Online Blackjack Guide

Online Gambling Strategy Guide Main Page

About Blackjack

Blackjack is the most popular table game in the casino, and it's also one of the most popular games where you actually have a chance of putting the odds in your favor. Also known as 21, vingt-et-un, or California Aces, blackjack originated in France. (Vinte-et-un is French for "21", by the way."

Blackjack is played with a standard 52 card deck of cards with between 1 and 7 players and a dealer. The dealer handles dealing the cards and converting your cash into playing chips, and he also plays the house's blackjack hand against you. Your goal is to beat the dealer; how well or poorly you fare compared to the other blackjack players isn't taken into account at all.

Why It's Called "21"

Each player at a blackjack table is dealt two cards. The cards are given a numeric face value equal to the ranking of the card. Face cards count as 10's, and an ace is either equal to a 1 or an 11, whichever benefits the player more.

Your goal is to beat the dealer by either getting a hand with a total score that is higher than the dealer's hand but is still less than 21, or by holding a low hand when the dealer goes bust. (Gets a total of over 21.)

Blackjack Basic Strategy

If you play blackjack with perfect basic strategy, you can reduce the house edge against you to between 0.5% and 0.8%. Without basic strategy, most players give the house an edge of between 2% and 3%. Additional sections in our blackjack guide will outline how to learn basic strategy, and it's not as hard as you think.

Counting Cards

One significant difference that blackjack has over other games is that each card that gets removed from the deck affects the odds on subsequent hands. Some cards are more favorable to the player, and some cards are more favorable to the dealer. When the deck is rich in cards that favor the player, it's time to raise your bet, because the odds have swung into your favor.

Counting cards isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but it's something that everyone can do if they apply themselves. Additional sections in our blackjack guide outline a few different methods for both counting cards and learning how to count cards.

A good way to learn to play blackjack is to practice at online casinos. You can find almost every blackjack variation online.

Online Blackjack Guide - Menu

How to Play - A very basic tutorial.
Learn to Play (part 2)
Surrendering - When you should and shouldn't surrender.
Splitting - When you should and shouldn't split your cards.
Doubling down - When to double down, and when not to.
Taking a hit - When to hit, as opposed to when to stand.
Standing - When to take a stand.

There will be additional blackjack articles and content as part of this guide, and I'll includes them here as they're written.

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