Lesson 2 of 8 · Ways to Play

Types of Blackjack: Table, Video, Online & Live Dealer

Table games, video machines, online and live dealer blackjack, and popular variants.

Blackjack is played in several different ways. The basic idea is the same in all of them, but this site is 100% focused on table blackjack: a dealer, real cards, and standard casino rules. Every lesson, chart, and practice game here assumes that game.

Ways to play

Table blackjack: the classic casino game. A dealer deals real cards at a half-moon table, from a handheld deck, a shoe, or a shuffling machine. This is the game we teach.
Video blackjack: played on an electronic machine in a casino or betting outlet. The rules usually favor the house more; for example, a blackjack often pays only even money.
Online blackjack: a computer program deals the cards using a random number generator.
Live dealer blackjack: a real dealer with real cards, streamed online from a casino or a studio.
Variants: games like Spanish 21, Double Exposure, and Blackjack Switch borrow blackjack's basic idea but change key rules, so the strategy on this site doesn't apply to them.

Video machines, online software games, and continuous shuffling machines reshuffle so often that card counting doesn't work. Online gambling is also legal only in some places.