How to play Blackjack
The objective in Blackjack is to not to exceed a total of 21 and either the player or the dealer wins who has the cards closer to 21. Therefore, the player or dealer who has a hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn’t exceed 21. Hands which exceed 21 are ‘bust’.
A ‘Blackjack’ is when a player or the dealer gets a two-card hand of 21 (such as an ace in addition to a card with the value of 10). This is also called a ‘Natural’. A player with a ‘Blackjack’ or ‘Natural’ wins. In most casinos, both online and land casinos, a ‘Blackjack’ or ‘Natural’ pays out 3:2. A new variation of Blackjack, especially in the land casinos, pay out a 6:5:- we strongly recommend that you don’t play this Blackjack as the house edge is increased exponentially to the player’s disadvantage.
If both the player and the dealer have a Blackjack of the same point value of cards, then the two parties call a ‘Push’. Neither the player nor the dealer will win the hand.
Card Values
All normal, numbered card are worth their face value (2 of Spades = 2; 5 of Diamonds = 5 etc. etc.) Any Jack, Queen, or King card is worth 10; an Ace is worth 11. The exception to the value of the cards is to the Ace card only, which, if it would cause a player to ‘bust’ or exceed 21, it is taken as a 1. If it is taken as 11, it is called a ’soft hand’.
Minimum Bets
Minimum bets do not apply across every land or online casino - a player will need to read up carefully on these at each casino - in a land casino, the minimum bet is placed on a sign on the table. If you’re a beginner, look out for the sign prior to starting the game and placing bets.
After placing initial bets, the dealer then deals the cards - how many cards go to the players depend on the Blackjack variant that is being played - in European Blackjack, for instance, the player receives 2 cards but the dealer only receives one card at the point of sharing out 2 cards each to every player.
The Rule of Dealer Peeking
Some casinos allow the dealer to do the customary ‘peek’ to see if he or she has a Blackjack. This practice is not allows done at online casinos and is placing the player at a disadvantage is this isn’t the case. We recommend that you try the Boss Media AB casinos (those online casinos powered by the BossMedia gaming software) in order to play a more fairer game - BossMedia casinos allow the ‘peek’ feature just as it is played in the brick and mortar casinos.
In American blackjack, if the dealer’s face-up card is an ace or is worth 10, the dealer peeks at his or her hole card to see if he or she has Blackjack. This peeking check is done prior to any of the players play. If the face-up card is an ace, the dealer will only peek but after they have offered the players the option of insurance. In some land casinos, especially those in America, the dealer does not actually peek at the hole card until after the players have all played.
If the dealer gets blackjack, a player or multiple players will lose their initial bets with the exception of those players who also have blackjack; they will then ‘push’. All participating players who did not have blackjack will also lose their bets; players who increased their bets by doubling or splitting will only lose their original bet and their additional bets will be returned to them.
Insurance
Players are offered Insurance if the dealer’s upcard is an Ace and before the dealer checks his ‘hole card’. From the view of the casinos, Insurance is a game of its own within Blackjack, which gives a player a chance to protect himself or herself from the dealer getting a Blackjack.
If the dealer’s first card is an ace, insurance against dealer blackjack can be bought for half the price of the initial bet. If the dealer does have blackjack, the insurance pays 2 to 1. If insurance is bought and the dealer does not have blackjack, the insurance bet is lost.
The Insurance is so-called since if the dealer has a blackjack, the bet wins the same amount of the player’s Blackjack bet, such that if insurance is taken and the player doesn’t have blackjack but dealer does, the player does not lose money.
Insurance is always NOT recommended to players especially if they are beginners and do not know how to count cards as it increases the house edge of 2 to a high 15%, depending on the number of decks used and visible ‘10′ cards. Insurance is therefore only recommended if the player has counted the cards and is pretty confident that more than a 1/3 of the deck has cards with the value of ‘10′.
Even Money Bets
There is an option for the dealer to ask the player if they want to bet what is called ‘Even Money’ which is when the player has a Natural (an ace and a ten or face-card) and the dealer is showing an ace. If the player chooses to accept the ‘even money’ offer, he or she is immediately paid 1:1 for his/her natural, independent of whether the dealer has blackjack or not. Unless a plyer has been counting cards, ‘even money’ is also not recommended at all - a player must be absolutely certain that the deck has an unusually high proportion of cards that have a face value of ten.
Splitting
If the particular Blackjack game variant you are playing allows for Splitting and your first two cards are of the same value, you may split them into separate hands (usually two hands), placing a second wager of equal value.
You then proceed to draw cards as usual. However, if you split two aces, you get only one additional card for each hand. If you split two aces and one of your hands totals 21, this is not considered Blackjack, but 21. You cannot split a split hand and only one split is typically allowed; check out the rules for each game variant to see how many times you are allowd to split your cards.
After splitting, a player will now be playing two hands of Blackjack, one at a time. The first hand is dealt a second card. The player must decide whether he would like to Stand or take another card by clicking Hit. Once the player has finished the first hand, he must move onto the second, repeating the same process. After the player is satisfied with both hands it is the dealer’s turn. The dealer will now reveal his other card and take additional cards until he has a total of 17 or more.
Note: The player cannot hit on split aces. The dealer deals a second card only for each hand.
Double down
You can apply the “Double Down” action when you have been dealt two cards and believe that a third card may give you a position to beat the dealer’s hand. Your wager is doubled, and you are allowed to hit and receive just one additional card. Check out the rules for each game variant before proceeding to apply this rule.
It is also possible to Double after a Split, except after splitting two aces.
Counting Cards
Basic strategy of Blackjack provides a player with the optimal strategy play for any blackjack situation based on millions of hands played in the long run.
When a player is able to remember and track the cards that have already been played, the player is at a high advantage if they are certain that there is an overwehlming number of Aces and tens remaining in the deck. This gives the player the advantage of possibly raising their bet if they remain confident of hitting a Blackjack and also can guide the player to double down if they are confident that there are many tens left in the deck.
Some single-deck Blackjack games reduce the house advantage to almost zero depending on the particular rules that any given casino has adopted. When playing at online casinos and at land casinos, look for single-deck Blackjack games that have a 3:2 payout as they give the player the best possibilities to winning at Blackjack. Do not play single-deck Blackjack if the payout is 6:5.
The fact that card counting gives players an added edge and advantage towards the house, some casinos have been known to ban players known to count cards very well; in the United States, this has been done very frequently.
We therefore recommend that players practice at a free online casino in a single-deck Blackjack game, practice counting and to try their hand at playing Blackjack online - there is no way that any online casino can tell whether or not you are counting cards. It is typically illegal to use devices to count cards at casinos so if a player chooses to count cards, it should be done solely as a matter of self-skill and not done via machines or external assistance.
BossMedia online casinos offering the Dealer ‘Peek’ feature (from BossMedia customers site):
CASINO CLUB is operated by Gaming VC Corp BV (Listed on the AiM market (LSE:XXX). Established in 2004, Gaming VC Corp BV is an operating and acquisitions company focused on the growing world of online gaming. The company was incorporated in Luxembourg to acquire the business and operating assets of Casinos International NV, collectively known as The Casino Club, the dominant on-line casino in German-speaking markets. The Casino Club boasts 58,000 active customers and more than 100,000 registered users. Its casino and poker solutions are based on Boss Media solutions.
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Responses to “How to Play Blackjack”
May 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
The interesting thing is that, depending on the software of an online casino, their rules may differ slightly or even noticeably from another online casino software provider even if the ‘name of the game is the same’. hee hee.
So, always check the rules of the sites themselves just to make sure you know that you have the advantage or that you can live with their rules.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
This is a good summary; however, some people prefer to see an actual list of ‘things to do’. For more information on how to split pairs in Blackjack for instance, you can also see:
http://casinogambling.about.com/cs/blackjack/ht/BJPairs.htm
Generally, you should read the entire guide - it’s a good How to Play Blackjack guide.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Do you people notice how many, very many variants of online Blackjack there are now? It’s a lot.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
One of the best rated Blackjack tutorial softwares to learn how to play Blackjack is the Blackjack Tutor 0.9 - you can download it at CNET.com; for the time being, the link is: http://download.cnet.com/Blackjack-Tutor/3000-18527_4-10445225.html?tag=mncol
If the link is no longer working, you can do a search from the cnet main page and you should be able to find it. It’s gotten 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars so far. If you download and use it, don’t forget to leave a rating behind as well.
It’s only good for Windows though.