One of the most fun and potentially lucrative online blackjack games is online multi-hand blackjack. Instead of just going head to head with the dealer, you get to run up to five independent hands. That adds up to five times the blackjack fun, five times the blackjack excitement, and five times the chances to win at blackjack.

As with all versions of online blackjack, the aim in online multi-hand blackjack is to accumulate a hand that adds up close to twenty-one without going over. You have an advantage over the dealer since you draw cards up until the point you want. The blackjack rules require that the dealer must stop when he reaches seventeen or higher. You can stop at twelve or thirteen or fourteen, or you can keep going to eighteen, nineteen, or twenty. If you do so and your hand is higher than the dealer's you win.

Of course, the best approach is when you draw a face card (whose value is always ten) and an Ace (whose value is either one or eleven). These two cards add up to a natural twenty-one, or Blackjack. You are an automatic winner. Even better, with five-hand blackjack, each hand that contains blackjack is a winner and pays three to two.

You can also win with other combination that add up to twenty-one. For example, a four, an eight, and a nine. If the dealer goes over or under 21, you win. When you win with a non-blackjack hand, you get paid one to one.

In a traditional blackjack game, you play one hand. Beforehand, you must pick a black jack strategy and you are fairly limited by that strategy. For example, a conservative blackjack strategy will have you hold at a soft seventeen (or even a sixteen). A more aggressive approach has you asking for cards at eighteen. A very aggressive approach has you looking for an Ace with a hand of twenty.

When you play five hands at once with multi-hand black jack, you can choose a different blackjack strategy for each hand. With diverse approaches, you have a much better chance of winning a few of the hands on the blackjack table.

Try this experiment. Play multi-hand blackjack in an online casino and designate each hand by a different number. After the deal, you will end up with two cards showing in each of five hands, designated H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5. Now, assign a strategy for each hand. For example, H1 could be a hand that will never go bust. It is always a winner when the dealer goes over. Don't call for any additional cards when H1=12.

Have H2 freeze at sixteen. Still conservative but a bit more forward thinking than H1. Then, assign "freeze" numbers for each remaining hand. Once you reach the "freeze" number, that hand stays. Let you last card be the blackjack shooter. Always call for cards unless you go over or hit twenty-one exactly.

For more information on multi-hand blackjack, please see:

History of Multi-Hand Blackjack
Rules of Multi-Hand Blackjack
Multi-Hand Blackjack Strategies
Multi-Hand Blackjack Tips
Online vs. Land-Based Multi-Hand Blackjack