How to Play Blackjack: Complete Rules for Beginners

Blackjack is a duel between you and the dealer, and the rules fit on an index card: get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over, or stay alive while the dealer busts. Learn those rules plus correct strategy and the house edge drops to roughly 0.5% in a good multi-deck game, one of the lowest in any casino.

The goal and the card values

Other players at the table don't matter to your result. Each hand is you against the dealer, settled on its own.

• 2 through 10 count at face value.
• Jack, queen and king count 10. Together with the 10s, that makes 16 ten-value cards in every 52-card deck.
• Ace counts 1 or 11, whichever helps the hand more.

A hand with an ace counted as 11 is called soft, because it can't bust on the next card. Ace plus 6 is soft 17. Hit it, draw a 9, and the ace drops to 1: you now hold hard 16.

A hard hand either has no ace or has one that must count as 1. Hard hands of 12 to 16 are called stiffs, since one ten-value card breaks them.

How a round works, step by step

1. Bet. You place chips in your betting circle before any cards come out.
2. Deal. You get two cards, usually face up in shoe games. The dealer gets one card face up (the upcard) and one face down (the hole card).
3. Dealer peek. In most American-style games, if the upcard is an ace or ten-value card, the dealer checks for blackjack. If it's there, the hand ends at once and you lose unless you also hold a blackjack.
4. You act. Players go in turn, starting at the dealer's left, choosing to hit, stand, double, split or surrender.
5. Dealer acts. The dealer flips the hole card and draws by fixed rules.
6. Settle. Higher total wins. Equal totals push and your bet comes back. A bust always loses, even if the dealer busts later.

That last rule is the whole house edge in one sentence. You act first, so when you bust, your chips are gone before the dealer's hand matters.

Your options: hit, stand, double, split, surrender

In face-up games you signal with your hands: tap the felt to hit, wave a flat palm over your cards to stand. To double or split, place the extra chips beside your original bet, not on top of it.

The dealer's rules: no choices allowed

The dealer is a machine with a pulse. It hits 16 or less and stands on 17 or more, no matter what anyone at the table holds.

The one variation is soft 17. Some tables have the dealer stand on it; others make the dealer hit. Hitting soft 17 gives the dealer extra chances to improve, so a stands-on-soft-17 table is better for you. The rule is usually printed on the felt.

Because the dealer must keep drawing to 17, some upcards bust far more often than others.

A dealer showing 5 or 6 is in trouble more than four times in ten. A dealer showing an ace busts only about one time in eight. Most of basic strategy grows out of this table.

Payouts: 1:1, 3:2 and the 6:5 trap

• Regular win: 1:1. Bet $10, win $10.
• Blackjack: an ace plus a ten-value card as your first two cards. It traditionally pays 3:2, so a $10 bet wins $15.
• Push: a tie. Your bet stays put.

A blackjack beats a dealer 21 made with three or more cards. An ace and a ten after splitting usually counts as plain 21, not a blackjack.

Some tables pay blackjack at 6:5 instead. That $10 bet now wins $12, not $15. It sounds minor. It isn't.

Insurance and even money

When the dealer shows an ace, you'll be offered insurance: a side bet of up to half your wager that pays 2:1 if the hole card is a ten-value card.

In a fresh shoe, about 4 of every 13 cards are ten-value. Per $1 insured, you win $2 with probability 4/13 and lose $1 with probability 9/13.

That's a house edge of roughly 7%, over ten times the cost of the main game. "Even money," offered when you hold a blackjack against an ace, is the same insurance bet under a friendlier name.

Three example hands

You hold 16, dealer shows 7

Standing feels safe, but a dealer 7 busts only about 26% of the time and often finishes on 17 or better. Basic strategy says hit. Both choices lose more often than they win; hitting loses less.

You hold 11, dealer shows 6

Double down. You add $10 to your $10 bet and take one card. Any ten-value card gives you 21, and the dealer's 6 busts about 42% of the time. This is where you push extra money onto the table at the best moment.

You hold 8-8, dealer shows 10

Split. Hard 16 is the worst total in the game, while two hands starting from 8 each have a fighting chance. You'll still lose money on average, just less than by playing 16.

What the house edge means for your wallet

At $10 a hand and about 70 hands an hour, you wager $700 an hour. At a 0.5% edge, your expected loss is $3.50 an hour. At a 6:5 table the edge rises to around 1.9%, and the same hour costs about $13.30.

Rules that help you:

• Blackjack pays 3:2, never 6:5.
• Dealer stands on soft 17.
• Doubling allowed after splitting.
• Late surrender offered.

Run your own numbers with the house edge calculator, or read house edge explained to see where the percentages come from.

The bottom line

Blackjack's rules are simple: beat the dealer without busting, and remember the dealer has no choices. The edge comes from you acting first. Your tools to shrink it are correct decisions, a 3:2 table and skipping insurance.

Even played perfectly, the game keeps a small edge, so treat any session as paid entertainment. The next step is the full basic strategy chart, which tells you the best play for every hand.