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| Blackjack Rules and How to Play |
Aim of The Game
The aim of the game is to make the total of your cards higher than the dealers. In practice this means being as close as possible to 21 but not over 21.
The Cards
Cards are valued as follows:
 An Ace can count as either 1 or 11
The 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10.
Cards 2 to 9 are valued at 2 to 9
The suits of the cards are irrelevant
The value of the hand is cumulative number or score of all the cards
The Ace in Blackjack
An Ace can be very valuable as not only can it be used as a 1 or 11, but it can change as you take more cards. For example if your hand is A & 5 this can be 6 or 16. Neither is much use, but you are safe to take another card as you can call the Ace a 1 and hence you can avoid going bust. You take a card & it’s a 3. This makes your total 9 or 19. You could decide to take another card or you could say you’ve got 19 & stick on that (the latter is the correct strategy in this example).
A hand that contains an Ace which can be counted as 1 or 11 without the hand being over 21 is called a “soft” total, whereas any other hand (with an Ace or not) is called a “hard total”. In the example above the hand was worth 9 or 19 – this would be called a “soft 19”. You’ll need this terminology to use your strategy card later.
The Blackjack Dealer and Betting Format
You must place your bet before you are dealt any cards. Once you have bet you are given 2 cards & the dealer gets 2 cards, one of which is face up.
Blackjack Card Options
Once you have two cards you have two basic options & certain other options (discussed in Blackjack Hand Options)that may be possible in some circumstances (such as your two cards are the same number).
These two options are:
Hit – take another card
Stick – don’t take any more cards
The Blackjack Dealer
The dealer must play his hand in a specific way.
This can vary, but the most common is that the dealer will stand on 17 & above, and take a card on 16 and below, no matter what your cards. This means that if you have stuck on 14 & the dealer has 16 & has clearly beaten you, the dealer still has to take a card (& may very well go bust).
As an Ace can count as 1 or 11, the dealer also must stick if he can make a total of 17 or above such as A, 7 could be 8 or 18, but the dealer would automatically stop at 18.
The main variation is that in some casinos, the dealer will take a card on a “soft 17”. As mentioned above this is when the hand can count as 7 or 17, the most common being A, 6, but with other combinations possible such as A, 2, 4 or A, A, 2, 3. The dealer behaviour is the same as above except for taking a card in this single situation.
Statistics show that the first set of rules is better for you although its not a huge difference.
The dealer cannot split pairs, effect your stake & doesn’t get any bonus for a blackjack.
What is Blackjack?
A blackjack is a total of 21 in your first two cards – i.e. a “10” and an Ace. The “10” could be a 10, Jack, Queen or King it makes no difference.
It does only apply to your first 2 cards, so that for example if you get a pair of aces & split them (see below) and then get a 10 with one of those aces, this counts as 21 but not a blackjack.
A blackjack always beats a score of 21. All other ways of getting 21 such as with split aces or with 3 or more cards are all the same. How you get to a total is irrelevant in every other situation. There is no such thing as a “5 card trick” in casino blackjack (other than specially designed blackjack variations). 5 cards (or more) totally 18 or whatever are no better or worse than 2 cards totally the same.
As well as being the best hand, a blackjack also pays a bonus. Whereas in all other bets the dealer pays you winning equal to the size of your stake (known as even money), for blackjack the dealer pays 1.5 times your stake.
If you & the dealer get a blackjack then this is a tie (a tie is called a “push” in blackjack) and you neither win nor lose, but keep your stake. This is just the same as if you had a “push” at any other total.
The only time when this doesn’t apply is if you go over 21 (“Bust”) and then the dealer goes bust. As soon as you go bust you have lost the hand, irrespective of what happens to the dealer. This is one of the ways in which the game of Blackjack favours the house. For other ways, check out our guide to House Edge in Blackjack |
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