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Each time an online blackjack game is completed ( one or more winning or tied hands are found ), your online casino balance is automatically updated with your wins.
Normally, each winning or tied online blakcjack hand is shown with the win placed on top of the winning hand ( cards ) in chips.
There is no need to click on these chips or try to move them to your balance area, your online casino balance is automatically updated with your wins.
The basic premise of the game is that you want to have a hand value that is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21.
If you are playing at a multiplayer table, the other players at the table are of no concern.
Your hand is strictly played out against the hand of the dealer, if you play more than one hand, each hand is played against the hand of the dealer on its own.
The rules of play for the dealer are strictly dictated, leaving no decisions up to the dealer.
Because the dealer is completely unable to act based on anything except the stricktly dictated rules it is not a problem that the dealer or any of the other players at the table is allowed to see the cards in your hand.
In fact, if you're playing at a shoe game, the player cards are all dealt face up.
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In blackjack, the cards are valued as follows:
An Ace can count as either 1 or 11, as demonstrated below.
The cards from 2 through 9 are valued as indicated.
The 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10.
The suits of the cards do not have any meaning in the normal version of the game.
The value of a hand is simply the sum of the point counts of each card in the hand.
Examples:
A hand containing (5,7,9) has the value of 21.
The Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11.
You need not specify which value the Ace has.
It's assumed to always have the value that makes the best hand.
Example:
You are dealt the following hand: (Ace, 6).
This hand can be either 7 or 17.
If you stop here, it will be 17.
Let's assume that you draw another card to the hand and now have (Ace, 6, 5). Your total hand is now 12, counting the Ace as 1, because the alternative ( counting the Ace as 11 ) results in a hand valued at 22. If a hand value exceeds 21 points, the hand "busts", - looses before the dealer is even allowed to draw.
A hand that contains an Ace is called a "soft" total if the Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11 without the total going over 21.
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Example:
The hand (Ace, 6) is a soft 17.
The description stems from the fact that the player can always draw another card to a soft total with no danger of "busting" by going over 21.
The hand (Ace,6,10) on the other hand is a "hard" 17, since the Ace must be counted as 1, because counting it as 11 would make the hand go over 21.
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Once all bets are made, the cards will be dealt to the players. The cards will be dealt in two passes around the table starting at the left side of the dealer (your right). The cards are dealt so the players and the dealer have two cards each.
( European and Australian player execption rules ) The dealer will flip one of his cards over, exposing its value.
European and Australian player execption rules:
Some casinos, mostly in Europe, give the dealer one card face up until all players have finished their hands.
The dealer then deals his second card, and finishes his hand.
This is called the European No Hole Card rule.
In the shoe games, the players cards will be dealt face-up. If you're just beginning, you'll probably want to start at the shoe game where you don't have to worry about handling the cards.
Online Blackjack is great for new players becuase you dont have to worry about card holding rules, like the fact that you would be allowed only to hold your cards with one hand in an offline game.
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Offline Blackjack card handling rules:
- You are only allowed to touch the cards with one hand. If you're a poker player, this can take some effort to break old habits!
- You must keep the cards over the table.
- Any cards that the dealer subsequently deals to your hand must be left on the table, not added to the cards in your hand.
Once the cards are dealt, play proceeds around the table, starting at the first seat to the dealer's left, also called first base.
Each player in turn indicates to the dealer how he wishes to play the hand.
Player decision details follow in their respective sections below.
Once all player hands are completed, the dealer plays his hand, and pays player winnings.
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The dealer must play his hand in a specific way, with no choices allowed. There are two popular rule variations that determine what totals the dealer must draw to. In any given casino, you can tell which rule is in effect by looking at the blackjack table.
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It should be clearly labeled with one of these rules:
- "Dealer stands on 17": This is the most common rule. In this case, the dealer must continue to take cards ("hit") until his total is 17 or greater. An Ace in the dealer's hand is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealer going over 21. For example, (Ace,8) would be 19 and the dealer would stop drawing cards ("stand"). Also, (Ace,6) is 17 and again the dealer will stand. (Ace,5) is only 16, so the dealer would hit. He will continue to draw cards until the hand's value is 17 or more. For example, (Ace,5,7) is only 13 so he hits again. (Ace,5,7,5) makes 18 so he would stop ("stand") at that point.
- "Dealer hits soft 17": Some casinos use this rule variation instead. This rule is identical except for what happens when the dealer has a soft total of 17. Hands such as (Ace,6), (Ace,5,Ace), and (Ace, 2, 4) are all examples of soft 17. The dealer hits these hands, and stands on soft 18 or higher, or hard 17 or higher. When this rule is used, the house advantage against the players is slightly increased.
The dealer has no choices to make in the play of his hand. He can't split pairs and must instead simply hit until he reaches at least 17 or busts by going over 21.
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A blackjack, or natural, is a hand with a total of 21 points in your first two cards.
A blackjack is therefore an Ace and any ten-valued card, with the additional requirement that these be the first two cards a hand is dealt.
If you split a pair of Aces for example, and then draw a ten-valued card on one of the Aces, this is not a blackjack, but rather a hand with a total of 21 points.
The distinction is important, because a winning blackjack pays the player 3 to 2.
A bet of $10 wins $15 if the player makes a blackjack, but only $10 if the player wins with a 21 point hand.
A player blackjack beats any dealer total other than a dealer's blackjack, including a 21 point dealer hand.
If both dealer and player manage to get BlackJack, the hand is a tie, - also called a push.
In the event of a push, the player bet is returned to his or her casino balance.
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Surrender offers you the choice to fold your hand, at the cost of half of the original bet. You must make that decision prior to taking any other action on the hand. This means that surrendering isnt an option once you have drawn a theird card, split or doubled down.
There are two varieties of surrender: early and late.
They only
differ in the way a dealer blackjack is handled.
In an early surrender game, a player may choose to surrender before the dealer checks his cards for a blackjack, offering a cheap way out even if the dealer turns out to have a blackjack. Early surrender offers a great advantage to the player and is rarely offered.
The much more common variation is late surrender. Here the dealer checks for blackjack first, and if he doesnt have blackjack, allow players to surrender their hands.
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The most common decision a player must make during the game is whether to draw another card ("hit"), or stop at the current total ("stand").
In online BlackJack, you indicate this by clicking on the buttons shown at your table hand.
Online BlackJack makes it much easier to play for newcommers because buttons with your game options are shown whenever you have them. This means that you never need to fear missing a hand option, and always have the option to lookup what a given option means by looking it up on our websites during play.
If your hand value goes over 21, or "bust", the dealer will collect your bet, and remove your cards from the table.
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Doubling down allows you to double your bet and receive one, and only one, additional card to the hand.
This can only be done with a two card hand, before another card has been drawn.
A good example of a doubling opportunity is when you hold a total of 11, say a (7,4) against a dealer's upcard of 5.
In this case, you have a good chance of winning the hand by drawing one additional card, so you might as well increase your bet in this advantageous situation.
In Online Blackjack, a "Double" button will be shown when this option is available to you. When you click on the button, the additional bet will automatically be subtracted from your online casino account.
The dealer will deal one additional card to the hand.
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When you are dealt a matching pair of cards (eg. two queens, two 5), you have the ability to split the hand into two separate hands, and play them independently.
Example:
You are dealt a pair of eights ( 8,8 ) and have a 16 point hand.
You can chose to split this hand into two new hands each with an eight and a new card.
Splitting a pair into two new hands is done by clicking on the "Split" button in online casinos and results in an additional bet being placed and removed from your online casino account.
Online Casinos offer many different online blackjack tables with different pair splitting and double down rules.
On some tables, you are allowed to resplit a given amount of times.
Example:
You are dealt a pair of eights ( 8,8 ) and have a 16 point hand.
You can chose to split this hand into two new hands each with an eight and a new card.
The first split hand is deal another eight by the dealer and the other is deal a three.
Your two hands look like this:
(8,8) and (8,3)
Depending on the online casino blackjack table rules, you can be allowed to resplit the first hand with the two eights into two new hands with an eight and a new card ( so you have three hands in play ).
You may also be allowed to double on split hands, allowing you to double on your 2nd split hand ( 8,3 ) with a value of 11.
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Insurance bet is normally a poor bet for the player, with a high house advantage.
That's not always the case though.
If the dealer turns an up-card of an Ace, he will offer "Insurance" to the players.
Insurance bets can be made by betting half your original bet amount in the insurance betting stripe in front of your bet.
In online casinos this is done automatically when you click the insurance button.
The dealer will check to see if he has a 10-value card, and if he does have Blackjack, your winning Insurance bet will be paid at odds of 2:1.
Unless you also have a Blackjack, you will lose your original bet, resulting in a break even.
If the dealer doesnt blackjack, you will lose the insurance bet, and must play the original bet out.
Insurance is a side-bet, offering you 2:1 odds that the dealer has a 10-valued card in addition to the Ace you are shown.
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In a single deck game, there are 16 cards with a 10 point value.
Assuming that you don't have any 10 point valued cards in your hand, the tens compose 16 out of 49 remaining cards after the dealer's Ace was removed and the two cards in your current hand.
For the insurance bet to be a break even bet, the dealers card would have to be a ten 1 out of 3 times, but 16/49 is only 1 in 3.265.
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