| Goal as a player of blackjack is to beat the
dealer’s hand without getting busted. A player or dealer
gets busted when their card value exceeds a total of 21. The
total of any hand is sum of card value in hand.
Before cards are dealt, a player has to make a bet by placing
chips in betting box. Player and dealer both receive two
cards. Dealer’s one card known as up-card or face-card
value is visible to the player. The dealer’s second
card known as down-card or hole-card value is unseen. Player’s
both cards are visible to the dealer.
Now player has to make a playing decision once the value
of dealers and his/her cards is known. Playing decision
can be either of the following:
- HIT: This means you want the dealer
to give you another card to your hand.
- STAND: This means you are satisfied
with the total of the hand and want to stand with the
cards you have.
- PAIR SPLITTING: If player has two like
cards (e.g. a pair of 6's or aces), then player could
use the option to split. With splitting player has to
make another bet equal to original bet. Now the dealer
will push player cards to two separate hands and give
a second card for the first hand. The dealer will then
prompt player to make a decision on this hand, and continue
to do so until the hand has busted or been asked to stand.
The dealer will then proceed to second hand, deal a second
card, and ask for player’s decision once again.
By pair splitting player can play each card as a separate
hand and can draw as many cards to each hand.
- DOUBLING DOWN: This playing option
allows player to double the bet in return for receiving
one and only one draw card. The reason a player would
want to do this is if he/she has a good chance of having
a strong hand after one more card is dealt.
- SURRENDER: This playing option is sometimes
permitted. It allows a player to surrender the hand with
an automatic loss of half the original bet. Once a player
draws a card the surrender option is no longer available.
When a player surrenders the dealer will remove the player's
card from the table.
- INSURANCE: When the dealer's up-card
is an ace, the dealer will ask players if they want to
make the insurance wager. This is a side bet in which
players are betting that the dealer's down-card will be
a ten-value card. Players can make an insurance bet equal
to one half of the initial bet made on the hand. Insurance
bet is won if the dealer’s down-card is a ten-value
card. A winning insurance bet pays off at 2 to 1 odds.
Remember a blackjack player competes only against the dealer
and not against any other players. So the two factors which
determine how to play are dealer’s up-card and player’s
hand.
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