How to play blackjack

The object of the game

The point of blackjack is to score points. 21 on two cards (a natural blackjack) is ideal, fewer is fine as long as you still hold more than the dealer, but more than 21 is strictly off-limits¹. Many people can play at a dealer’s table at once, yet each plays only against the dealer: the other players’ results have no bearing on yours.

If a bust (going over) means a loss, then a push (a tie) — the same total for player and dealer — almost always lets you take your bet back. Keep in mind the edge a natural blackjack carries, though: 21 on two cards (an ace plus any 10-value card) counts as a stronger hand (combination) than 21 built from three or more cards.

Card values

Points come from cards: the dealer deals them, at least two apiece, and whether to take another or stand is the player’s call, based on how many points they already hold. The scoring is the same across every blackjack variant.

The ace stands apart for its flexibility: it can count as 11 or 1, depending on what’s best for the hand.

Where to begin

Even once you know the basic rules of blackjack, it pays to understand exactly what you’re doing at the interface. In short, the sequence goes like this:

1. at a land-based casino, exchange cash for chips — online this happens automatically once you’ve launched a given game;
2. launch the game, or at a land-based venue take a seat at a blackjack table;
3. familiarise yourself with the rules of that table — there are many variations, with meaningful differences in player actions and value;
4. note the table limits — this can affect bankroll management or nudge you toward a different table;
5. place your bets by putting chips in one or more of the dedicated betting circles;
6. for play at a land-based venue, learn the hand signals (tapping the table means hit, a wave of the hand means stand); online, study the interface closely to work out how to send the same signals to the live dealer or the random number generator.

Online, the money that’s still yours can be withdrawn at any moment simply by stopping play. At land-based venues, tell the dealer you want to leave and cash in your accumulated (or remaining) chips before you head out.

How the cards are dealt

To start, the dealer deals two cards to each player and to themselves. Players’ cards are always face up (visible to everyone at the table), while the dealer has one card face up (the upcard) and one face down (the hole card). Dealing this way gives the player no clear read on the strength of the dealer’s hand, but does allow educated guesses about its value. In some blackjack variants² a no-hole-card rule applies — the dealer doesn’t deal themselves a second card straight away, but takes it only after players have made their decisions.

Player actions

If the first two cards give you a natural blackjack, the game ends there for you — you’ve already won; likewise, the dealer announces a 21 to the players, because after that the hand can’t continue. If no one has reached 21 after two cards, the player’s options are as follows.

Hit (take another)

If your total is too low to win and you’re not afraid of busting, the sensible move is to take another card. Say you’re holding a 4 and a 5 — 9 in total; standing on that is pointless, because you’re guaranteed to lose and no additional card can hurt you³. If, on the other hand, you hold a hard⁴ 12 or more, the hand may look weak, but the decision to hit calls for caution, given a real chance of busting.

Stand (that’s enough)

Even without a natural blackjack, a player can hold a strong two-card hand — say two 10-value cards, or a combination like 10+9. In that situation you can win with the cards you already have, and drawing another is an unjustified risk of busting. The smarter move is to stop taking cards and wait for the hand to be resolved.

Double Down

Sometimes the player’s chances look very good while the dealer’s look poor. For example, you hold a 9–11 (any 10-value card makes it strong, and on an existing 11 a blackjack is very likely), while the dealer shows a low upcard and so definitely can’t make a natural blackjack, plus runs a serious risk of busting. In that situation the player may declare a double down — and wins twice as much if the move pays off. The catch: after a double, the dealer may give the player only one card — if it’s low, you’re left with a weak hand and lose twice as much money.

Split

If the first two cards from the dealer are a pair (say, two tens), you can split them into two hands, doubling your stake at the same time. From then on you’re effectively playing two hands at once — both may win, only one may win, or you may lose both. Splitting isn’t compulsory — sometimes it makes no sense at all and hitting is wiser — but two eights and two aces are recommended for a split in any situation⁵.

Surrender

Sometimes a player sees that their hand is fairly weak and the odds of losing are high; then surrender may be appropriate — the player takes back half the bet and forfeits the other half. This is worthwhile, for instance, when you hold 16 and the dealer’s upcard is a 9–11. Surrender isn’t always available, though — some blackjack variants simply don’t offer the move; and different tables set different deadlines after which you can no longer surrender and keep half your bet⁶.

Extra options and rules

Some blackjack variants use special rules that let you place an additional bet on top of the main one.

Insurance / Even Money

Insurance against a dealer blackjack (Insurance) is found everywhere and is taken when the dealer’s upcard is an ace; the hole card then has a high chance of being a 10-value card, forming a natural blackjack, so players are given a way to protect themselves from that scenario. Insurance is a separate bet of half the main stake that, if it lands, pays 2:1, shielding the player from losses⁷. Don’t overrate it, though: taking insurance risks additional money (more often the dealer won’t have a natural blackjack — and then you lose the insurance money for nothing), and the long-run RTP of the move is just 92.6%.

Important: experienced players advise against taking insurance — literally never.

Even Money is insurance against a dealer blackjack without the extra bet, in the situation where the player already definitely holds a blackjack. In effect it insures not against a loss but against a tie, since Even Money pays 1:1 right away; on a push (if the dealer also has a natural blackjack) the bet would simply be returned, whereas here, on a main bet of $100, you’re guaranteed to pocket $100 on top regardless of whether the dealer has a blackjack. If players always declined Even Money, they’d collect more over the long run⁸, but it’s psychologically easier to accept an immediate, guaranteed win, even a slightly smaller one. On the whole, Even Money isn’t recommended in most cases either.

An important caveat: experienced players who count cards can, when the remaining deck is heavily weighted toward high cards, take insurance and Even Money on solid grounds — but for an outright beginner this is probably too much math.

Side bets

Classic blackjack rules usually don’t offer side bets, and experienced players dislike them because of the high house edge, but beginners — especially playing for fun — may enjoy the option. Here are a few popular examples:

• perfect pairs — pays 5:1 for the player’s first two cards being the same rank in different colours, 10:1 for different suits of the same colour, 25:1 for two cards of the same suit (only in multi-deck blackjack, obviously);
• 21+3 — a bet that the player’s two cards and the dealer’s upcard form some poker combination, such as a straight flush;
• lucky ladies — a bet that the player’s two cards form a 20-point hand, with the highest tiers being a pair of queens, a pair of queens of spades, and especially a pair of queens of spades when the dealer has a blackjack.

At some blackjack tables the range of side bets is much wider, but their RTP never tops 98% (and that’s a generous estimate), while the RTP of ‘ordinary’ blackjack played by basic strategy sits around 99.5%. So in the pursuit of value — or at least the slowest possible burn on your bankroll — remember: there’s no more correct way to play blackjack than to make 21 your one and only goal.

How the dealer plays

Whether you’re playing blackjack with a live dealer or a random number generator, keep in mind that the host acts on a fixed instruction they never deviate from. Trying to win, the dealer is bound to hit until they reach more than 16, and on a hard 17 or higher must stand.

Rules differ from table to table on how the dealer should act on 17. There are two options: stand on soft 17 (S17) and stand on hard 17 (H17). In the first case an ace in the hand counts as 11 — if it makes 17, the dealer stands, even though technically they could hit again without immediate bust risk; this rule favours the player, because the dealer doesn’t wring the most out of a hand with an ace. Under H17, the dealer stands only on a 17 that doesn’t include an ace, or where the ace counts as 1; so a host’s “ace and six” doesn’t stop them, and they keep trying to improve the hand.

Rule variations

Blackjack has plenty of optional rules that aren’t a fixed feature of a given variant — meaning they can turn up in any combination at one table or another. Before starting a session, a player should read the detailed rules of the specific table and choose one precisely for the conditions that suit them. To make that choice objectively, you need to understand what these rules mean, so let’s run through the main ones briefly.

• Double After Split (DAS) — allows doubling on any of the hands (or all of them) you hold after a split. This lets you double profitably on split hands — it’s been calculated to raise long-run RTP by 0.12–0.15%. Without DAS, doubling after a split isn’t allowed.
• Resplit Aces (RSA) — if a player first got two aces and split them, then another ace lands in one of the hands, that hand can be split again. This is valuable, since splitting aces is always worthwhile, and resplitting them raises long-run RTP by 0.03–0.08%. Without this rule, aces can only be split once.
• 6:5 payout — an alternative to the standard natural-blackjack payout, which is usually 3:2. Players should always choose 3:2: on a $100 bet with a natural blackjack you collect $150 in winnings, whereas a 6:5 payout would bring only $120. Over the long run, a 6:5 payout hits your bankroll very hard — it raises the house edge by a full 1.39%.

Important: always sit at a 3:2 table. A 6:5 table looks the same, but costs the player noticeably more — all else being equal, choose 3:2.

• Number of decks — the fewer there are, the more predictable specific cards become and the more potentially favourable the game is for the customer, especially a card counter.

• Deck penetration (penetration) — a measure of the point at which the discards are shuffled back into the shoe; measured as a percentage (how much of the shoe is dealt before the cards are mixed back in). A higher figure benefits a card counter, but the noticeable advantage only appears at 70% penetration and above. In games with a random number generator (RNG) and a continuous shuffling machine (CSM) there’s effectively no discard pile — every hand starts from a full set of cards, so the chances of success are always the same.
• Surrender — one of the player actions, letting you take back half your bet when the odds of losing are high; we covered this option above.

Now you have a better grasp of a table’s possible features, and from its description you’ll be able to gauge how favourable it is to play there.

Basic strategy

Types of hands

Classifying hands by type is useful for players planning to use basic strategy down the line. Broadly, there are three types of hand:

1. a hard hand — one that either has no ace at all, or has one that counts as 1;
2. a soft hand — one that contains an ace counted as 11; whatever the case, the player can always take another card without busting — at worst the ace drops to 1 and the hand becomes hard;
3. a pair — a hand of two identical cards (suit and colour don’t matter), notable for the option to split, i.e. separate it into two hands.

With the terminology for hands in hand, we can move on to basic strategy.

How to play with the best odds

What sets blackjack apart is the ability to work out mathematically the probability of a given card coming out, and hence to calculate the player’s subsequent moves — which, without guaranteeing a win, leave the highest chance of success. This is blackjack basic strategy: by following it, you maximise your RTP for a table with a specific set of rules.

Important: every basic-strategy table offers plays for a specific set of rules; if you play at a table with different rules using the ‘wrong’ table, some plays will be suboptimal, and that lowers RTP by around 0.2%. Confident use of basic strategy, on the other hand, brings the RTP of classic blackjack to an average of 99.5%, and with the rare combination of every player-friendly rule, even up to 99.85%.

Here, for example, is a basic-strategy table with the recommended plays for hard hands — assuming we’re playing multi-deck blackjack with the dealer standing on soft 17 (S17) and the option to double after a split (DAS) available.

And here are the recommendations for soft hands under the same rules.

And here are the recommendations for pairs under these same rules.

Basic strategy helps you avoid illogical plays, but doesn’t guarantee success — that still depends on luck and is decided by the card that comes out.

Important: even with basic strategy, gambling can’t be treated as a source of guaranteed income: don’t stake money you’re not prepared to lose. For the same reason, casinos don’t admit minors to play — such players are too impulsive and can’t take responsibility for actions that lead to losses.

Etiquette

Land-based casinos have etiquette rules they strongly encourage you to follow, unless you want to be looked at askance or thrown out altogether. Here’s what you should do:

• stick to the casino’s dress code if one is officially set;
• touch only the surface of the table near you, and avoid touching ‘other people’s’ boxes (table sections);
• be respectful toward the dealer and the other players at the table;
• if you’re winning big, tip the dealer a little.

And here’s what you absolutely shouldn’t do:

• even if drinks are free for patrons, don’t overdo it — a drunk player loses more often, and it can be unpleasant for your neighbours at the table too;
• once a hand has begun, don’t touch the table until every player has their two cards;
• don’t be overly chatty with your table neighbours — they may not want conversation;
• never touch any cards other than the ones the dealer gave you.

Individual venues may have other house rules of their own — read them in advance to avoid misunderstandings. These days the best source of information on a venue’s rules is the casino’s official website.

Table layout

Let’s look at how a table is put together. Click the numbered points on the diagram (or the ← → arrows) to step through the elements — the shoe, the chip tray, the betting boxes, the insurance line, the arcs with payouts and dealer rules. The labels on the felt are intentionally in English: they’re part of the playing surface, and in a real game they look exactly like this.

A little table terminology won’t go amiss for a beginner either:

• betting circle (sometimes it’s actually a rectangle) — a small part of the table where the player places their bets, including several if they have more than one hand;
• box (box, spot) — a section set aside for a single player: it holds both their betting circle and their cards, and most tables allow for 5–7 boxes;
• shoe — the device that dispenses the cards, where the deck is ‘stored’, positioned to the dealer’s left;
• dealer’s card area — the box where the cards the dealer deals to themselves lie, positioned opposite the other players;
• discard tray — a clear tray for discards, positioned to the dealer’s right, letting card counters gauge the current state of penetration.

As a rule, the layout of blackjack tables is broadly the same across every version of the game.

Tips

Experienced players will find these tips obvious, but they’ll genuinely come in handy for a beginner:

• never split pairs of tens, jacks, queens and kings;
• it’s right to split pairs of eights and aces every time, whatever the dealer’s upcard;
• never double a hand worth more than 11;
• use cheat-sheets with basic strategy or card-counting prompts — especially playing online, where no one can see you.

Blackjack is a game in which knowledge and skill matter, so read up on the material and lock it in on the trainers available — including here on our site.