Blackjack Win 2 to 1

Blackjack Basics

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino card games. Also known as twenty-one or Pontoon, the game mixes chance with the elements of skill. Much of the publicity comes from its card counting strategy wherein players keep track of the cards that have been played since the shuffle. It is indeed a challenging but considerably easy memory game.

Blackjack's early days can be traced back during the 1700s inside the halls of French casinos. It was called vingt-et-un, meaning twenty-one. Now, it is a game played everywhere where the cards can go.

Here are the basics of playing the game:

1. Be aware of the game's objective: to get a hand higher than the dealer's without exceeding 21. 2. Know how to score a hand: a king, queen, and jack are worth 10 points each; an ace, either 11 or 1; and the rest of the cards retain their face value. 3. To increase your hand's value, ask the dealer for more cards, one at a time. 4. Prevent getting over 21 points by abstaining to get more cards. Because if you do exceed, you are dead (called bust). 5. Let the dealer and the other players know by showing your cards if you get a natural 21 - an outcome of using only two cards, an ace and either a face card or a 10 - a "blackjack". 6. Win the hand by not going over 21 and by having the same number of points or more than the dealer has until he stops taking cards.

The play goes as follows: 1. if dealer has blackjack and player doesn't, player loses. 2. if player has blackjack and dealer doesn't, player wins. 3. if both have blackjack, then it's a push. 4. if neither has blackjack, then each player plays out his hand, one at a time. 5. when all players are done, the player plays his hand.

Player's options: 1. HIT. Take another card. 2. STAND. Take no more cards. 3. DOUBLE DOWN. Double the wager, take one more, then stand. 4. SPLIT. Double the wager. And let each card be the first in a new hand. 5. SURRENDER. Forfeit half the bet and give up the hand. This option is no longer allowed in most casinos.

Like in all casino games, the house has all the advantage over the players. But blackjack offers a player choice thereby reducing the house's advantage over them. This is called basic strategy. This determines when a player needs to hit or to stand, or whether doubling down or splitting is the correct action. Basic strategy depends on the player's total points and the dealer's visible card.