$5 for 200 Hands: Is the Coins.Game Blackjack Mission Worth It?

Every Friday Coins.Game launches a weekly mission for blackjack fans. The terms are short: play 200 hands at $1 or more each and hit at least one blackjack, meaning 21 with your first two cards. The reward is $5 with no wagering, credited automatically.

Five dollars sounds modest. But once you work out what 200 hands actually cost, it turns into a surprisingly good deal. On one condition: you play basic strategy, not gut feeling.

Mission terms

• 200 bets in Blackjack, each at least $1.
• At least one blackjack during the mission.
• Reward: $5 to your account with no conditions or restrictions.
• Starts every Friday and lasts a week. Track progress in the Missions section.

What 200 hands cost

Let's count at the minimum $1 bet. Turnover for the mission is about $200, a little more if you double down and split.

From there it all comes down to the house edge, and in blackjack that depends on you:

The figures are for standard rules: blackjack pays 3 to 2, several decks. Check the specific table's rules in the game info.

So a basic-strategy player gives away about a dollar on average and gets five back. A "by feel" player hands almost the whole bonus straight back. On top of that, rakeback trickles in: Coins.Game's in-house games earn 1% of your bets, multiplied by your rank coefficient.

What if the blackjack never comes?

The second condition scares people for no reason. A blackjack shows up roughly once every 21 hands. The chance of playing 200 hands and never seeing one is under one hundredth of a percent. You are more likely to run out of tea than to fail the mission because of it.

An honest word about swings

An average loss of a dollar does not mean you lose exactly a dollar. Over 200 hands your result can easily swing $15–20 either way. The mission does not guarantee a profit in any given week. It tilts the maths your way over the long run. That is why a $1 stake makes more sense than $10 here: the mission counts hands, and a bigger bet will not speed it up.

Cheat sheet: when to hit, when to stand

Look at your total and the dealer's up card. Below is a simplified basic strategy for standard rules.

Hard hands (no ace, or the ace counts as 1)

• 8 or less: hit.
• 9: double against 3–6, otherwise hit.
• 10: double against 2–9, otherwise hit.
• 11: double against 2–10, hit against an ace.
• 12: stand against 4–6, otherwise hit.
• 13–16: stand against 2–6, hit against 7, 8, 9, 10 and ace.
• 17 or more: always stand.

Soft hands (the ace counts as 11)

• Ace + 2 to 6: hit; double against a dealer 5 or 6.
• Ace + 7: double against 3–6, stand against 2, 7 and 8, hit against 9, 10 and ace.
• Ace + 8 and ace + 9: stand.

Pairs

• Aces and eights: always split.
• Tens and fives: never split. Play two fives as a 10.
• Twos, threes, sevens: split against 2–7.
• Sixes: split against 2–6.
• Nines: split against 2–6, 8 and 9; stand against 7, 10 and ace.
• Fours: split against 5 and 6, otherwise hit.

Insurance: never take it. It loses in the long run.

The full chart and the logic behind every decision are in What Is Blackjack Basic Strategy. If you are just starting out, read How to Play Blackjack first.

Three mistakes that eat the mission

1. Standing on 12 against a ten. Busting feels close, but a dealer showing a ten wins more often. Hit.
2. Not doubling 11. It is the most profitable hand in the game. Doubling here is your main source of edge.
3. Raising your bet after a loss. The mission counts hands, not dollars. Chasing losses with big bets is pointless and expensive.

How to complete the mission

1. Log in and top up enough to cover your bets.
2. Open Blackjack on Coins.Game and keep the cheat sheet handy.
3. Watch your progress in the Missions section. The reward arrives on its own.

One caveat: Coins.Game's in-house games are not part of the weekly cashback; details in Up to 20% Cashback With No Wagering. For this mission it does not matter: the value is in the five dollars and in making the right decisions at the table.