last surrender rule costs 0.8% by itself. What’s in it for? You need to be willing to bet at least $50 per hand. It’s a high-roller game, even if $50 per bet isn’t much. Tables requiring $1,000 bets per hand are common in Vegas VIP rooms. But I imagine it’s out of reach for most casual online blackjack players.

Every other online casino in the city (besides Bally’s) has a six deck game with similar rules, available for minimum bets of $25. The reason for the cheaper bets? They do not allow late surrender. You can also find $10 minimum six deck shoe games during the day at the Borgata, but late surrender is not allowed on that game either. The house edge for these games (without the benefit of the last surrender rule) is 0.42%.

The Best Budget Game

Part of the problem people have with blackjack in Atlantic City is that they think all games follow the same rules. I will admit that most online blackjack games, in online casinos are the same. Here’s how they look: played with an eight-deck shoe, which allows doubling down on any first two cards, the dealer hits a soft 17, you can split up to three times, and double down after the split is allowed. That game gives the casino an edge of about 0.67% against the basic strategy.

Here’s the thing – I don’t think it’s a bad game. Look, you know that getting into online blackjack in AC isn’t as good as online blackjack in Las Vegas, right? So when you’re talking about a “budget” online blackjack game, you need to know that you’re not going to get huge odds.

The fact that every online casino in Atlantic City (except the Borgata) offers an online blackjack game like the one described above makes it a favorite choice for those on a budget. The game at Borgata is identical, except that the dealers STAND on soft 17, so the house edge against basic strategy is 0.44%, slightly better than other online casinos up and down the boardwalk.

I’ve decided that Borgata’s main online blackjack table, with a minimum bet of $10 (or even $5 on a non-peak season day) and a decent house edge of 0.44%, is the kind of game I’ll sit down and play a time when other things are not noticed. At $25 an hour, it’s cheaper than a night at the movies, and you’ll meet the most interesting people. Don’t forget that AC casinos are rampant for customer service right now, with their profits in the toilet. I was getting nice free drinks all night at my last game in cheap seats at the Borgata even though I was losing about $10 an hour.

Try and avoid any very low limit games you find in Atlantic City. In the year 2011 I started seeing games that allowed bets as low as $1. Of course, there is a catch – you have to pay a $0.25 commission fee for each hand you join. This makes every hand a sucker bet, as the player starts an extra quarter-point in the hole at the online casino.

The Worst Game in Atlantic City

The only tables I would never go near are now available at every open property in the city. The terrifying single-deck blackjack game.

One should always be suspicious when a casino deals in a single deck game. More than likely, the rules are that the game cannot generate income for even a low-level card counter. That is certainly the case in Atlantic City. There is not a singlee-deck game that pays 3-to-2 for natural blackjack.

I looked and confirmed that every single-deck game (even my beloved Borgata) pays 6-to-5. That one rule gives the house a huge boost to its edge – 1.58% against the basic strategy.

Any single-deck game you can find (that’s not in the high-roller or VIP section) is the worst game in town.

Summary

Las Vegas tables tend to have the most liberal rules in the world of online blackjack. In Atlantic City, adding features like late surrender or stand-on-soft-17 can be nice, but you have to pay for those privileges with a higher online casino advantage. If you find yourself in South Jersey itching for an online blackjack game, make sure you know the games available at the online casino you’re visiting before you leave. Most online casinos in AC are not good for blackjack players – unless you have a big bankroll.

Conclusion

Are you an avid gaming fan and want to know how to bet on online casino games? At Xgtiger, you’ll get the latest information on this year’s best casino games and a variety of gaming options, all in one place.

To start your online gambling journey, all you need to do is create an account on the site, deposit funds and you’ll be ready to bet on the best and most anticipated casino games.

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