Atlantic City Blackjack: Rules, Pros, and Cons

It’s pretty disappointing when you are playing blackjack than to get a pair that should be split, only to split them and draw another pair that can’t be split due to the house rules. At many casinos, especially at the lower limits, you can only split pairs one time. While that doesn’t come up all that often, it can be super frustrating when it does happen.

But when you are playing Atlantic City Blackjack, you won’t have to worry about that, as you can split your pairs up to 3 times each, making a total of 4 hands. These little rules can add up to big money, and this is a compelling reason to play Atlantic City Blackjack!

It is never fun to surrender when playing blackjack. To give up on a hand and willingly lose half of your bet isn’t something that many casual players choose to do very often. But if you want to beat the house, you have to let the math dictate your decisions, not your emotions.

I suppose you could just stand on your 16 against the dealer’s face card and pray that they don’t make a hand. But the math tells us that you are going to lose in that spot more often than the 50% we need to be profitable. Which means that surrendering is the right play.

That is a game changer, as there are lots of times that you take a hit hoping for a perfect card, only to brick out and get stuck in a losing scenario. Being able to take half of your bet back and live to fight another day, at any point in the hand, is one of my personal favorite reasons to play Atlantic City Blackjack.

This rule is so prevalent that many players don’t even realize that the dealer hitting on soft 17 is actually better for the casino than the players. The vast majority of blackjack games have the dealer hit on soft 17 and stand on hard 17.

But when you are playing Atlantic City Blackjack, they have the dealer stand on both hard and soft 17. This sways the casino’s house advantage .22% towards the player. Now, that might not sound like a lot on the surface, but when you see that an optimal rules BJ game only holds a little over 1%, picking up a quarter of a percent is actually pretty impactful.

This final reason why you should be playing Atlantic City Blackjack isn’t quite universal, but it is very close. In many places, like Las Vegas, nearly every blackjack game is going to be 6-5 these days. If you do find a 3-2 game, it is usually going to be in the high-limit pit, as the lower limits are going to be mostly 6-5.

That trend is the exact opposite with Atlantic City Blackjack, as most of the games you are going to find are going to be 3-2, not 6-5. That’s not to say that you will never find a 6-5 game, as they do exist, but more often than not, the games will pay 3-2 on a blackjack.

We talked about how the dealer hitting on soft 17 gives you an extra .22% of value, which is nice. But it’s nothing compared to the difference between a 3-2 game and a 6-5 game, as that alone gets you over 1.5% of added value!

Despite the fact that you can split up to 3 times with most pairs, you can only split aces once at Atlantic City Blackjack.

I won’t be too tough on them for this one since this is rarely available anyway. Still, it’s really a bummer, as the one pair that you are ALWAYS going to split is aces, and the fact that you can only do it once is disappointing.

This final reason to avoid Atlantic City Blackjack is a personal pet peeve of mine. Insurance is always bad. You should never, ever, ever, take it. It doesn’t matter which version of blackjack that you are playing, you should ignore insurance completely, as it is an awful bet for the player.

Yet, despite it being amongst the worst bets you can make on the casino floor, every BJ game I have ever played has it as an option. I wish that one of these casinos would have a backbone and pull it from the game altogether, as it slows the game down, and can get annoying when the dealer asks you if you want to take it.

No, I don’t want insurance, so please stop asking me about it! I can put this one on my wish list of things that likely won’t ever happen right along with stopping the dealer from peaking for blackjacks.