Blackjack Rules

The Basics:

Fundamentally, blackjack is a game played with one or more decks of cards between a dealer and one or more players (up to seven). The actual object of the game is a matter of some trivial dispute, but for now let’s just say that you win if   the total value of your cards is closer to 21 than anyone else at the table.

Numbered cards (2-10) are worth the number on the cards (well, of course).

Face Cards (Jack, Queen, and King) are worth 10.

Aces are worth 1 or 11.  This is the “hard” and “soft” rule: if you’ve got an Ace in your hand and one of its values will “bust” you, it’s “hard”. If you can still make it with either value, it’s “soft”. For example, if you have an Ace, a 2, and a 6, you’ve either got a hand worth 19 or a hand worth 9. But if you’ve got an Ace, a 6, and a 10, you’ve got a “hard” value of 17…because otherwise, you’d be busting with a 27.

Everyone starts by placing the first bet, a previously established minimum amount. The process is very similar to the “ante” of a poker game, with everyone’s money going into the betting box (which, despite the name, is usually more like a pile in the center of the table).

Everyone in the game gets two cards dealt to them, one at a time, with the dealer getting his or hers last. There are some differences in the arrangement of cards, especially depending on the “American” or “European” variants of the game, but in a basic blackjack game, the players’ first two cards start off face-down, and the dealer gets one face up (the “upcard”) and one face down (the “hole card”).

Once everybody gets to see what they have to work with, the bets are placed and each player gets to decide whether they want another card (called a “hit”) or not (usually called “stand”, sometimes “stick” or “stay”).

There are two ways to lose; either you “bust” (the value of your cards is more than 21) or you stop asking for cards and then someone else (the dealer or another player) ends up closer to 21 than yourself.

It is also possible that nobody wins; a tie in blackjack is called a “push” and sometimes nobody ends up winning or losing, so the round ends without any money changing hands. You might as well have been playing free slots for fun all that time.

The Basic Twists:

“Double down”: after the first two cards, the player can double the original bet and take ONLY one more card. You’re basically betting that the next card will get you closer to 21 than anyone else could get.

“Split”: when the first two cards are a pair, the player can double the original bet and play each of the par as a separate hand. You’re basically betting that you’ll get two winning hands instead of one (or none!).

“Surrender”: when your first two cards look hopeless, you can toss in half of the bet and get out of the round. Pretty much the same as folding in poker, but not all casinos (or individual tables) allow this move. Make sure you check the “house rules” before you sit down!

The dealer has slightly different options than the player, also based on “house rules”. Sometimes the dealer has to stand if they have a soft 17, and sometimes they have to hit.

Written by jlphillips on August 7, 2009 under .

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