Felt Gaming Blackjack

Decks

Felt’s blackjack is dealt out of a virtual shoe that contains six full decks. The cards are shuffled by the Random Number Generator before each round commences so advantage play is obviously not an option here. The best you can do is follow perfect basic strategy to reduce the house edge to a bearable percentage. The use of six decks adds 0.02% to the casino’s advantage.

Dealer Rules

The standing rules for the virtual dealers overlap across all Felt blackjack variations. The dealer draws to 16 and always stands on soft 17. This is great for the player because the S17 rule decreases the house advantage by 0.22%.

Felt Gaming has yet to release a European-style version of the classic game. Hole cards are in play in all available variants, which is to say the virtual dealer receives one face-up and one face-down card. This card is revealed only after the players have completed their hands. As for the peek rule, Felt’s virtual dealers check for blackjacks under tens and aces.

Odds

The blackjack odds are also the same in all variations. When the player’s starting hand consists of an ace and a ten-value card, they win a bonus payout of 3 to 2, which basically means you get 1.5x your stake. However, if you split pairs and then draw a ten or an ace, your hand is counted as a regular 21 rather than as a blackjack.

Splitting Rules

The splitting rules in Felt’s games are not as liberal as those in some of the other blackjack variations we have played online but the provider compensates with one extra special rule. Players can draw to split aces which is rarely available in other online versions of the game. Other than that, you can split only a single time as resplitting is unavailable. Doubling down following a split is permitted.

Doubling Down Rules

Doubling down rules are not as flexible as those we have seen in other online blackjack variants. Here players can make this move only if their first two cards add up to combined totals of 9, 10, and 11. These restrictions are unfavorable from the players’ perspective because they lead to a house edge increase of 0.09%.

Insurance

Insurance against dealer blackjacks is offered when the dealer’s first card is an ace. Winning insurance bets pay at the standard odds of 2 to 1. When playing three betting spots simultaneously, players can decline or accept insurance for all three hands with a single mouse-click, something we find particularly useful.

Nevertheless, we suggest you always stay away from this side wager because it has a very high house edge and hardly improves your winning odds. The software enables you to completely turn off the insurance prompts so that the virtual dealer never offers you this annoying and disadvantageous bet.

Surrender

Neither late nor early surrender is available in the blackjack variations Felt Gaming has released so far. This works to the detriment of the players because it prevents them from folding bad hands like 16 or 15 against the dealer’s 10 and saving half of their original stakes.

Caribbean Blackjack

Caribbean Blackjack is indeed a great achievement for Felt Gaming as this is a truly innovative and unorthodox variation that completely transforms the way the game plays. The variant heavily borrows from Caribbean Stud poker. But perhaps more important is the fact, the game is linked to a progressive jackpot, something that can be said of select few blackjack variations.

The interface is available in eight different languages, catering to the needs of the international player audience. The game is fully cross-compatible and plays smoothly on a wide range of portable devices. Another thing of interest here is the great set of side wagers that hold the key to winning a portion of the progressive pool or the entire jackpot.

The winning condition for the side bets is to form a qualifying poker hand that consists of five cards. You play two hands each round, which means the poker hand should consist of each hand’s first two cards and the dealer’s face-up card. There is also a Five Card Bonus. Have a glance at the table below for the precise payouts.

Caribbean Blackjack Paytables for the Progressive and Five Card Bonus Side Bets

Blackjack Plus

Blackjack Plus is among the latest blackjack releases of the software studio and pioneers some unique features and functionalities that are otherwise unavailable in most of the other games. One of them is the Autoplay feature which enables the virtual dealer to automatically play out your desired number of hands in line with perfect basic strategy.

Also available is one new customization feature that allows you to change the color of the virtual felt, having a choice from several options. Less traditional options like grey are available. The speed of the gameplay is also customizable, with three options: slow, medium, and high. The Speed Pay feature also increases the dynamics of the game when turned on.

Perfect Pairs Blackjack

Perfects Pairs is indeed a classic in the Felt blackjack canon as this group comprises the most popular side wagers in the game of 21. These win whenever the player gets a pair with their first two cards, with the biggest bonus payout of 25 to 1 being awarded for two suited cards of the same rank.

The game allows you to play up to three side bets next to three main-game wagers. The minimum of the side bets is only $0.10 so that placing them occasionally is not all that costly. Perfect Pairs is equipped with a blue table felt and all the great features we spoke about previously, including a tutorial, Speed Pay, and the option to completely turn off insurance.

Buster Blackjack

Buster Blackjack gives you one more reason for delight when the virtual dealer goes over 21. The game features a host of optional proposition bets where you essentially wager that the dealer would bust. How many cards they draw to the bust also matters and so does their exact value in some side bets from this group.

The highest bonus payout (2,000 to 1) is awarded whenever you obtain a blackjack and the dealer busts with eight or more cards. Other than that, the game follows the standard Felt rules we spoke about earlier, yielding a house edge of 0.37% only. There are not as many options for customization as in Blackjack Plus but Buster Blackjack still offers Speed Pay and the option to control the dealer and background sounds.

Suit ‘Em Up Blackjack

Suit ‘Em Up Blackjack is yet another achievement on Felt Gaming’s list as the game impresses with great design, playability, and authentic sound effects. You can literally hear the swishing of the cards as they are dealt to you.

As for the Suit ‘Em Up side bets, these debuted on the Las Vegas Strip in 2013 and quickly made it to the floors of North America’s landbased casinos. Felt introduced it to the online gaming community. The top prize is 50 to 1 for a pair of suited Aces. Suit ‘Em Up Blackjack offers an authentic aspirational life-like casino experience, an intuitive interface, and ultra-modern design.