In 2005, Microgaming launched and promoted heavily its ‘Gold Series’ of games. Such games included a variety of blackjack products, alongside roulette and baccarat. These gold series games presented players with a new, modern vision of some classic table games, presented in several styles. Blackjack in itself has many variations, and Microgaming took some of the more significant ones and included them into their ‘Gold Series’ selection.
The ‘Gold Series’ games offer up an altogether more genuine and luxurious casino feel through visibly enhanced graphics. The main difference that will instantly be seen is the fact that the backs of the cards are clearly gold, to tie in with the ‘Gold Series’ label. Operationally speaking, the games featured in the gold series are significantly better than the standard Microgaming products. There’s also a very nice land-based establishment feel to the games, with the sound of background piano music playing and the chitter chatter of other customers.
There are a few different variations of blackjack that have been given the gold treatment, as mentioned.
First of all, the classic blackjack game has been included, of course. Standard blackjack rules are followed, and players can place a wager on a single hand, or across up to five hands. The dealer must stand on all 17 and doesn’t get to peek at his cards. Double downs on hard 9, 10 and 11 are included, as are splits. Chips in this game range between values of 1 and 25.
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Premier Bonus Blackjack Gold offers up chips with values between 1 and 10, and again, players can place bets on between one and five hands. This version of blackjack allows the dealer to peek at his cards when dealt a face up Ace or 10. Split is available, double down is available on first two cards only, insurance is available, but surrender is not. The big difference with this game is that players can place a side bet that makes them eligible for bonus payouts on a winning hand.
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Atlantic City Blackjack only allows wagers on a single hand, with chips ranging from values of 1 up to 25. The big difference with this variation is that late surrender is available, allowing players to surrender after the dealer has checked their cards.
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Vegas Strip Blackjack gives the player a chance to split unlike 10 value cards, as well as split three times to make four hands. Double Exposure Blackjack, European Blackjack and American Blackjack have all been given the gold treatment as well. Double Exposure reveals the dealer’s hole card as its main difference to regular blackjack, while European and American Blackjack stick to the set rules of their respective games.
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While Microgaming does have a progressive blackjack in Triple 7 Blackjack, this is not a part of the ‘Gold Series’. For the moment, the only progressive featured as part of the developer’s ‘Gold Series’ is Caribbean Draw Poker. So for now, there isn’t a progressive blackjack game in the gold series, although there are the couple of alternatives mentioned to try your luck on.
The feeling of being in a pleasant casino and playing an aptly more luxurious game than the standard versions of blackjack is what the ‘Gold Series’ provides. Each version of blackjack included in the series comes with a strategy card that highlights the optimum move on hand to the player, and the likely conditions of doing so. There’s also an autoplay aspect to the ‘Gold Series’ games as well, allowing you to repeat several rounds until a certain amount of bets have been placed, a certain amount of rounds played, or other criteria set up to your own preferences.
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