Rules For Playing Blackjack.

Blackjack is one of the most popular online casino games available on the internet, mainly because of its sheer simplicity and speed. Players can win (or lose!) money within a matter of minutes which makes blackjack more popular than games like poker and craps. Although the game is simple to play, there are some intricate rules that can trip up even the most experienced player, below are some of the most noteworthy.

The cards are worth their face value, apart from Ace which is worth either one or eleven depending on how you want to use the card. Picture cards are worth ten. The aim of the game is to get as close to, or to hit, 21 without going over. So if you ended up with a hand of nine, nine and three, you would have hit 21 and would stand a very strong chance of winning. You can hit 'blackjack' and effectively win the game by getting a ten-card paired with an ace, as this equals 21. Casinos will pay out higher for players who hit blackjack, often at odds of 3:2, meaning that a $10 bet would earn you $15 winnings.

At the start of the game, each player will be dealt 2 cards and then it is the player's choice whether they want to 'hit' (take another card) or 'stay' (settle for the current total). It is unadvisable to 'stay' on any total less than 17 or 18, as it is very likely that another player will at least hit this figure.

Only one of the dealer's cards will be visible until everyone has stuck or gone bust (gone over 21), and the dealer has to stick as soon as they reach a figure between 17 and 21. This is quite useful to the player, as they know that the dealer has to keep on hitting until they reach a high figure, therefore sticking at a low number is unlikely to win them any money. It also helps in so far as the dealer cannot play cautiously if everyone else has stuck at around 15 or 16; he or she must continue playing until they hit 17 or above, which can play in the favor of the gambler.

The Five-Card Trick is a rule that some casinos implement, whereby a player automatically wins if he or she reaches a certain number of cards without going bust. This can really help if a player goes bust whilst having an Ace in their pack which they were counting as eleven. They can quickly switch to consider this as one and get themselves back in the game.