Blackjack is one of those wonderful games that can be as fun for a beginner as it is for someone who has been playing it for years. I remember the first time I played Blackjack. I had to be the dealer. A friend of mine who runs an event management company had asked me and my best friend to be the “sexy” Blackjack dealers for an event that was putting up a mock casino evening. Players exchanged their chips for free bottles of vodka from the sponsoring company.
I had no idea how to play Blackjack and my buddy on the event management team had to pull me aside and explain all the rules to me. His quick Blackjack lesson was simple. As is this game. It is only with much skill and practice that you gain insights into the science behind the game.
The game is played between players and dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals the cards to all the players. All players get two cards each. The dealer’s second card is dealt face up. The aim is to get 21 or as close to it as possible where the Ace can be a 1 or an 11 and all picture cards are 10.
If the dealer gets 21 or “Blackjack” that is an automatic win for him/her. But as it turned out, if one or more of the players has a Blackjack, then it is a tie.
The dealer always starts dealing out to his/her left. Players can chose to either draw more cards or stand (stop drawing cards). If the dealer reveals his second card and it amounts to less than 17, he/she has to keep drawing cards till he/she reaches 17 or more. Sometimes this results in the dealer going bust. A bust for both the dealer and player means that they have crossed that 21 mark.
If the dealer doesn’t go bust but has less than 21 in total then the player with the total closest to 21 wins.
This is one game where the aim is to beat the dealer. Once you know this you can start to do more complex things like Splitting pairs, Doubling Down or Insurance.
If you receive a pair in the first two cards. You can split them and play them as individual hands with equal bets. This known as Splitting Pairs. When you Double Down, you double your original bet after being dealt your first two cards. You are only allowed one additional card after Doubling Down.
When you take Insurance it is usually because the dealer’s turned up card is an Ace. You have to wager an amount equal to your original bet as Insurance. If the dealer has Blackjack in this case you lose your bet but get the Insurance paid to you at 2 to 1, so you break even. This is a good way of not losing all your money when the dealer pulls Blackjack.
There are two kinds of hands in Blackjack - a Hard Hand and a Soft Hand. These influence whether or not the dealer will hit or stand. A hard hand either does not have an Ace or is a hand where the Ace has a value of 1. A soft hand is where the Ace is being used as an 11. For example you are holding an Ace and a 7 which could be a soft 18.
Having a soft hand gives you an advantage and you can draw additional cards without going bust. You can also have a “stiff hand”. This is a hard hand without an Ace with a value between 12 and 16. These are tricky because they are usually too low to beat the dealer but might go bust if you draw another card.
The thrill of Blackjack is in the decision making from these fairly simple options. The mathematics and probability factors come in when one continues to play the game for sometime. But armed with this much knowledge one can enjoy playing Blackjack till you do start to see the science behind it.
