Blackjack Rules.

Blackjack is a classic card game, and a casino favorite. Why? Because it is easy to learn, and exciting to play. Blackjack is, simply defined, a card game between a player and a dealer. The blackjack dealer does not make strategic choices as the hands are dealt, he just follows the house rules. You however, CAN make choices. Smart decisions and clever strategies can be used in this game, and the more you learn – the higher your odds of consistently winning hands.

The goal is simple. Win the game with a hand total higher than the dealer’s hand, but do it without your hand exceeding 21. 21 is the magic number in Blackjack – in fact, in some circles the game is actually called “21”.

A hand over 21 is called a BUST. The strongest hand is a hand of two cards totaling 21, also known as a Blackjack.

The Face cards (Jacks, Queens and Kings) are worth 10 points. Aces are worth 1 or 11. All the cards 2-9 are valued as numbered – 5 represents 5 points, etc. Sound simple? It is!

A Blackjack hand is an automatic winner unless the dealer has one too, in which case a tie is called and all the bets are returned.

The game starts after players make their bets, and bets may be limited by the table betting limits. The dealer makes two passes as he deals two cards to each player face up (according to some blackjack rules, as in Pontoon, cards may be dealt face down), after that he deals two cards to himself: one face up and the other face down (the Hole card).

After each of the players at the table have been dealt their cards, its time to decide how to play them. The dealer goes on from one player to another and they choose whether to Hit or to Stand. In addition, players may choose to Double down or Split – we’ll get to that later.

The dealer plays his hand after the players have finished making their decisions. All dealers follow a strict set of rules when making a decision. The rule for blackjack dealers concerns the hand value of 17. This rule means the dealer should take cards when his hand is 16 or less and stand on 17 or higher. All the player’s hands are compared only to the dealers hand as the player plays only against the dealer. Therefore, other players’ cards are not important unless the player is counting cards.

The dealer wins when the player busts or gets a hand lower than the dealer. In case the dealer wins, the player loses everything. In case the player wins, the dealer pays him even money. Blackjack pays 3 to 2. When the dealer wins the player loses all the bets (with the exception of side bets) made on this hand.

Red / Black
Red/Black is side bet variation of blackjack in which you are betting on the dealers’ upcard being either red or black by placing your bets on the appropriate R or B circle. In this game, the dealer wins the bet automatically if his upcard is a 2. The payout for this bet is always 1:1.