Authors: Nikki Katz
The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (5 page)
Scoring is documented using either a cribbage board, paper, or special bezique markers that are made of wood and contain areas for marking scores. The first player to reach 2,000 points wins the game.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Two (player and dealer)
EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards
TIME:
Three or four minutes per hand; length of the game depends on the number of hands played
PARTNERSHIP:
No
COMPLEXITY:
Easy to medium
Blackjack is the most popular gambling casino game, due to its simple rules and “beatability.” It has also been featured in various movie scenes, including
21
, a movie about card counting. Although it’s apparently simple, only disciplined and alert players will win with any consistency.
Blackjack is said to have originated in France in the 1700s, where it was known by the name of Vingt-et-Un (Twenty-One). The game was introduced to the United States in the 1800s. In order to expose more players to the game, casinos offered to pay three-to-two odds if a player was dealt an ace of spades and a jack of spades as their first two cards. Players called that deal a blackjack (because black is the color of the spades) to differentiate it from a hand of twenty-one made with three or more cards. This was the origination of the name blackjack.
Blackjack became increasingly popular over the years, and by 1945 was only second in popularity to craps. By the late 1970s, it was recognized as the most popular gambling game. The first recognized effort to apply mathematics to blackjack began in 1953 and continues to this day. The first methods used calculators and statistical theory to determine the best methods of playing, but today multiple computers are used to simulate play.
Blackjack is an easy game to learn, but it’s a difficult game to master. The rules are simple and straightforward, but there are various strategies in betting and playing the game. The objective of blackjack is to try to beat the dealer by getting closer than the dealer to twenty-one, without going over. If the total value of your cards is closer to twenty-one than the dealer’s cards, or if the dealer goes over twenty-one, you win as much as you have bet. Blackjack (an ace and a ten or face card) typically pays 3:2, which means you win 1
1
⁄
2
times your bet.
| Most casinos use six or eight decks of cards when dealing out blackjack. There are two main reasons that they do this. One reason is to allow the dealer to deal more hands per hour and increase the casino take. It also reduces the player advantage gained from card counting. |
The numbered cards are valued at their face value, and the face cards are valued at ten. An ace can be valued at either one or eleven, depending on which point value will benefit your hand. You can switch the value of an ace during the middle of the game if it is to your advantage. A hand containing an ace that is counted as an eleven is considered a “soft” hand—for instance, an ace and a five is a “soft sixteen”—because the hand could also have a value of six. A hand with no ace or with an ace counted as a one is called a “hard” hand; for example, a ten and a seven or an ace, six, and ten are both a “hard seventeen.”
After you place a bet in front of you on the table, the dealer deals one card face up to each player and one card face down to himself. This card is called the “hole card” because at one time it was placed in an indentation in the table. The dealer then deals a second card face up to each player and himself. If the dealer deals himself a ten or face card, he will then peek at the hole card to see if it is an ace. If the card is an ace, the dealer has blackjack and wins that hand automatically—end of game. In casinos, the dealer is also the banker and never changes. When you play at home, you can rotate the deal so that every player has a chance to be dealer.
| In some Las Vegas casinos, players are dealt both cards face down. Almost everywhere else, the player’s cards are dealt face up in an effort to prevent players from cheating. If the cards are dealt face up, do not touch them! |
After the deal, starting with the person to the dealer’s left, each player has to decide what to do with his hand. If you are dealt a natural blackjack (a ten or court card and an ace), the dealer automatically pays you three to two on your bet. If you are not dealt a blackjack, you must make one or more moves. You can hit (take another card) if you want to try to get closer to twenty-one. In most casinos, you signal a hit by tapping the table with your index finger. If your cards were dealt face down, you may gesture by lightly flicking the cards across the table two times toward your body. If you bust, you lose, and the dealer immediately takes your original bet. You can stand (take no more cards) at any time you are satisfied with the total of your cards. In most casinos, you signal a stand by waving your hand (palm down) from left to right about an inch over the table in a short gesture. If your cards were dealt face down, you may gesture by turning the cards in a horizontal direction or by placing the bet on top of the cards.
You also have the option to double down if you have been dealt two cards and believe that a third card will give you a total that will beat the dealer’s hand. When you double down, you increase your bet (up to the amount of your original wager) but agree in exchange to take one, and only one, card. Typically, you would double down when your first two cards total eleven (or sometimes in cases when they total nine or ten). This allows you to take advantage of the chance that you may get a ten (very good, since there are many more ten-value cards than other numbers in the deck) on your next card, thus giving you twenty-one. However, once you get your third card, you must stand, even if you only get a two.
| In some casinos, if you split two aces, you get only one additional card for each hand. If you split two aces and one or both of your hands totals twenty-one, this is not considered blackjack as far as payout is concerned, and you will be paid even money. |
You may split your hand if you have two cards of the same value. This means that you will split them into two separate hands by betting the same amount as your original bet. You signify that you want to split by placing a second bet (of the same size) next to your first bet. Do not put your bet on top of your original bet, and do not touch the cards if they were dealt face up. The dealer will split your cards and then deal one card on top of your first split card. You can then choose to hit, stand, double down, or split again if the third card dealt gives you another pair. After you stand or bust on that hand, the dealer will deal a card onto your second split card. You have the same option as above, and your play is complete when you stand or bust your second hand. If the casino permits it, you may surrender your cards by discarding the hand you were dealt and losing half of your bet. The only time you can do this is when you have your first two cards. This is a rarely accepted option and will be clearly noted on the table or before game play.
If the dealer has an ace as his face-up card, you have the choice of buying insurance against a dealer blackjack. This costs you half of your original bet. If the dealer does have blackjack, the insurance pays two to one, matching the amount of the player’s original bet. If you choose to purchase insurance, and the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose your insurance bet. If both you and the dealer have blackjack, the game is considered a push.
After you have chosen to stand or you bust, the next player plays her hand. Play continues around the table until each player has completed his or her hand. The dealer then turns up his face-down card and follows a strict set of rules based on the value of his hand. If the dealer has a value under seventeen, he must deal himself cards until his hand totals seventeen or above. If he busts, the dealer pays all players who have not busted. If the dealer does not bust, he compares the value of his hand to the value of each player who has not busted. If the dealer’s total beats your total, he takes the bet. If his total is less than your total, you win the amount that you bet (called winning “even money”), including any additional bets in doubling down or splitting a pair. If the dealer’s hand and your hand are equal, the hand is considered a “push” and you get back your original bet but don’t win any additional money. A blackjack beats the dealer’s count of twenty-one, which is why the dealer pays a blackjack before looking at his own cards.
Over the years, many experts have tried to develop strategies for winning the game of blackjack. The following strategy table was created through multiple computer simulations. In these simulations, the computer played tens of thousands of hands for each of the various situations and statistically determined what option of play most benefited the player. Under this system, your decisions in blackjack always depend on what the dealer is showing.
| When playing at home, you can add bonuses to dealer payouts. One bonus is that if you create twenty-one with five or more cards, you collect double your bet. If you create twenty-one with three sevens, you collect triple your bet. If you create twenty-one with a six, seven, and eight, you collect double your bet. |
Strategies differ for games played using one deck and multiple decks.
Table 2
shows the strategy for a single deck of cards. The values across the top correspond to the dealer’s up card. The player’s hand is the values running down the left side of the table (farther down the table it shows soft hands and pairs). Where these two values intersect is the strategy for the player to play his hand. Insurance is never recommended. The strategy is very similar for multiple decks, but does vary in some hands.
Table 3
shows the strategy for multiple decks.