How to play Blackjack
The common belief is that it’s hard to beat a casino and that everything depends on your luck at the right time. This is true in many ways, but there is one game that is all up to you: Blackjack.
What’s the difference, you may ask? We’re still playing against a casino whose odds of winning are always better, right? Well, they don’t. The first and foremost mistake for those new to the gambling world is to imagine playing blackjack as a battle against the casino or as a game of craps or roulette, where you make a wager and then entrust your fate to Lady Luck.
Here your job is different – to beat the dealer who represents the gambling establishment. This is the essential difference between blackjack and other casino games. It doesn’t matter whether you play in a real casino or its online version.
Through thorns to stardom
Despite its lucrative status, blackjack was not immediately adopted in casinos. It is believed that the ancestor of modern Blackjack was a French game “vingt-et-un” (twenty-one), which appeared in the local gambling establishments in the XIX century, gradually spreading across the continent and gaining a clearer rules.
Incidentally, the Spanish version – “thirty-one” – was also popular at one time, where you had to draw that amount with at least three cards.
However, at the end of the XIX century, Blackjack was brought to North America, becoming one of the first legalized games in Nevada. The simplicity of the rules, speed of play and easy scoring should have made it attractive to most customers, but roulette and craps were more popular with the native Americans. The casino owners had to resort to various tricks to attract interest.
This, incidentally, is what gave the game its modern name. Winning with ace and/or jack spades (aka blackjack) resulted in a 10-to-1 bonus. The game soon became firmly associated with this combination in Las Vegas.
Rules and features of the game
So, what does one have to do to win a game? It’s simple – score more points than the dealer and the money is yours. In a standard Blackjack game, the dealer dealt two cards to you and two to yourself, with one of his cards face down.
If you get an Ace in tandem with a Ten or any face card, you’ve got 21 points and it’s Blackjack. You win.
If your point total is less, you need to assess the situation and make a choice – leave the cards you have or ask for one/two/three more. Remember, if you get 22 points or more, it’s overkill. Your bet will be burned, and the dealer won’t even have to do anything else.
So you have to play carefully and not take any unnecessary risks. Remember that in blackjack, the casino’s edge is only 0.5%, and that’s your chance. Especially if you play in a real casino or against a live dealer in an online casino. Make him play against you and make a mistake. Let him rack his brains and wonder if he has enough points to win, or if he should take another card and burn for your enjoyment.
When playing in an online casino, note that the dealer will always draw a card until he reaches 17 points or more.
As for specific rules and strategies for the game, there is a basic table of combinations and several methods of play, including the famous card counting, once introduced by a group of gifted students at the University of Massachusetts.
