Blackjack rules for beginners

The goal of the game

In blackjack you are not playing against the other people at the table, only against the dealer. You want a hand total higher than the dealer's without going over 21. Go over 21 and you bust: your bet is lost immediately, whatever the dealer draws afterwards.

You also win when the dealer busts, even if your own total is modest. That is why blackjack is not about chasing 21 every time. Very often the smart play is to stand and let the dealer take the risk.

Card values, soft hands and hard hands

• Cards 2 to 10 count at face value.
• Jack, queen and king count as 10 each.
• An ace counts as 1 or 11, whichever helps your hand more.

Suits play no part at all. A hand where an ace is counted as 11 is a soft hand: ace and six is soft 17. One extra card cannot bust a soft hand, because the ace simply drops to 1. A hand with no ace, or one where the ace has to count as 1, is a hard hand: 10, 6 and ace make hard 17, since counting the ace as 11 would give 27.

The deal and what counts as blackjack

You place your bet before any cards come out. Each player then gets two cards, usually face up, while the dealer takes one card face up and one face down, known as the hole card. The dealer's upcard is the single most important piece of information for your decisions.

An ace plus any ten-value card as your first two cards is a blackjack, also called a natural. It is the best hand in the game and beats any other 21 made with three or more cards. The standard payout is 3:2, so a bet of 10 wins 15. Some tables pay only 6:5, which turns that same bet into a win of 12, a clearly worse deal for the player. If the dealer also has blackjack, the hand is a tie.

Your options on each hand

• Hit: take another card. You can keep hitting until you stand or bust.
• Stand: keep your total and end your turn.
• Double down: double your bet and receive exactly one more card, then your turn ends. Some tables only allow doubling on 9, 10 or 11.
• Split: with two cards of the same value you can separate them into two hands, placing an equal bet on the second one. Each hand is then played on its own. A 21 made after a split counts as an ordinary 21, not a blackjack, and split aces usually receive just one card each.
• Insurance: offered when the dealer shows an ace. It is a side bet of up to half your stake that pays 2:1 if the dealer has blackjack. Over time it loses money, because the dealer misses blackjack more often than not, so basic strategy declines it.
• Surrender: where the table offers it, you give up the hand and get half your bet back. Plenty of tables do not offer it at all.

How the dealer plays, and what a push is

The dealer makes no choices. Once every player has finished, the hole card is turned over and the dealer draws on 16 or less and stands on 17 or more. The one common variation is soft 17: some tables have the dealer stand on it, others make the dealer hit. Hitting soft 17 is slightly worse for the player, so the table rules are worth a glance.

When your total equals the dealer's, the result is a push. Your bet comes back and nobody wins. An ordinary winning hand pays even money, 1:1.

Basic strategy for hard totals

Basic strategy is the mathematically best play for every combination of your hand and the dealer's upcard. The chart below covers hard totals in a multi-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17 and you may double on any first two cards. If surrender is available, surrendering hard 16 against a dealer 10 beats hitting.

Following the chart lowers the house edge but does not remove it. It tells you the best play on average, not that any single hand will win.

Pair rules and quick rules of thumb

• Always split aces and eights.
• Never split tens or fives. Two tens make 20, an excellent hand, and two fives make 10, which you would rather double.
• Double 11 against a dealer 2 to 10.
• Always stand on hard 17 or more.
• Hit hard 12 to 16 when the dealer shows 7 or higher.
• Skip insurance.

Card counting and digital games

Card counting means tracking the cards already played from a physical deck or a multi-deck shoe. When many low cards have left the shoe, the remaining cards are richer in tens and aces, and a counter tries to take advantage of that.

Digital games that shuffle at random before every hand leave nothing to track. Each round starts from a full, freshly shuffled deck, so earlier hands say nothing about the next one. For the games on this site, card counting is simply irrelevant.

Practise risk free with virtual credits

Every blackjack game on this site runs on virtual credits only. There are no deposits, no payouts and nothing to win. That makes it a calm place to learn the rules, try basic strategy and see how decisions play out over many hands.

If you play for fun, take breaks and never treat the game as a way to make money. Over the long run, casino games always favour the house.