I mentioned in my list of favourite hobbies that I play online games. One of which is Blackjack, so I thought it would be cool to explain how to play Blackjack, in case you didn’t know! It is one of the most popular card games and can be found in pretty much every casino. It is a simple game to learn to play. Having knowledge of blackjack will improve your chance of winning!
The main point of Blackjack is to beat the dealer’s cards with your cards. This happens when you have a bigger total than the dealer. BUT your total must not be more than 21. Easy! Kind of.
Place your bets!
The game starts as players place their bets. Then, two cards are dealt to each player. The dealer gives one to himself or herself (or “it” if it’s an auto roulette game online). One card is face up and the other is faced downwards. In blackjack, every card is counted at face value.
Kings, Queens and Jacks are worth 10 each (called picture or face cards). Aces are valued at either 1 or 11. You can choose which value the ace is worth when you decide to hit or stay. Once the cards are dealt, you will choose whether to stay, hit or you can take another card. You can double down by doubling your betting value and you’ll get one more card. You can split, where you split your first two cards, double your bet and play each of them as two separate hands. Are you still with me? Good. The dealer will go last. Regardless of being in a local casino or playing at an online casino, the dealer is required to hit on 16 or lower and must stay on 17 through 21.
Practice online to learn how to play blackjack
There is no better way to get better than by practicing. If you play online you can play for free to help develop your strategy. If you are better at blackjack strategy it may increase your chances of winning.
In general, if you have less than 17, it is good to hit. Especially if the dealer has a picture card because the chances of the dealer getting another card higher than 7 is quite likely. However, it is better to stay on 17 to avoid going bust by going over. If the dealer has low cards say a total of 5 or less and you have say 14 or 15, it is adviseable to stick, since the likelihood is that the dealer will receive high cards and go bust. But they might not! For all the strategy involved there is a good helping of chance in the mix. So anything could happen, you are just trying to play the odds to your advantage.
If you are playing in a real life casino, let’s say 2 people at the table get dealt before you and they both have picture cards. This means the likelihood of another picture card being drawn is less, but often you will be playing multi-deck blackjack with 6 packs of cards, which makes it very difficult for card counting to occur.
Practice online is awesome. You can play for free, and not risk your own funds. Practice makes perfect too, so you’ll learn what decisions to make and when is best to make those decisions whilst you learn how to play blackjack.