Blackjack

How to play Blackjack

Blackjack is you against the dealer. You each get cards, and the hand closer to 21 wins, but a hand that goes over 21 is “bust” and loses at once. You play first, so the skill is in knowing when to take another card and when to leave the risk to the dealer.

The chips here are play chips. Nothing on this page is money: there is nothing to buy, nothing to win and no sign-up.

What the cards are worth

• Cards from 2 to 10 count their number.
• Jacks, queens and kings count 10.
• An ace counts 1 or 11, whichever suits the hand better. A hand that counts an ace as 11 is called soft: an ace and a 6 is “7 or 17”. A soft hand cannot go bust with one more card, because the ace can go back to counting 1.
• An ace with a ten-card in your first two cards is a blackjack, the best hand there is.

A hand, step by step

• Choose your bet with the − and + buttons and press Deal.
• You get two cards face up. The dealer gets one face up and one face down.
• You play your hand with the buttons under the table. The total above your cards is worked out for you.
• Then the dealer turns the face-down card and must draw until the hand reaches 17 or more. The dealer has no choices to make.
• If you are closer to 21 than the dealer, or the dealer goes bust, you win. The same total is a push and your bet comes back.

Your choices

• Hit takes another card. You can hit as often as you like until you stand or go bust.
• Stand keeps the hand as it is.
• Double doubles your bet and takes exactly one more card. It is offered on your first two cards, when you have the chips.
• Split turns a pair into two hands, each with the original bet, and you play them one after the other. Any two ten-cards count as a pair. You can split again if another pair turns up, to four hands at most. Split aces get one card each and no more, and 21 made after a split pays as an ordinary win, not as a blackjack.

Insurance

When the dealer’s face-up card is an ace, you are offered insurance before anything else happens. It costs half your bet and pays 2 to 1 if the dealer has a blackjack; otherwise it is lost and the hand goes on. Over time it loses more than it pays, so the Hint button always says no.

With an ace or a ten-card showing, the dealer looks at the face-down card straight away. If it makes a blackjack the hand is over at once, before you can double or split.

What a hand pays

The rules at this table

• Six packs of cards are shuffled together. They are shuffled again once about a pack and a half is left; a message tells you when.
• The dealer stands on every 17, including a soft 17.
• You may double on any first two cards, and after splitting.
• There is no surrender.
• A game starts with 1,000 chips, and you can bet 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 or 500 on a hand. If the chips run out the game is over; New game starts again with 1,000.

Basic strategy

For every hand there is one play that does best in the long run, worked out from the odds. Together they are known as basic strategy, and the Hint button follows it. Find your hand down the side and the dealer’s face-up card along the top.

H hit · S stand · D double if you can, otherwise hit · Ds double if you can, otherwise stand · P split

With a pair, look at the pairs table first. If you have already split to four hands, or cannot cover the bet, play the pair as its total instead.

Tips for playing better

• Assume the dealer’s face-down card is a ten. There are more ten-cards in the pack than anything else.
• When the dealer shows 2 to 6, the dealer has to draw and often goes bust. Stand on 13 or more and let that happen.
• When the dealer shows 7 or more, expect a finished hand of 17 or better. Keep hitting until you have at least 17, uncomfortable as it is with 15 or 16.
• Always split aces and eights. Never split fives or tens.
• Double on 10 or 11 when the dealer’s card is lower than your total. It is the best chance to get more chips down when you are ahead.
• Leave insurance alone.

Is the game fair?

The cards are shuffled in your browser, and the order of each shuffle comes from the game number shown under the table. The dealer follows the fixed rules above. Nothing changes with how well or badly you are doing.

Blackjack does favour the house slightly, because you have to play first and a bust loses even if the dealer busts afterwards. With these rules and basic strategy the house keeps about 40 chips of every 10,000 bet: that is what we measured over twenty million hands played by the Hint button. Simply copying the dealer, hitting until you reach 17, costs about 560.