The most powerful hand possible is a hand value of twenty-one in your first two cards. This hand contains an ace and a ten valued card and is known as a "blackjack". When you receive a blackjack, the dealer will pay you three chips for every two that you have bet unless the dealer also has a blackjack. When both you and the dealer have blackjacks your bet is simply retained by you. You, as a player, determine when to "hit" (take another card) and when to "stand" (stop taking cards). The dealer has fixed rules governing his play. He must hit until he has seventeen or more. Each player that obtains a hand value less than or equal to twenty-one and greater than the dealer's hand value wins an amount equal to his wager. Conversely, when the dealer gets a hand value less than or equal to twenty-one and greater than a player's hand value, that player loses his bet. If both a player and the dealer end up with the same hand value, it is known as a "push". A push bet is neither won nor lost. If you go over twenty-one, you "bust" and lose your bet. This feature of the game gives the dealer his greatest advantage over the players. You, however, have the advantage of flexible play. Primarily, you have four options. You determine when to hit, when to stand, when to split (play two separate hands) and when to double down (double your wager in favorable situations). All player options and blackjack strategies will be discussed in detail later.

The Card Values

The cards two through ten have a numerical value equal to the number printed on the card. All face cards (Jack, Queen and King) as well as Tens have the value of ten. (Hereafter, all ten valued cards may simply be referred to as tens.) Aces may be counted as either eleven or one.In the game of blackjack, card suits have no value. For example, a hand consisting of a ten of hearts and a queen of hearts is equal to a hand consisting of a ten of diamonds and a king of spades. Both of these hands are also equal to a hand containing two fives and a ten, regardless of suit.The value of the ace seems to confuse some players under the "heat of the action". Always count the ace as eleven until a count of eleven will put your hand over twenty-one, then count the ace as one. Thinking of the ace in these terms will make adding your total card value easier.

Soft and Hard Hands

When you have an ace in your hand that counts as eleven, you have what is known as a "soft hand". If you hold no aces or have an ace in your hand that counts as one, you have a "hard hand". Think of an ace in your hand as flexible or "soft" because the hand value can always be reduced. Whenever you have a soft hand, you hold a distinct advantage over the dealer. This is because you can never bust when you hit a soft hand.

Bets and the Deal

Minimum bets are usually $1.00, $2.00, $5.00, $10.00, $25.00 or $100.00. Maximum bets are generally $500.00, $1,000.00 or $5,000.00, but they can be higher through special arrangements with the house. At the outset of each hand, the player places his bet in the square on the table or on a number of squares if playing multihand blackjack. The dealer always deals his own cards face down. After the dealer has dealt the player two cards, he will turn his first card face up. The dealer's other card, his face down card, is often referred to as his "hole card". After the player has played out his hand, the dealer will turn his hole card face up and, if necessary, hit his hand until he has a hand value of seventeen or more.

Game Rules

If the first two cards dealt to you are cards of equal value, you may "split" the pair combination. Remember, all face cards and Tens are cards of equal value. When you split you effectively play two individual hands. The right most hand is played out first followed by play on the hand on your left. Any ace drawn to a split ten is not a blackjack. Nevertheless, the dealer will need a blackjack to beat any hand of twenty-one.

You may "double down" on a hand which consists of two cards. As this move implies, you double your original wager. When you double down, you are dealt only one additional card to your hand. Some casinos restrict the double down option by not allowing doubling down on split hands and/or only permitting doubling down when your two card hand totals ten or eleven. Doubling your wager whenever a favorable situation arises can appreciably add to your advantage. Therefore, it is advisable to seek out the casinos with the least restrictive double down rules of play.

Insurance

The insurance option is simply another form of wager that is offered to the players when the dealer has an ace showing. Those who take the insurance wager are betting that the dealer has a blackjack. The insurance bet costs one-half your original wager, and the payoff, should the dealer indeed have a blackjack, is two-to-one. A two-to-one payoff on a wager that is one-half your original wager is an amount equal to your original wager. Therefore, whenever you win the insurance bet, the dealer will pay you by simply leaving your original wager on the table.

Always split aces and eights, never split tens and fives. Ever wonder why? A soft twelve (a pair of aces) in itself isn't anything to write home about. The ace is, however, the best card you can have as the first card of your hand. Chances are greater than 30%, on the average, that you will end up with a strong 21. And the chances are extraordinarily good that you will end up with some other high hand value if your first card is an ace. A pair of eights leaves you with a sixteen, a lousy hand by any measure. If you split these, you have a healthy chance of bettering your hand. Two tens make twenty, already a good hand. Pressing your luck, by splitting in these situations, doesn't make much sense. Two fives add up to ten. There are more tens in the deck than any other card. If you don't split, your odds are reasonably good that you will acquire a hand of twenty on the very next card drawn. On the other hand, if you split the fives your odds of ending up with two hands each totaling fifteen is very unattractive. You just learned 40% of the split strategy. Sometimes you split to win more, other times you split simply to lose less. As you will see in the split strategy tables, there are a few additional hand situations where splitting is recommended only when doubling down is allowed after splitting.

The Double Down Logic

Periodically, you will double down and draw a low card. Wouldn't it be nice if you could draw another card? Sure it would. You would even win more hands if you never doubled down. But if hitting, as opposed to doubling down, can't double your advantage against the house on a given situation it will pay you to win less often at twice the amount. This is the mathematical rationale behind doubling down. The strategy analysis feature of the Blackjack game will show that the doubling down strategy provides a win rate of about six out of ten of the recommended double down hands! That statistic sounds especially nice since your wager is doubled. If that doesn't encourage you to learn everything about the double down strategies, nothing will. Statistically, around 8.0% of the hands dealt to you will be situations on which you should double down on a hard hand. Approximately 1.6% of your hands will present circumstances in which you should double down on a soft hand. For this reason, you will want to learn the double down strategy for a hard hand first.

BASIC STRATEGY for FOUR or MORE DECKS

DRAWING AND STANDING

DOUBLING DOWN

SPLITTING