Blackjack is a card game that can be found in all land-based casinos around the world. Furthermore, there are many gambling websites that include it in their gaming offer along with other famous casino games like European/American Roulette or Dice.   

In a game of Blackjack, players don’t compete against each other but against the dealer or house. A traditional table allows a maximum of six players. In land based casinos the game is played with two to eight standard decks of 52 cards without jokers, mixed together. The cards have different values and the objective is to draw cards and accumulate points up to the total value of 21 without exceeding it.  

The value of the cards is as follows:

  • 2 to 10 cards have their face value;
  • cards like J, Q and K have a value of 10;
  • Aces can have a value of 1 or 11 depending on what combination the card is used.

blackjack-cards

When a player is dealt an Ace card and one of the cards with a value of 10, the combination is called Blackjack. This is the best possible hand a player can get, and he automatically wins unless the dealer has Blackjack as well. A blackjack hand pays 1.5 of the amount wagered. This rule “Blackjack pays 3 to 2” is also printed on the table along with  “Dealer must draw on 16 and stand on all 17’s” which means that a dealer is forced to draw an extra card if the value of his cards is 16 or lower and stop drawing cards if the value of his cards is 17.

A game of Blackjack starts with the dealer giving everybody at the table, including himself, 2 cards. While the players receive their cards face up, the dealer gets his first card face up and the second card face down. Once everybody is dealt 2 cards, players can ask for additional cards in order to improve their hand and get as close as possible to a value of 21 without exceeding it. The action of a player to keep his hand without requesting additional cards is called “stand”. Similarly, if a player asks for additional cards in order to improve his hand, he signals the dealer to “hit”.

Although there are several variants to traditional Blackjack, they all use similar rules, like the ones presented above.