Blackjack, also known as Twenty-One, is one of the most commonly played casino games. Almost everyone knows the basics of Blackjack. The player who gets closest to twenty-one, without going over, wins.
Actually, though, blackjack is slightly more complex than that. Sure, everyone gets two cards. The dealer shows one card, called the upcard, and doesn’t show the other card, called the hole card. Then, based on the dealer’s card and one’s own card, there are a lot of decisions to make.
First of all, in any case, a player can choose to hit, stand, or double. Most players know about hitting and standing, but doubling is often not mentioned when players learn the rules of blackjack. Doubling is similar to hitting in that you get an extra card when you double. The differences are twofold. First, you have to double your bet, and second, you only get one more card. Knowing when to double can make your blackjack experience much more profitable.
Another move that many players don’t know about is splitting. If you get two cards that are the same – and in some casinos, they will allow you to do this with any two face cards, since they have the same value – you can double your wager and play the two cards as two separate hands. This is an especially good move if you have a pair of aces, since there is a reasonable chance that you’ll hit a blackjack – that is two cards which equal exactly twenty-one. If you get blackjack, the payout is 2:1.
One additional wager which you should never take unless you’re counting cards is the insurance bet. The insurance bet can be taken if the dealer’s upcard is an ace. If you take insurance, and the dealer has blackjack, then you get your money back. Statistics, however, show that this is a poor bet and shouldn’t be taken.
Those are the basic rules of blackjack. It seems fairly simple. In fact, blackjack is very easy to play. When you’re playing at a casino, the dealer will even tell you what the best move is. In some casinos, they’ll even make the moves for you if you’re too slow. When you play at an online casino, you may have to make your own decisions. Some online casinos, though, offer you “dealer advice†and allow you to get advice for how to play with the best possible strategy on every hand.
If you think about it, that’s not a good sign. It means that casinos make money even when you play with perfect strategy. How can you beat that? There are two primary ways. One way is to count cards and develop a strategy based on what cards are likely to come up. This used to be easy when casinos used a single deck. These days, however, almost all casinos use a shoe of six or eight decks, and then they don’t play to the bottom of the pile. The other thing you can do to beat the odds is develop a betting system. There are many available betting systems, and some can be very helpful in blackjack.
