Introduction to Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most exciting casino games available for play. The rules are easy, the bets are big, and the fun you will have is amazing. The goal of Blackjack is for the total of the players cards to be closer to 21 than the dealers, without going over 21. Aces can either be counted as 1 or 11, all of the face cards are counted as 10, and the number cards are their face value. If you get a Blackjack ( which is an ace and a card equaling 10) you win one and a half times the amount that you bet. A Blackjack always beats the score of 21. A regular non-Blackjack win gets you as much as you bet ( if you bet $25, then you get $50). If you bust, which is to have your cards total over 21, then you lose you bet. If the dealer and you have the same card total then you push and nobody wins, you get your bet back. This is called a push. In some games you have the choice to surrender - which offers the player the chance to fold their hand but lose half of their original bet. This option must be taken before you do anything else with the hand. This is a very handy rule to have if you use it right. A lot of players surrender too many hands, the best rule of thumb is surrender when you think you only have a 25% chance of winning. Once the player looks at their cards and decides that they are not going to surrender that is when they get into either hitting ( to draw another card), or standing ( to stay with the cards currently in their hands).

If you got over 21 the dealer will take your bet and your cards from the table right away. To make the decision to hit or stand comes from the total of the cards that the dealer originally gives to you. For example if the player has been dealt a 10 and a 9 then that player would want to stand, where as if the players is dealt a 2 and 5 the player would hit until they are closer to 21.

In this game you can also split your cards, double your bet, or get insurance. You would split your cards if your first cards have the same value. By splitting your hand you take the original hand and split them into two separate hands by placing another bet equal to the original bet. After you place the additional bet bet on the split had you draw cards. You can draw as many cards as you want on each of the split hands, but if you split two aces you can only get one card for each ace. If you get an ace and a card that equals 10, its counted as 21 not as a blackjack. The best time to split your hand is when you have two of the same cards, but they are valued at eight or less, that way you have a better chance of getting at least one good hand to beat the dealer. You wouldn't want to split two tens or two nines because that in itself is a good strong hand with which to beat the dealer.

To Double means to double your original bet after you have received two cards and you think that getting another card will let you beat the dealer's hand. In this case you double your bet and receive the third card. There are good and bad points to doubling down, its good because if you do it at the right time you can win twice the money, but if you miscalculate then you have lost the chance to be dealt more than one extra card.

If a dealer gets an up-card of and ace, he will offer the players insurance. These bets can be made by betting up to half of your bet amount in the insurance section in front of your bet. The dealer will then check to see if they have a Blackjack, if they do then the insurance bet will be paid to you at the odds of 2:1. You will lose your original bet unless you also have a Blackjack. So in the end you break even if you bet the half of for insurance. That is why it is called insurance, it keeps your original bet safe. If the dealer ends up not to have Blackjack then you lose the insurance amount but keep your original amount to play out the rest of the hand. Seasoned players usually don't take the insurance bet, they would rather just hold out and see what happens, because in the long run you end up losing more than you are winning when you play the insurance.

The dealers in Blackjack have no choices to be made in how they play their hand. They always play in one of two ways that can be easily identified by looking at the table top of the blackjack table. It will either say Dealer stands on all 17's or Dealer hits soft 17. When it says that they dealer stands on all 17's it means that the deal must continue hitting until his total is at least 17. If the dealer happens to get an ace in his hand it is always counted as 11 if possible without going over 21. If the tabletop reads Dealer hits soft 17 that means that when the dealer has a total of soft 17 he hits until he has at least a soft 18. This rule gives the house the a slightly higher advantage over the player. The game of Blackjack sounds a lot harder in words than it is to play and is a little intimidating at first but, once a player gets to a casino and starts playing the game, all of this comes fairly easily. The player sits down and starts to play and pretty soon they are having a good time and the rules are being taken in as they go.

I have provided you with a blackjack strategy card to the right. This card demonstrates the correct move to make depending on what two cards you have and what the dealer's up card is showing.

Key to the Blackjack strategy card:
 

Orange = Hit

 

Red = Stand

 

Green = Double if allowed, otherwise hit

 

Beige = Split

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