European blackjack – play free, no hole card

What Makes Blackjack European

In many online blackjack games, the dealer gets two cards at the start: one face up and one face down. The face-down card is called the hole card.

In European blackjack, there is no hole card. The dealer gets one face-up card and takes the second card only after you finish your hand.

Here is the order of play at a European table:

1. You get two cards face up.
2. The dealer gets one card face up, called the up card.
3. You hit (take a card), stand (keep your total), double (double your bet and take one card) or split (make two hands from a pair).
4. The dealer takes a second card.
5. The dealer hits or stands by the table rules.

Everything else follows the normal blackjack rules. The ace counts as 11 unless that would bust the hand, then as 1, and a blackjack is still an ace plus a 10-value card.

Dealer Blackjack and Your Doubles and Splits

In a game with a hole card, the dealer checks for blackjack before you act. If the dealer has blackjack, the hand ends right away and you lose only your first bet.

In European blackjack, nobody checks early. You may double or split, and then the dealer's second card makes a blackjack.

Say you have 11 against a dealer 10 and you double. Then the dealer draws an ace:

The dealer has blackjack. You lose your first bet and your double.

Victoria's tip

Some online European tables return your extra double and split bets when the dealer has blackjack. Read the rules screen of the table before you play.

How the European Strategy Chart Changes

A dealer 10 or ace can turn into a dealer blackjack after you act. So doubling or splitting against those two up cards puts more money at risk in a European game.

Here is how the standard chart (dealer hits soft 17, dealer peeks) plays hard 11. It doubles against every dealer up card.

Here is how the standard chart plays a pair of 8s. It splits against every dealer up card.

To see what the missing hole card changes, compare two charts with the same soft 17 rule. Against a hole card chart where the dealer stands on soft 17, the European chart changes only these cells:

• Hard 11 against a 10
• A pair of 8s against a 10 and an ace
• A pair of aces against an ace

When both charts use the rule where the dealer hits soft 17, hard 11 against an ace changes too.

The European game on this page uses the rule where the dealer stands on soft 17. If you compare it with the standard chart, where the dealer hits soft 17, you see more changed cells:

Open the preset "No hole card (European), dealer stands on soft 17" in the strategy chart generator to see each new move. The soft 17 page explains the soft 17 rule.

Victoria's tip

Put a hole card chart with the same soft 17 rule next to the European chart. Then you only need to look at the 10 and A columns, because that is where the no hole card changes are.

European Blackjack House Edge

The house edge is the share of each bet the game keeps over a very large number of hands. Here are the numbers with perfect basic strategy.

Soft 17 is a 17 that has an ace counted as 11, like these two cards:

Extra rules can raise the edge further. These amounts were worked out for the hole card game, so in a European game they are rough guides:

• Double on 10 and 11 only adds roughly 0.20 percentage points.
• No double after split adds roughly 0.14 percentage points.
• Blackjack paying 6:5 instead of 3:2 adds roughly 1.36 percentage points.

Basic strategy lowers the house edge but does not remove it. You can test any rule mix in the house edge calculator.

American vs European Blackjack

The name only tells you how the dealer gets cards. Other rules, such as soft 17 and doubling, depend on the table, so check the rules screen.

Victoria's tip

Online tables do not always use the words American or European. Look for the line about the hole card or the dealer peeking in the game rules.

Practice European Blackjack for Free

You can practice the European rules without real money on this site.

• Play hands with no hole card in the blackjack simulator.
• Drill the European chart hand by hand in the blackjack trainer.

Start with the hands that the missing hole card changes: hard 11 against a dealer 10, a pair of 8s against a dealer 10 or ace, and a pair of aces against a dealer ace.

Questions people ask