How to play blackjack?

They say the house always wins, and this may be the case but you can reduce the amount of times that it’s takes your cash; while you increases your chances of beating the dealer by knowing Blackjack strategy. We’ll cover strategy later in this Blackjack tutorial, but first let’s go over how you play the game.

Blackjack is a game where you take on the dealer to have the best value hand, up to and including 21. The game begins with you being dealt two cards face up, the dealer receives one face up and one face down – the face down card is referred to as the “hole card”. If the dealer’s face up card is an ace, you have the option to take insurance, which is a side bet that allows you to bet up to half of your original wager, to protect yourself against the dealer getting Blackjack.

The player to the left of the dealer is first to play, the options you have are to hit – take another card; stand – keep your current cards; double – double your original bet, but you will one, and only one, more card; split – if you have a pair, you can split them into two hands, which both receive an additional card, making two sets of two and you can then choose to hit, stand or double on each.

Once each player has had their turn the dealer flips over the hole card, the dealer must draw if their hand is lower than 17, until their hand is either equal to 17 or higher. If the dealer busts, then all players still in the round will win, paying 1:1. Casinos have different rules as to whether a dealer should hit on a soft 17, a soft 17 is when a dealer has an ace and other cards totaling 6. If the dealer does not bust then the value of their cards is compared with yours, whoever has the higher value wins. If you receive a Blackjack on your first two cards then you are paid 3:2.

Now let’s get down to Blackjack strategy, so you can gain an edge over the dealer by knowing exactly what to do with each hand versus the dealer’s visible card. Given the variety of rules in casinos, as well as the number of decks that they may have in use, you may have to adapt your Blackjack strategy. Usually casinos have between four to eight decks of 52 cards in use, with the dealer standing on a soft 17. With that in mind, let’s go forward and look at what you can do under these circumstances.

Use the below guide to figure out just how to handle any situation on the table. Bear in mind this does not guarantee a win every time, but statistically, the decision on the strategy below is the most likely to lead to a win.