Blackjack, or twenty one, is a game played with cards between one or several players and a dealer who represents the house. Roughly speaking, the goal of each of the players is to obtain a hand having a value greater than that of the dealer’s hand, but without exceeding 21.
Blackjack is one of the two most popular casino games. The other is the dice game of craps. In blackjack, one must make strategic decisions. These decisions affect the outcome of the game and hence give the players the feeling that, to a certain extent, they control the game. Also, blackjack is, at present, the only casino game in which the player can obtain an advantage over the house by skill. The reader should not conclude from the above remarks that the decisions one has to make are obvious and that most players make the right ones. Unfortunately, very few players make correct betting and playing decisions. As a colleague of mine said sometime ago, the game of blackjack is such that when one makes strategic decisions according to “intuition and common sense” many of his decisions will be completely wrong.
While anybody can learn how to play winning blackjack, only very few will make the necessary effort. One cannot learn the game by reading a book on blackjack during a flight to
In the rest of this chapter we shall indicate how the game is played, describe the options a player has and make various observations. The material is useful to both the beginner and the knowledgeable player. winning strategies will be given in Chapters 3 and 4. A short historical note concerning blackjack systems is also given in Chapter 3.
THE VALUE OF A HAND (HARD AND SOFT HANDS
TO describe the game we must know what we mean by the value of a hand (or of a group of cards). The difference between hard hands and nds is particularly important. The jacks, queens, and kings are called face cards. These cards are always counted 10. The aces are counted 1. The other cards are d as their face values indicate. For example, are counted, respectively, 3, 6, and 10.
THE GAME
The game of blackjack is played at a table like the one . There are six or seven chairs for the players and, on the table, six or seven betting areas. The game can be played with one to seven players. Nowadays, most blackjack games are multiple-deck games.* this book we always assume that the considered games are four-deck games, unless we say explicitly the contrary. Nevertheless, most of e strategies ‘e describe can be used, with very little error, for all multiple-deck games. Variations and customs are discussed in the next section.
The game proceeds as follows: Assume that there are three players the table, Mary, George, and Jack. Each player has some chips, bought from the dealer, or from the casino cashier. Each player makes a bet by placing one or more chips in the corresponding betting ea. Sometimes, currency is used for bets, particularly for large ones. The dealer shuffles the pack of cards and offers it to one of the players for a cut. The cut is usually performed by inserting a plastic rd in the pack and by interchanging the two parts determined by e card. The cut must be made: If the players at the table do not ant to, the dealer must make it. A plastic card (the joker) is placed )out 60—70 cards from the end of the packet The first card is dealt id placed — face down — in a small box to the right of the dealer.**