Black jack

Rules

One of the most and worst advices given to beginners in blackjack is, that the goal of the game is to get as close to 21 as you can, without going over. But this is not the case, in blackjack to goal is to beat the dealer. In order to achieve this, first do not bust (go over 21) and second have the dealer bust or outscore the dealer. 

These are the full rules of blackjack.

1. The game is played with one to eight decks of 52-card decks.
2. This is how the cards are counted, 2 to 9 according to their value, aces a valued as 1 or 11 points, and face cards plus tens are counted as ten points each card.
3. To know the value of a hand, you must sum the points of the individual cards. In this game a “blackjack” is the highest hand, it beats all other 21-point hands and it consists of any 10 point card plus an ace card. 
4. After all the players have put their bets on the table, the dealer will give each player two cards and when he’s done, he will deal 2 cards for himself too. One of the cards will be dealt face up, and the other facedown, the last one is called the “hole card.”
5. In blackjack exist a side bet called “insurance”, this happens when the dealers face up card is an Ace. The dealer will offer a side wager, which pays 2 to 1 if the dealer’s hole card is any 10-point card. In this game “Insurance” may not outrun half the original bet and is optional for each player. 
6. If the opportunity comes when the dealer has a ten or an Ace as the face up card, and after the dealer has finished offering the “insurance”, he will peek at his facedown card to see if he has a blackjack. If this is the case, he will immediately flip it over.
7. If the dealer has a blackjack, insurance wagers will be resolved, all lost wagers collected, and if the player also has a blackjack, this will result in a push.
8. The game starts with the player at the dealer’s left hand, and these are the following actions a player can choose. 

• Stand : the player is satisfied with his cards
• Hit: the player ask the dealer for more cards if desired. In case the players total exceed 21 points, also known as “breaking” or “busting”, it will mean the bet is lost. 
• Double: The player doubles his bet, and the dealer deals only one more card to this player. 
• Split: It might happen that the player’s two cards are doubles or two 10- points’ cards. If this is the case, then she/he can double her/his bet and put the cards next to each other, this will mean there are two hands instead of one. The dealer will proceed giving each hand a second card, then the player can stand, hit or double. Nonetheless, when it comes to splitting aces, each ace gets one card only. Sometimes players are not allowed to double after splitting. It’s counted as 21 points and not a blackjack, if the player gets a ten and ace after splitting. Commonly the player may keep continuously splitting up to four hands, but in some occasions is not allowed to re-split aces.
• Surrender: Depending on casino rules, a player can forfeits half his wager, this means she/he keeps half the bet, and does not play out his hand. This play is only available on the initial two cards, but sometimes this option is not allowed. 

9. The dealer can flip over his hole card, after each player on the table had her/his turn. When a dealer has 16 or less points in total, she/he will pick another card. An especial situation may present, when the dealer has an ace and any number of cards totaling six points, this known as a “soft 17”. Depending on the table’s rules, the dealer will hit a “soft 17”.
10.  When the dealer exceeds 21 points, every player, who didn’t already bust, will win the hand.
11. If the dealer does not bust, then the highest total number between the player and the dealer wins the hand. 
12. When a player wins a wager, the casino pays even money, excluding a winning blackjack, which usually pays 3 to 2. It’s known that some casinos are short-paying blackjacks, this rule works in the casinos favor.                                         

Strategy

To play blackjack the proper way, you will have to remember the basic strategy. 

Terminology description:

Hard hand: In this hand there are no aces, or it has aces, but these are forced to count as point, in order to avoid a hand bust. 

Soft hand: in this hand you have at least one ace, which can summate one or eleven points.

When you have a hard ten or 11, and you have more points than the dealer, you can double, considering a dealer’s ace as 11 points. Individually, you can double if you have 11 against 2 to 10, or 10 against a 2 to 9.

In case you have three or more cards, or table rules don’t allow soft doubling, but the strategy says that you should double, then you can hit. Except you have a soft 18, then you should stand.

If for any reason you can’t surrender (16 vs. 10), even if the strategy says to do so, then you should hit. 

You should treat a total of 8, 10, or 20 as a hard hand, this according to the pair in question, if the strategy tells you to not split the cards.

Basic Strategy

Basic strategy calculator is used to review appropriate basic strategy, for any set of rules. 

1 deck

2 decks

4 or more decks

European blackjack

Panamanian blackjack

House Edge

You can see the Blackjack House Edge Calculator to decide the house edge under 6,912 possible rule combinations.

Rule Surveys

Below is a list of common rule variations, with the outcome on the player’s expected return next to standard U.S. rules (8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed).

Rule Variations

Notice Short Pays on a Blackjack

More tables are paying less than the full 3 to 2 on a blackjack. The majority of these tables pays 6 to 5, but some even money, and also 7 to 5 tables are established. Putting the rules aside, you should claim nothing less than 3 to 2 blackjack. It’s recommended to look for a sign or check the felt to be sure, and should ask if nothing says the win on a blackjack.

Bad Strategies

These are the tree popular bad strategies that people encounter at the blackjack table:
Never bust
Imitate the dealer
Always speculate the dealer has a ten as the hole card.
All three of them a very bad strategies. 

Never bust: In this strategy, we assume the person playing at the table would never hit a hard 12 or more. This strategy results in a house edge of 3.91%. Other decisions were, according to the right basic strategy. 

Imitate the dealer: In this strategy, we pretend would stand on 17 or more and always hit 16 or less, we include here a soft 17. Since the dealer can’t doubled or split, we assume the player also never did. This strategy may result in a house edge of 5.48%.

Always speculate the dealer has a ten as the hole card: For this strategy in particular, we first find out the ideal basic strategy, according to this assumption. If it was the case that the dealer had an ace up, I would revert to proper basic strategy, this because we know the dealer would have peeked for blackjack, making a 10 very difficult. This strategy may result in a house edge of 10.03%.