As online casinos offer players with easy access to a range of card games, Blackjack is one among those card games which are most preferred both by professionals and novices. Professionals love it because of the fact that underlying its simple rules is a complicated tactic which decides their winning chances. Novices, on the other hand use blackjack as a stepping stone since it’s a game usually known by common masses. On common grounds, both prefer the game since apart from poker, this is the only one that offers such high chances of winning in online casinos.
A lethal combination of luck and skill, blackjack offers players with a chance to increase their profits in gambling by smartly integrating strategies to their styles. With such strategies depending up on complicated mathematical calculations, it comes as no surprise that the second half of the 20th century saw scientists and mathematicians getting attracted towards creating strategies for a game that was largely considered a form of gambling. One such mathematician, Roger Baldwin even published cue cards with printouts of optimal Blackjack strategies in the Journal of American Statistical Association.
While Blackjack is known to be a favorite among players, Double Exposure Blackjack is generally not. This, because even though it incorporates some basic blackjack rules, most of the strategic modifications made are detrimental to players. Also, the change in rules does not change its odds against other online blackjack games and therefore such modifications do not work in favor of players from any angle.
As suggested by its name, Double Exposure Blackjack requires the dealer to expose not one but both his cards by dealing them face up. Though it may seem advantageous to players, additional modifications over shadow this small advantage. For instance, the fact that it is played with eight decks of cards as against the normal four lowers the chances of player’s being dealt winning hands.
Another modification that works in favor of the dealer includes the rule changes in case of ties. The basic version of Blackjacks allows players to take back their bets without winning anything in the tie or push situation. However, in Double Exposure the dealer is always the winner in case of ties. An exception to this is a situation where there is a natural blackjack in which case players are given even money payouts and is also advantageous to casinos that now pay 1:1 against the 3:2 pay-outs that are given on normal Blackjack tables.
Dealers have the option to either Hit or Stand on soft17. As such, different tables are built showing the individual strategies that can be applied in both cases. Double Exposure Blackjack allows players to split a maximum of three times. In case a player splits a pair of aces and is then dealt with a face card, then it is not considered a Blackjack. While it also allows players to re-split aces, once a player splits aces, each hand is given only one card after which the player is forced to Stand.
In relation to Doubling Down rules, players are allowed to Double Down after their first two cards are dealt only if the cards total to nine, ten or eleven. However, if dealt with a Blackjack, Doubling Down is restricted. While the Double Down bet is equivalent to the player’s initial bet, players have the option to Double Down after Splitting.
"Dealer Disclosure" and "Face Up 21" are some of the names synonymous with Double Exposure Blackjack. Though professionals are attracted to this variant simply because of the challenge, by now it is clear that its rules and strategies are entirely different from other blackjack games and should be carefully studied before taking chances.
