European Blackjack Redeal

Европейский блэкджек Redeal is a specific Microgaming title, not the standard European game. It plays by ordinary European rules, six decks and no dealer hole card, then adds one gimmick on top: for a fee, you can replace cards mid-hand. That single feature is the whole reason the game exists, and the whole reason it is priced worse than a plain European table.

What the redeal feature does

At certain points in a hand the game offers to swap a card: your whole hand, the dealer’s upcard, or the last card dealt to you (not after a split). Each offer comes with a price, and the price is set by how much the swap helps you. The tell is simple and it is the key to the game:

• If the replacement is offered for free, decline it. The game only gives away swaps that would hurt you, so a free offer is a trap dressed up as a favour.
• If the replacement costs something, it is almost always worth taking. The game charges only for swaps that improve your position, so the fee is the price of a genuinely better hand.

Because the cost already encodes whether a swap is good for you, there are very few hard decisions to make. That also means there is less real player skill in the feature than it first appears: the game has done the thinking and simply billed you for it.

House edge and whether it is worth playing

Played correctly, European Blackjack Redeal runs a house edge of about 0.4%, which is merely okay and sits among the less player-favourable games in Microgaming’s blackjack lineup. The same provider offers standard blackjack games with a lower edge, so on pure value there is no reason to choose Redeal over them. What you are paying for is the novelty of buying your way out of a bad hand, and if that entertainment is worth a slightly higher cost to you, the game is honest about the trade.

For the better-value alternatives, compare the plain no-hole-card game on our European blackjack page, and see how deck count alone changes the price on our double deck blackjack page.