How to Play Blackjack
The game known as Blackjack is often referred to by a number of other names such as 'Pontoon', Twenty-One's' and 'California Aces', whatever the name of the game the essential principle of Blackjack is to get cards which add up to or get as close as possible to the number Twenty-One. The cards used in the game are the original 52 card deck with all of the cards marked Ten to Two keeping their original value, with the face cards, the Kings, Queens and Jacks counting as the value ten, the Ace card can be used with two values either one or eleven this is entirely up to the player holding the Ace and the number which it will represent will depend on the state of the players hand.
The game Blackjack is played like a number of gambling games with the player placing a bet before the dealer deals any cards, in this case the player must place a bet based on whether they believe the dealer will be beaten by themselves or for the dealer to win, the beat that is placed is shown by either money or casino chips which are to be placed on the Blackjack table. The Blackjack table will consist of an area for the dealer along with a number of spaces for the players which are opposite the dealer, these players are known as 'Box Holder's' and hold the power to make various decisions throughout the game, the table is a semi-circle so that all the players are facing the dealer. Once a players bet has been taken the dealer will then deal two cards to each of the player/s face down and will then deal two cards to themselves and will turn one of their cards face up so that it is visible to all the players, once all the cards are dealt the players can then turn their hands to look at their cards in order to establish their position at the table. Once each player has assessed their cards the player then has two options, the first is to decide whether they want another card from the dealer this is known as a 'Hit', a player with a low hand is in a better position to ask the dealer for a 'Hit'.
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There are two possible outcomes from a 'Hit' firstly the player can achieve 21 or get as close to 21 as possible or they could go 'Bust' which would mean that their cards have exceeded 21 and the player would lose all moneys that were bet even if the player bet on the dealer winning. The second scenario is once the player has seen their cards is to request to 'Stand' a player would do this if they had a high hand to begin with and there was a high risk of them going 'Bust' if they request a 'Hit'. Once all the players have made their choices the dealer will then turn their second card, if the dealer's cards are higher that the players without exceeding 21 then the dealer wins and all the bets go to the house.
Blackjack is an incredibly popular game with many of it's devotes believing that there is only one way to improve your game and that is to play, however there are some who believe that it is possible to develop strategies to beat the house when playing Blackjack. These such strategies are often referred to as 'Counting Cards', this is achieved by understanding the mathematical strategies behind the game and analysing them so that the player is able to establish the relationship between their cards and those of the dealer, however there is a flaw to this strategy as it does not work with some variations of Blackjack especially those types being played with four decks of cards such as Las Vegas Blackjack.
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