A Short Guide to Blackjack And Some Help To Get Off And Running!

Blackjack is one of the easiest casino games to learn how to play.

The following is a short guide on how to play the game. When playing one deck or two deck Blackjack, this is called a hand held game. The cards are dealt in front of each player face down, and picked up and held in their hand.

When playing 3-8 deck Blackjack, this is referred to as a 'shoe game'. Whether the players cards are dealt face down or face up, the dealer's two cards will always consist of a 'hole card' the one faced down, and an 'up card' the one facing up.

Each player takes turns to play their hand and the player either 'stands' and takes no more cards or takes more cards in their quest to reach 21, and goes over the top and 'busts'. The dealer always plays their hand after the player.

All the following cards have a value of ten. King, Queen, Jack and 10. The numbered card represents their face value with Aces representing 1 or 11.

A Soft Hand refers to a hand which consists of one or more aces and totals 10 or below excluding any aces. For example, this could be where a player has been dealt A-3-4. The value could be counted as 8 (1+3+4) or 18 (11+3+4), remembering that an Ace can either be a 1 or 11, whichever the player chooses. This hand would be considered as a soft 18.

A Hard Hand is a hand that excludes the presence of an Ace, or a hand with the Ace and other cards adding up to over 10. For example, Q-6 or A-Q-5 is a Hard 16 or a "Stiff Hand".

The player competes with the dealer and can win, tie or lose. He wins if his hand is greater than the dealer's without going over 21, or if he stands on whatever it may be and the dealer busts. He is paid at 1:1 odds, unless he gets Blackjack (Ace +10 value card) in which case his payout is 3:2. It's a fun easy game to play, no wonder it's a firm favorite at land based and online casinos alike!