Blackjack - Rules of Play at Casinos

Rules of Play At Casinos

At a casino blackjack table, the dealer faces five to seven playing positions from behind a semicircular table. Between one and eight French decks of cards are shuffled together. At the beginning of each round, up to three players place their bets in the "betting box" at each position in play. The player whose bet is at the front of the betting box is deemed to have control over the position, and the dealer will consult the controlling player for playing decisions regarding the hand; the other players of that box are said to "play behind". Any player is usually allowed to control or bet in as many boxes as desired at a single table, but it is prohibited for an individual to play on more than one table at a time or to place multiple bets within a single box.

Each box is dealt an initial hand of two cards visible to the people playing on it, and often to any other players. The dealer's hand receives its first card face up, and in "hole card" games receives its second card face down immediately (the hole card), which the dealer peeks at but does not reveal unless it makes the dealer's hand a blackjack. Hole card games are sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor which are used to peek securely at the hole card. In European casinos, "no hole card" games are prevalent; the dealer's second card is neither drawn nor consulted until the players have all played their hands.

Cards are dealt either from one or two hand-held decks, from a dealer's shoe, or from a shuffling machine. Single cards are dealt to each of wagered-on position clockwise from the dealer's leftmost position, followed by a single card to the dealer, followed by an additional card to each of the positions in play. The players' initial cards may be dealt face-up, or face-down (more common in single-deck games).

The players' object is to win money by creating card totals which will turn out to be higher than the dealer's hand, but without exceeding 21 ("busting"/"breaking"). On their turn, players must choose whether to "hit" (take a card), "stand" (end their turn), "double" (double wager, take a single card and finish), "split" (if the two cards have the same value, separate them to make two hands) or "surrender" (give up a half-bet and retire from the game). Number-cards count as their natural value; the jack, queen, and king (also known as "face cards" or "pictures") count as 10; aces are valued as either 1 or 11 according to the player's choice. If the hand value exceeds 21 points, it busts, and all bets on it are immediately forfeit. After all boxes have finished playing, the dealer's hand is resolved by drawing cards until the hand busts or achieves a value of 17 or higher (a dealer total of 17 including an ace, or "soft 17", must be drawn to in some games and must stand in others). The dealer never doubles, splits nor surrenders. If the dealer busts, all remaining player hands win. If the dealer does not bust, each remaining bet wins if its hand is higher than the dealer's, and loses if it is lower. In the case of a tied score, known as "push" or "standoff", bets are normally returned without adjustment; however, a blackjack beats any hand which is not a blackjack, even with value 21. Blackjack vs. blackjack is a push. Wins are paid out at 1:1, or equal to the wager, except for winning blackjacks, which are traditionally paid at 3:2 (meaning the player receives three dollars for every two bet), or one and a half times the wager. Many casinos today pay blackjacks at less than 3:2 at some tables.

Blackjack games almost always provide a side bet called insurance, which may be played when dealer's upcard is an ace. At least one further side bet is usually provided.