- What Is A Progressive Blackjack Jackpot
- Progressive Blackjack Jackpot
- Super 4 Blackjack Progressive Jackpot
Many gamblers love playing blackjack due to its low house and in-depth strategy. They can improve their knowledge by mastering basic strategy.
Blackjack is also great for aspiring professional gamblers. Card counting and hole carding both offer legitimate ways to beat the game.
Progressive Blackjack is a standard version of Blackjack that has an optional side bet, usually costing £1/€1/$1 depending on the currency you are using. Just like its name suggests, this Blackjack variant offers a progressive jackpot. It is what makes Progressive Blackjack stands out from the crowd. As for other rules, they are the same as in the standard version of the game. At online casinos, Progressive Blackjack is typically played with 6 or 8 decks. The game starts with the dealer dealing.
One thing that blackjack isn’t as well known for, though, is jackpots. Those seeking huge prizes often opt for slots, Caribbean stud, or Let It Ride.
However, you can commonly find progressive jackpots through online blackjack. I’ll discuss more on the online version’s basics and if you can win big blackjack jackpots at gaming sites.
Basics of Playing Online Blackjack
If you’ve played blackjack in land-based casinos before, then you won’t have any trouble getting started with the internet version. Even if you’re relatively inexperienced with blackjack in general, you can still learn the game fairly quickly.
- Everything begins with placing the minimum wager. You typically only have to bet $1 per hand to play online. Some sites even let you enjoy real-money blackjack for as little as $0.10 per hand.
- To bet, you select a chip domination at the bottom of the screen and place it in the designated betting area. Afterward, you’ll receive two cards from the software/dealer.
- Upon receiving a hand, you have the option to hit or stand. When hitting, you want to avoid going over 21 (a.k.a. busting).
- Depending upon your hand score, you may be able to split and/or double down too. When comfortable with your hand score, you can stand and see if you beat the dealer’s hand.
Assuming you’ve ever played blackjack before, then the online version won’t be any mystery to you. The software also acts as a guiding hand for what you can and can’t do.
Here’s a quick recap on playing internet blackjack hands:
- Choose a chip denomination.
- Place your virtual chips in the designated betting circle.
- [Optional] Place a $1 chip in the jackpot circle.
- The software deals you two cards.
- Hit, stand, double down (if allowed by rules), or split (w/ a pair).
- Stand when satisfied with your score.
- Your hand will be compared to the dealer’s cards when you stand (provided you don’t bust out).
You Must Deposit to Play for the Jackpot
Online casinos give you the option to play free blackjack after signing up. The registration process is a simple matter of entering basic information, like your name, email, phone number, age, and address.
After completing registration, you can begin enjoying online blackjack for play money. The free version gives you an opportunity to practice without risking anything.
Of course, you won’t be able to play for a progressive jackpot until you actually have funds on the site. This aspect requires placing a deposit using one of the available banking methods.
Almost every online casino allows you to deposit with major credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. You may also be able to fund your account with Bitcoin, bank transfer, e-wallet, and/or prepaid card.
Assuming you’ve never deposited at a gaming site before, you shouldn’t experience much trouble with this process. If you need any help, though, the site should offer clear deposit instructions in their FAQs section.
Make the Jackpot Bet
Earlier, I described how playing online blackjack works. You start every hand by making a standard wager.
Playing for the jackpot, however, requires that you place a special side bet as well. This wager, which usually costs $1, qualifies you for the progressive jackpot.
I’ve never played an internet blackjack game that mandates the side bet. You can still play the game as normal even without putting chips in the jackpot circle.
Of course, the primary reason for playing the progressive version is that you want to compete for large prizes on the side. Therefore, you’ll likely be motivated to make this bet anyways.
What Kind of Jackpots Are Available?
To answer the original question posed in this post, yes, you can play online blackjack for real money and win progressive jackpots. You just need to know which game providers offer the largest prizes.
As you may know, online casinos use one or more software developers to fill out their game selection. The size of a jackpot depends upon the provider in question.
Any developer can offer a huge prize at any given time. After all, progressive payouts continue growing until somebody wins them.
But on average, a limited number of game providers consistently offer large jackpots. Here are the biggest jackpot payouts at the time of this writing:
- Playtech progressive blackjack – $140,831
- WGS progressive blackjack – $66,455
What Can You Expect With a Blackjack Jackpot Game?
Each progressive online blackjack game varies slightly in terms of rules and side payouts. Generally, though, they all follow a similar pattern.
As mentioned before, you need to make a $1 side bet to compete for the top prize. You also have to place the regular bet as well. These requirements are universal across all game providers.
The jackpot and any associated side payouts are typically based on the first four cards that you receive. Of course, you won’t always draw to four cards based on basic strategy.
Therefore, you aren’t going to qualify for the jackpot on every hand. For those hands when you do qualify, you’ll deal with something similar to the following pay table:
- 4 suited aces: 100% of jackpot
- 4 aces of any suit: 10% of jackpot
- 3 suited aces: $2,500
- 3 aces of any suit: $250
- 2 suited aces: $50
- 2 aces of any suit: $25
You might think that playing progressive blackjack requires a major strategy adjustment. Luckily, though, you don’t need to deviate from basic strategy at all.
You’re supposed to split a pair of aces regardless. That said, you just split aces like normal and hope to get another ace in each hand.
The odds of four consecutive suited aces falling in your hand are just 1 in 4,392,609. Of course, nobody said winning six figures or mid-five figures was easy.
Are Progressive Blackjack Jackpots Worth Playing For?
Again, you don’t have to place the $1 side bet. The only requirement you must meet to play progressive jackpot involves making the standard wager.
But I strongly suggest that you consider placing a side bet the majority of the time. After all, you can play non-progressive blackjack games that may even offer a lower house edge.
Furthermore, the cost to play for the jackpot is relatively cheap. You only have to risk a dollar to chase a prize that’s worth 5-6 figures. You also get to try for other side payouts that can help recoup the cost of your side bets.
The other side of the equation is that, as a low roller, you may feel like the side wager is a significant amount. You’ll especially feel this way if you only place the $1 standard minimum.
In this case, you’re doubling your bet (from $1 to $2) for the small hope of winning a jackpot. Odds are, you won’t be one of the lucky ones who gets four aces and collects a massive payout.
You simply need to weigh the pros and cons of playing for blackjack jackpots before jumping into a progressive jackpot game. Here’s a recap of the advantages and disadvantages:
Pros- Take a chance at winning a huge payout in any hand.
- You only need to risk $1.
- Other payouts besides the jackpot are available.
- You don’t have to deviate from proper strategy.
- Odds of winning the jackpot are extremely low.
- You’ll often be throwing away a dollar.
- You don’t use any engaging strategy to win (like w/ the main game).
- The jackpot has a high house edge when it’s first seeded.
Conclusion
Blackjack may not offer the type of record-breaking jackpots that slots do. However, you can still play for some big prizes with this game.
You simply need to play at casinos that are supplied by WGS or Playtech. Both providers offer their games to different sets of players, which covers a large part of the world.
The big thing that you must realize going in, though, is that your chances of actually winning a jackpot aren’t great. You’ll get some thrills from chasing big progressive payouts, but you probably won’t ultimately win.
As long as you’re realistic about the matter, though, then you’ll get some enjoyment out of progressive blackjack. You should earn non-jackpot side payouts every now and then too.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.What Is A Progressive Blackjack Jackpot
Progressives aren’t exclusive to pokies – you can win a huge jackpot playing blackjack too. Playtech offer the chance to play traditional 21 with the added bonus of being able to win a huge progressive prize pool.
Note: The information provided below is intended for our international readers only. As of September 2017, online casinos are banned from offering their services to Australian players following the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, so for Australians the content on this page is informational in nature only.
Progressive Blackjack Jackpot
Blackjack progressive jackpots
Progressive jackpots on blackjack games work in a similar fashion to pokies progressives. Whenever a player places a real money wager on the game a percentage of the bet is added to the prize pool. This causes the jackpot to grow and depending on how many people play it can get quite large.
A player can then win the progressive by making a side bet while playing a hand of real money 21. The best variant offering a progressive jackpot is Playtech’s 5 Hand Blackjack Progressive title.
What is a Blackjack 5 progressive?
With Playtech’s progressive variant, players can opt for up to five simultaneous blackjack hands at once, each with the opportunity to make an additional bet in order to try and win the progressive jackpot. This is playable for real money or free play/practice mode at Casino.com.
Playtech’s 5 Hand Progressive Blackjack is unique to Casino.com.
Six decks are in play with standard European blackjack rules, where the dealer has to draw on 16 and Stand on all 17s. Splitting is acceptable on the first two cards, with as many cards as you want eligible to be drawn unless you’ve Split Aces – then you can only draw once. Double Down is available, as is Insurance and a unique rule called 10 Card Charlie where you win if you draw 10 cards without going bust.
Chip sizes available on Playtech’s variant range from 0.01 to 25, with a minimum table limit of $0.50 and maximum of $50 at Casino.com. Once logged in, there is an option to choose from minimums of $5 to maximums of $500 for this title, however.
Place your bets by dragging the chips to the table, and place them on each hand of up to five hands available. Then click Deal. The house edge for this variant sits at a low 0.42%, with an even lower house edge attached for the side bet, which we go into below.
Super 4 Blackjack Progressive Jackpot
As you can see, gameplay is incredibly straightforward – it follows traditional blackjack rules – but there’s also a side bet available in real money mode which gives you the chance to win the progressive jackpot attached.
5 Hand Progressive Blackjack side bet
A coin slit icon sits next to each betting option for the blackjack hand. In real money mode, this will be clickable, and doing so places the side bet of $1. The light will turn green and 3% of your bet will be added to the progressive jackpot. You can make up to five side bets in one round – provided you place a bet on all five blackjack positions.
To win the jackpot, you need to land four suited Aces. If you don’t, you can still win a payout with the side bet.
- Three suited Aces will get you 5000x your bet
- Four non-suited Aces will get you 2500x your bet
- Three non-suited Aces will get you 250x your bet
- Two suited Aces will get you 100x your bet
- Two Aces will get you 50x your bet
- One Ace will get you 5x your bet
Any wins from the side bet are paid at the end of the game, including the jackpot prize pool, and if you’ve opted to Split then they are calculated for each hand.
The house edge for this side bet is set at 0.15% – incredibly low for a side bet in a game of 21. There is always money available to win with the jackpot progressive – even after a win a seed amount will be added by the casino to replenish the jackpot in case there is a back to back win.
Playtech’s customisable blackjack
Playtech have the unique feature of making gameplay customisable. This includes changing the colour of the table. While it doesn’t sound much, changing it from the standard green to purple or white does give the overall experience a new vibe. There’s 10 available colours to switch between with gameplay remaining the same – five positions are available to bet on with this variant with five available side bet options.
Progressive blackjack strategy
Basic strategy is important to keep the house edge as low as possible and when opting for the chart on this title you need to rely on the rules. The strategy provides you with the best possible move, statistically speaking, to make when considering the total value of your hand with the dealer’s up card. It won’t guarantee you a win every time, but it does improve your odds.
The basic strategy relies on the number of decks and whether or not the dealer hits on 17. Fortunately, the jackpot side bet doesn’t alter basic strategy so you don’t need to hunt down a chart associated with these rules.
You do need to ensure the chart is for a six deck blackjack game where the dealer draws on 16 but stands on all 17s however. This can be easily found doing a simple Google search – you can then leave the chart open in a separate tab while you play Playtech’s 5 Hand Blackjack Progressive.