Lightning Blackjack takes the classic table game that we all know and love, and adds a completely new level of volatility with the help of random multipliers!
This game is the latest addition to the Lightning series made by Evolution. This is a series where they’ve taken our beloved table games, and added new crazy features. They’ve already released Lightning Roulette, Lightning Dice, and Lightning Baccarat, and next up is Blackjack. In this review, we’re going to be focusing on Lightning Blackjack, in particular, so let’s get started!
How to play Lightning Blackjack?
Everyone probably knows how Blackjack works. But if you don’t, we thought we would run a quick introduction before we go into the Lightning Blackjack variant specifically. In blackjack, you play against a dealer and not other players. The goal of the game is to get as close to 21 as possible, without busting. All cards have their own number as their value, except for J, Q, and K which are all valued at 10. The ace works both as 1 and 11, depending on what suits your hand best.
Lightning Blackjack follows in the footsteps of Lightning Roulette, where they simply took the base game and added the chance to hit big multipliers. These multipliers are completely random and are determined before the round starts. To start playing, you simply place your bets. As soon as the bets have been locked in, the flash can strike selected hands.
You can easily track which hands have been struck by lightning multipliers using the wall behind the dealer. It has been lit up with all the multipliers active for each round. After the flash has hit all the multipliers, the game starts as usual. The dealer automatically stops at 17 and above, and your goal is to get closer to 21 than the dealer does. If both get the same value, it will be a draw and you will get your bet back. If you win a multiplier, it is carried over to the next hand you play.
Lightning Blackjack Rules & Strategies
Should a dealer hit an Ace as his first card, all players will be offered insurance. This allows the player to pay double of their bet if they think the hidden card is giving the dealer a Blackjack. If the dealer gets Blackjack, it is paid out 2:1 to everyone who bought insurance, otherwise, all bets are lost and a new game round begins.
Should an Ace not appear, the game round starts as usual. Then you have the following options after receiving your two initial cards:
- Hit – Hit, and take another card. This is recommended for all hands that do not have the risk of busting. That is everything under 12.
- Stand – Stop, and stop taking cards. This is recommended if you think you will bust. In some cases, it is even advantageous to stay on hands you think the dealer will bust. An example would be 12 against dealer 6. Here it is always worth staying.
- Double – Double your bet, and take another card. You only get one more card, without the opportunity to play on, so be careful with this bet. A good position to hit Double is when you have an 11 on hand.
- Split – Double the bet, and split your cards into two separate hands. Both hands will be played out separately. This is a good choice if you have, for example, two Aces, or two eights.
There are many strategies for Blackjack, and the Lightning features add even more potential strategies if you are good at it. We recommend checking out a standard Blackjack Cheat Sheet to quickly learn the basics, before embarking on more advanced strategies.
Some of the examples we used above are just typical examples and nothing that should be done on every hand. Blackjack is very easy to learn, but difficult to master. Once you have done that, however, you can enjoy one of the highest RTP in the entire casino. Lightning Blackjack has an RTP of whopping 99.56% on the first hand.
Lightning Blackjack Features
As we ventured into a bit earlier, this game has some awesome added features that add higher volatility. Firstly, there are endless seats and not a maximum of seven as it usually is on the Blackjack tables. This is because all players play on the same hand. You make your own choices, but the hand will be played for other players who have made other choices. This greatly speeds up each game round in the long run, however, so you do not have to sit and wait a lot of unnecessary time for other people’s choices.
To have access to these giant Lightning Multipliers, you must put twice as much as your initial bet into a form of “Lightning Fee” each round. This could be seen as an extra side bet. After that, the flash will randomly strike different hands. The following hands are the ones that lightning can strike:
- Four to seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Blackjack
To win the multiplier, your hand must both beat the dealer’s, and land on one of the randomly selected values with a multiplier on it. Only then, you’ve won the multiplier. It will then be applied in the next round. Hands that you pick Split and Double on only doubles your initial bet. The possible multipliers that can strike down are x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x12, and finally x25.
Play Lightning Blackjack
Do you think Lightning Blackjack sounds like a fun and exciting game? Then we’re happy to announce that this game has actually already been released. You can enjoy Lightning Blackjack, and many other of their fantastic Lightning titles at Rizk Casino, as well as Casumo. Both of these casinos offer a gaming experience beyond the ordinary and have really fantastic sections for Live Casino titles. You can try many more innovative and exclusive Evolution titles there. Good luck!
