What is Black Jack?
Blackjack which is also known as “vingt-et-un” and “twenty-four”, was first played in the 18th century in France and is nowadays still really popular in casinos all over the world, because the rules are simple to understand that it is easy to play for everyone. Another advantage is that the dealers do not have any special strategies, so the players can chose different ways to win. The method each player makes use of, is depending on the cards in his hand and also of the value of the dealer’s open card.
The game Blackjack can be played with one or two card decks, where it is important to say that the basic strategy for single deck differs from a multi-deck game. There is only one player needed at the table to start a game with the dealer. Each player gets two cards, the dealer as well. The aim of each player, who takes part in this famous game, is to hit the dealer by a higher hand without getting more than 21.
While players are checking the value of their cards, they have to decide, if they want to stand, to hit, to split, to double down, to surrender or nevertheless to take insurance.
To stand means that a player does not get any extra cards, and the hand value remains the same. If a player decides to hit, he will be offered an additional card, which will be added to the player´s hand value directly. It is called splitting, when a player gets a pair by the dealer. When the player´s first two cards are a pair, he is able to split his hand into two hands to let the game go on..
Another situation is, when a player wants to double down his wager.
Then he will get one extra card by the dealer. There are a few casinos existing, which also offer to their players to surrender their hands. Players, who are being dealt with a bad hand for example, are able to minimize their losses with surrendering their cards and giving up half of their wager. If a player is of the opinion that the dealer got an ace in his hand, the player is able to take insurance.
Face cards like King, Queen and Jack have a value of 10. An ace can be worth 11 or in the case, the player busts, it is worth 1. The cards from 2 up to 10 have the normal value of their faces.