In this guide we cover how to play the mini-game of blackjack in Red Dead Redemption 2, from the rules and locations you can play the game to help you get started playing blackjack.
RDR2 Blackjack Locations
Where to play Blackjack in Red Dead Redemption 2
Below are the areas in the map where you can find and play blackjack.
- Main camp: times vary, but you can play at your main camp with other gang members.
- Rhodes: In the saloon at the south end of the town.
- Van Horn: The saloon is centered in the middle of the town.
- Blackwater: located in the center of the town on the main street in the saloon.
I mean the best strategy for any of Red Dead Redemption 2's challenges is to pace yourself, but with the Gambler Challenges, you're going to feel like you're wasting your time. Don't get me wrong the first seven are fun, but Challenges eight-ten feel like the developers ran out of ideas and never bothered to have an emergency think tank. Double-Deck Blackjack Strategy Introduction. To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. Red Dead Redemption 2 – How to Play A Hand of Blackjack After you bet on your future hand, the dealer hands out cars to everyone at the table. Each player's hand is dealt face-up, but one of the.
Note: You can only play blackjack in Blackwater if you have progressed enough in the main story.
RDR2 Blackjack Rules & Overview
Rdr2 Blackjack Rigged
The game of blackjack is to beat the dealer by having the total value of your hand of cards be closer to 21 than theirs without it going over ('busting'). The game is played with only you and the dealer, but other players are playing as well.
Before cards are dealt in a round, each player chooses how much they want to bet on their hand. The players and dealer are then dealt two cards each. Players' cards are dealt face-up, but one of the dealer's cards is initially hidden.
Each player has one turn in which they may choose to receive another card (hit). and more additional cards until they either bust out or stand with the total score of their hand of cards.
Once all players' turns are finished, the dealer will reveal their hidden card. The dealer's turn has a fixed strategy: if the score is less than 17, the dealer is required to hit. If it's 17 or higher, the dealer must stand.
Players will win if their score is closer to 21 than the dealer's score, or if the dealer busts out. Players lose if they bust, or the dealer's score is closer to 21. If a player and the dealer have the same score, then the hand is a 'push' and the player's chips will be returned.
RDR2 Blackjack Card Values
- Number cards 2 to 10: face value.
- King: 10.
- Queen: 10.
- Jack: 10.
- Ace: 1 or 11. The value used for each ace is whichever puts the hand's score closest to 21 without busting.
If the first two cards of a player's hand are an ace and any ten-value card (10, King, Queen, or Jack) that player has a blackjack because their cards total 21. A blackjack is an automatic win unless the dealer also has blackjack, in which case the hand is a push.
A blackjack win pays 3:2 instead of the usual 1:1 payment for winning a hand.
RDR2 Blackjack Betting
After receiving your first two cards, you have up to four options. The list below describes the many ways to play.
Hit
The dealer adds another card to your hand.
Stand
Ends your turn without taking another card.
Double Down
You can choose to double down as long as you only have two cards in your hand. This doubles the value of your current bet, and gives you one - and only one - additional card. If you don't have enough chips to cover the additional bet, you can't double down.
Split
Blackjack Rules Rdr2
If your first two cards have the same value, you will have the option of splitting your hand. This separates your cards into two hands which are played independently. The new hand has a bet value equal to your initial bet - if you don't have enough chips to cover the cost of this additional bet, you will not be allowed to split.
If a split hand has an ace and a ten-value card, it is not considered a blackjack. Doubling down is allowed on split hands.
Blackjack Insurance
If the dealer's face-up card is an ace, you will be given the option of buying insurance. The maximum insurance is half of your current bet. The dealer will then check their hand for a blackjack. If they have one, you win 2:1 on your insurance bet but lose your initial bet, and the round is over. If the dealer does not have blackjack, all insurance bets are lost, and the round continues as normal.
Even Money
If you have a blackjack when insurance betting starts and you bet the maximum insurance, this is known as taking even money. In this situation, whether the dealer has blackjack or not, you are guaranteed a payout of 1:1. If the dealer has blackjack, you will win the insurance bet and push your original stake. If the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose the insurance bet, but payout for your blackjack. Both resolve to a payout of 1:1.
We hope this beginners guide will help anyone starting off a good idea on how to play the game and the rules for it. For the other Mini Games and Activities in Red Dead Redemption 2, see all the Table Games Guides and check out the complete Guides Section.
Video games suck at blackjack.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a convenient target, being the latest and most high-profile offender. But video game blackjack hasn't ever been done right in my recollection. And it's because every game gets a central component wrong: The key to blackjack, the thing that makes it interesting, is the betting. Not the rules.
SEE ALSO: 'Red Dead Redemption 2' review: Great art at great cost
So let's talk first about those rules, the absolute basics of blackjack. How each card works, what the goal is, how a typical hand flows.
The objective in blackjack is to get a set of cards whose sum is 21. Less than that is OK. More than that is a bust — a lost hand. Numbered cards, 2 through 10, count as the number printed on the card. Face cards also count as a 10. Ace can be either a 1 or an 11, whichever you choose. So if you have a 9 card and two Aces, you have a 21: 9 + 11 Ace + 1 Ace. That's great.
At the start of a hand, you get two cards and the house gets two cards. Your cards are both visible, but you can only see one of the house's cards. When it's your turn — setting aside advanced strategies for a moment — you can choose to either hit (take another card) or stand (end your turn).
Once you stand, it's the house's turn to either stand or hit. They don't make that decision themselves; it's dictated by the cards they're holding. You win a hand if the house goes bust or if the house is forced to stand on a number that's lower than your own card total.
Now that you know the rules, let's talk about how blackjack is actually played in practice.
When you sit down to play blackjack, the only person you're playing against is the dealer, who represents the house. Everyone else at the table influences the way the cards fall — if someone right before you hits and gets the Ace you need, that's one less Ace in the deck that could possibly drop — but they're not the enemy.
When it's your turn in blackjack, the one house card you can see is as much of an influence on what you do as the cards you're holding. The dealer always goes after every player's turn is over, but your decision to hit or stand is based entirely on how the house rules work. Knowing how those rules work is the real key to winning.
It's pretty simple: If the house has a hand total of 16 or lower, the dealer has to hit. Once that total is 17 or higher, the dealer has to stand. The only wrinkle here is when the house has a 'soft 17,' which is an Ace and an 8. Most casinos require the dealer to hit on a soft 17 and then continue playing under the same 'stand on 17 or higher' rule.
Whenever you're playing blackjack, you operate under the assumption that the card you can't see is probably a 10. It's an odds thing. There are 52 cards in the deck, but when you factor in all the face cards a total of 16 cards have a value of 10. That's versus four of each for every other card.
The only person you're playing against in blackjack is the dealer.
Let's think about this now in practical terms. Forget your hand for a second. If the dealer's visible card is a 6, you proceed as if they have a 16 — which means when it's their turn, they have to hit. If the visible card is a 7, they probably have 17 — an automatic stand.
Your decision to hit or stand is based on the same assumption. You can (and should) safely hit anytime your hand total, the sum of all cards, is 11 or lower. Once your hand total exceeds 11, it's all about what the dealer has.
If you see the house has a 7, 8, 9, or 10 showing, you want to keep hitting until your hand total is at least one higher than the visible card plus 10. So if you see a 7, you assume it's a 17 and keep hitting until you're at 18 or higher (or go bust). But if you see, say, a 6 or a 5, you're going to want to stand the second your hand total is higher than 11.
Where To Play Blackjack Rdr2
At that point, you're betting that the dealer will bust. If the house has a 16 and has to hit, chances are they're going to draw a 10. In the case of a 16 specifically, any card higher than a 5 (except Ace) is going to be a bust for the dealer. So if the dealer's showing a 6, you want to stand even if you only have a 12.
There's one special case that's worth highlighting. If the house is showing a 2 or 3 and you have a 12, most pros will tell you to hit. Only a 10 (or 9, if you have 13) will bust you in that situation, and it's also the one case where you hedge the odds a bit and say 'OK, the dealer may not have a 10 hidden here.'
There are other advanced strategies, like doubling down or splitting your hand, but I'm not getting into all of that here. It's good to understand those finer points of the rules if you want to get serious about blackjack gambling, but they're irrelevant to this discussion. (Learn more here.)
Now we come to the heart of what makes blackjack an interesting table game: the gambling.
Red Dead Redemption 2's blackjack (and, really, every other video game version I've encountered) emphasizes 'straight betting.' You put money down, you play the hand, you double what you bet if you win. When the next hand starts, you bet the same amount of money and keep on playing that way.
It's a viable blackjack strategy in terms of the math and the way the odds work out. It's also ridiculously boring and slow. Thankfully, it's not the only option. Enter progressive betting.
With this approach, the amount you're wagering in each hand is influenced by the amount you won or lost in the previous hand. There's a multitude of ways to go about doing that, but I'll share the strategy that has always worked for me. That doesn't mean I've never lost; it's just a reflection of how I've played the odds most successfully.
With progressive betting, the amount you wager is influenced by your win or loss in the previous hand.
Start with the table minimum bet. Let's say it's $5. You bet that. You win. Now you have $10, double your original bet. Let it ride. You win again, bringing your total on the table to $20. At this point, pull back $5 and bet $15. Whether you win or lose that next hand, taking your initial $5 back means you've already broken even and are gambling entirely with 'won' money.
How you bet from that point on depends on how conservative or aggressive you are as a gambler. If I win that third hand, the $15 bet doubles to $30 and, personally, I take $10 back. So now I've got a $20 bet on the table — $5 more than the previous bet — and I've added $10 from my winnings to what I have banked.
The goal in blackjack, at least the way I play, is to stay afloat and keep betting conservatively until I go on what's called a 'run,' a consecutive series of winning hands. Once I get past that starting hump of two straight winning hands (i.e. once I've paid for my initial bet), I'm not risking anything in each successive hand.
In a more aggressive strategy, you might only take back $5 and bet $25 on the fourth hand. You're growing your winnings more slowly by leaving more won money out on the table to be gambled. But, as your run continues, you're also growing that pile much more quickly.
The particulars vary from strategy to strategy. My approach is definitely more conservative, aimed at keeping me in the game longer until I can hopefully go on a run. Like I said, there's no surefire way to win. That's just what works for me.
The problem in Red Dead and other games: When you win a hand, those winnings go right into your master cash supply. It emphasizes straight betting because there's only one number to keep track of: The amount you bet on every hand. If you want to roll with progressive betting, you've got to manually set the next hand's bet each time.
It's an easy thing to keep track of early in a run, but it becomes increasingly complicated as your string of wins gets longer. There isn't a thorough accounting on the screen of what you bet and what you won, so it all comes down to following the math in your head.
Blackjack Rdr2 Blackwater
What's frustrating is this is such a fixable problem! All video games I've encountered deal with blackjack in the same way: Win or lose, your bet resets to the minimum once a hand is over.
Instead, these games should be more reflective of how it would work in a casino. When you win on a $5 bet, the dealer puts another $5 into the space where your bet was placed. It's then up to you to leave the money there or pull it back as you like.
That's what video game blackjack ought to do. Leave my money on the table, let me decide how much to bet next based on how much I just won. It would make virtual blackjack a whole lot more interesting and in line with the way things tend to work in a real casino.
Rdr2 Blackjack 3 Hits
Is blackjack just a minor piece of Red Dead Redemption 2, something that no one has to engage with and a bunch of players probably won't? Sure! But this has been bugging me, a gambler, for a long, long time. And if any game can fix this, it's Red Dead.
