All about blackjack

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Blackjack or twenty one is undoubtedly the most popular, most played and the most favorite game of casino gamblers. Thanks to its nature of chance blended with skill. Casino blackjack and the British card game Black Jack are not the same.

• History of blackjack:

A gambler and an author, Miguel de Cervantes, in his book “Don Quixote” first mentioned the term “twenty-one” as a game of an unknown origin. He also mentioned that the game was played without tens, as in the Spanish Deck. This book was written in the early 17th century. This shows that the game was profound in that period of history.

• Rules to play blackjack:

In casino blackjack, the dealer faces one to seven players who can all deal with him independently. To start the game, the player places a bet in the “betting box” and in turn, gets two cards from the dealer. The dealer keeps two cards for himself. The objective of the game is to get a 21. One card of the dealer is faced-up and one faced-down. The player has to choose from the options “stand” or “hit”. It means he has the option to take another card from the dealer. If the player gets a hand value over 21, he busts, which means he loses, if the dealer busts, he loses to all the players. If none of them busts, the person with the higher total wins. If it’s a tie, then no one wins the game. The dealer can lose to a particular player and can at the same time play with other players.

• The values of the cards dealt in blackjack are:

Cards 2-10: have their standard values (or face values)
Cards – King, Queen and Jack: all of them have the value 10.
The Ace has the value 1 or 11.

If the player counts the ace as eleven and it puts the hand over twenty-one, the ace is automatically counted as one. The main objective for the player is to beat the dealer, i.e. to draw cards totaling close to 21. But not over 21. After the players have finished, the dealer reveals his second card. According to the rules, the dealer can only have a card total of 17.

Player’s decide: When the dealing of all the cards have been done, the players can decide how to play their hands. The four options ‘hit’, ‘stand’, ‘double down’ and ‘split a pair’ have each a hand signal and in some casinos, there’s another option named ‘surrender’.

Hit: Means taking another card. If a player hits, he gets to take another card or cards to get close to 21.

Stand/stick/stay: With this option, the player chooses not to draw anymore cards. To signal a stand a player needs to hold a flatten palm over his cards.

Double down: It means the player can double his money on his initial two cards. This is a good option when the player is in a strong situation. But not all casinos have the same rule for doubling down.

Split a pair: If his two cards are worth the same value, the player can split them. That means, he can separate them into two new hands.

Surrender: This means to give up the hand of the player forfeiting half of his bet. This can only be done when a player has achieved a blackjack.

Early surrender: It is the surrender allowed by the house before the dealer checks the hand for blackjack.

Late surrender: When the player surrenders half of his bet after the dealer checks for blackjack.