Online Blackjack

Online Blackjack is a comparing card game between a player and dealer and played with one or more decks of 52 cards.

The player or players are dealt an initial two card hand and add the total of their cards. Face cards (Kings, Queens, and Jacks) are counted as ten points. The player and dealer can count their own Ace as 1-point or 11 points.

All other cards are counted as the numeric value shown on the card.

After receiving their initial two cards, players have the option of getting a “hit” (taking additional cards) to bring their total value of cards to 21 points, or as close as possible without exceeding 21 (called “busting”).

If a player holds an ace valued as 11, the hand is called “soft”, meaning that the player cannot go bust by taking an additional card; otherwise, the hand is “hard”.

The dealer has to take hits until his cards total 17 or more points. (In some casinos, the dealer also hits on a “soft” 17, e.g. initial ace and six.)

Players who do not bust and have a total higher than the dealer, win.

The dealer will lose if he or she busts, or has a lesser hand than the player who has not busted. If the player and dealer have the same point total, this is called a “push” and the player typically doesn’t win or lose money on that hand.

The earliest records of similar Games from which Online Blackjack could have developed begin from the early 1700s. Some believe that it derives from Spain where records have been found of a then-popular Game of social strategy called ‘Ventiuna’ or ‘21’. Others think it more likely that the Game, so many are familiar with today, is derived from the French ‘Vingt-et-Un’ or ‘21’ which was also popular around the same time period.

Similarities can easily be recognized with other French Card Games like Chemin de Fer. All these versions have in common a similar system of card value and objective to reach a sum of 21 with the player’s hand.

Whatever the case relating to the origins of Online Blackjack, the Card Game was brought to North America with French colonists sometime after the French revolution. ‘Blackjack’, then still known as ‘21’ had found a home and began to thrive in North America.

When Las Vegas first legalized Casinos, many establishments drew interest to the ‘Blackjack’ Tables with a Bonus Payout of 10 to 1 to any player who received the Ace of Spades and a Black Jack. Known as a ‘Blackjack’, the name of this fabled hand stuck to the whole Game.

Online Blackjack can be played with one to eight ordinary decks of cards.

Cards of rank 2 through 10 are counted according to their face value.

All face cards are counted as 10 points.

Aces can be worth either 1 or 11 points.

The highest hand in online blackjack is an ace and any 10-point card and is called a blackjack. A winning blackjack pays 3:2. If both player and dealer have blackjack the bet is a push.

Aside from a blackjack, a winning hand pays even money. The player wins if his hand has more points than the dealer, without going over 21. Thus, a 21-point hand is the highest and is why the game is sometimes called 21.

If either the player or dealer goes over 21, it is a break or bust and a busted hand automatically loses. If both the player and the dealer bust the player loses. Herein lies the house advantage. If the player and the dealer tie, the bet is a push.

A round of online blackjack begins with each player placing a bet in the circle or logo directly in front of him. Then the dealer will give each player and himself two cards.

Player cards are usually dealt face up. One dealer card is dealt face up (the upcard) and the other face down (the hole card). If the dealer has a ten or an ace as the upcard, it is possible he has a blackjack, in which case all player hands will lose except those with another blackjack. In the U.S. the dealer will check for blackjack immediately, if one is possible, and will collect all losing bets immediately if he does have a blackjack.

In the event the dealer has an ace as the upcard he will allow the players to insure their hands against a blackjack. This is much like any insurance policy in which you are betting something bad will happen. The insurance bet in blackjack pays 2:1 if the dealer has a blackjack. If the dealer has an ace showing and a player has a blackjack the dealer may ask “even money?” This is because if the player has a blackjack the net result of both the blackjack and the insurance bet will be an even money win regardless of whether the dealer has a blackjack. After all players have had a chance to accept or decline insurance the dealer will check the hole card.

After it has been established that the dealer does not have a blackjack, the players, in turn, may play their hands. 

The following options are available to each player: