Blackjack is a historically popular game in most casinos, and is considered the world's most widespread banking card game. Its origin dates back to 18th
century France, and it is considered one of the most highly regarded and most popular card games today.
In Blackjack, players compete against a dealer, and not against one another. To win in Blackjack, a hand's purpose is to defeat the dealer by obtaining a hand numerical value as close to 21
points as possbile, that beats the dealer's hand. However, if a hand has more than 21 points, it is known as a "bust", and the player automatically loses his
bet. The dealer has no choices in Blackjack and simply follows a discrete set of Blackjack rules.
The scoring mechanism for Blackjack is described as follows:
- An Ace can have value of 1 or 11, whichever you decide to use it as. A hand with an Ace can either be considered "soft" or "hard". A Soft hand can be described as where the player has no risk of drawing another card without risk of busting, since he can choose between either of the Ace values at his own discretion.
- Cards 2 to 9 are equal to their respective face point values.
- 10, Jack, Queen and King are always valued at 10 points.
The "blackjack" or a "natural" occurs when your first 2 cards score to 21 points, which is only possible with an Ace and one of the cards that have a face value of 10 points. A "blackjack" beats 21 points, that is accrued via other means (i.e., by totaling 21 points with more than 2 cards). A blackjack versus a blackjack counts as a tie (also known as a "push").
To start, the dealer will always deal 2 cards to all players including himself, and reveal one of his cards (unless the game is played "faces up"). The players then take turns in making choices.
The players (other than the dealer) can make the following decisions:
- Surrender - this rule doesn't exist in every Blackjack game and can only be played before any of the other choices. Surrendering consists of withdrawing from the game (i.e., "folding your hand") at the cost of half of your existing bet. The "early" surrender manifests when the player folds his
hand before the dealer verifies his blackjack. If the dealer has verified his blackjack, then the "late surrender" is said to occur.
- Hit - a player can decide to hit, which means that he requests the dealer to draw him an additional card.
- Stand - a player cane decide to stand pat, which means that he will not be drawing an additional card.
- Double down - when a player has 2 hands he can use double down to double his bet and require an additional and only card. Here, you can place a bet that is equal to your original bet.
- Splitting pairs - when a player is dealt 2 matching cards score-wise, you can "split" them and play the 2 hands independently. When splitting pairs, you must place a bet on this freshly split hand that is identical to the bet on the 1st hand. Some casinos permit you to double down after you split or split
multiple times. When you split 2 Aces you are only entitled to one additional draw for each Ace. In this case, drawing a 10 to an Ace is not considered natural and will be beaten by a blackjack. Remember this rule !
- Insurance - when the dealer turns up an Ace he will offer insurance to the other participating players. The choice of insurance allows a player to bet
up to half of his original bet against the dealer receiving a blackjack. The dealer checks for a blackjack. If he does this, the player will lose the original stipulated bet, but the designated "insurance" bet will result in a payout at double the odds, which effectively covers the original bet. If the dealer does not have a blackjack, the player loses both of his bets.
Typically, the dealer will use the "stands on all 17's" rule, which means that he is obliged to continue to draw cards until his hand totals 17 ore more points, unless he busts first. Otherwise, the dealer is deemed to "stand". Note that an Ace in a dealer's hand under is always considered to be 11 points here, unless it makes the dealer go over 21 points. The Dealer does not have the capability to split, to double down, to insure himself or to surrender, as a player does.
Blackjack typically pays the following odds:
- A Winning hand usually pays 1-to-1
- Insurance usually pays 2-to-1
- Blackjack usually pays 3-to-2
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