Learn How to Play Blackjack

In blackjack your objective is to reach a hand total of 21 with your hand, if you go beyond 21 you "bust" and your hand worth nothing, so your second objective is not to bust. You must also gain a higher total than the dealer's since only then will you beat him and win.

How to Play

First you place your bet on the table, notice that the table limits suit your bankroll. After you place your bet the dealer then deals two cards – two up card for you and two for him, one of them face up and one face down. You can actually see only one of the dealer's cards and that's a big problem for many novice blackjack players, they don't know whether to hit or wait to see if the dealer busts.

If you feel that you might win with the first two cards then signal the dealer that you are going to "stand", meaning you do not want any other card to be dealt. The dealer would then hand himself cards until he reach a total of 17 (in some casinos the dealer might only stand on 18).

But if you want to take another card feel free to "hit", meaning you want another card. Rest assure that you can ask for as many cards as you want but only if you don't bust.

Busting Blackjack Odds

"Go Bust" Table Odds of Blackjack - Here is the "busting odds" table that would help you to decide whether to hit or not, these are the odds for you to bust when hitting with a…

• Hand Value of 21 – 100%
• Hand Value of 20 – 92.3%
• Hand Value of 19 – 85.6%
• Hand Value of 18 – 77.5%
• Hand Value of 17 – 69.7%
• Hand Value of 16 – 62.2%
• Hand Value of 15 – 58.4%
• Hand Value of 14 – 56.1%
• Hand Value of 13 – 39.3%
• Hand Value of 12 – 31.4%

After you decide to stand or hit the dealer turns over his cards and the one with the highest total (not higher than 21) wins the bet. Blackjack pays 1:1, but if you reach a total of 21 with your first two cards then it is called a "natural" or "blackjack" and you are paid 3:2. As you can see there's no difficulty in playing blackjack and if one wishes to learn how to play blackjack he can do it in few seconds, but that doesn't mean that he would also win. A good player knows that he needs much more to learn, for more information about blackjack feel free to browse other parts of our site.