How to Play Blackjack If You’ve Never Played Before

Blackjack is a relatively fast-paced game that can be quite quick to pick up and play, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy game. There are many things you need to learn and know about the game before you can become a proficient blackjack player.

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How Do You Play?

Let’s start at the very beginning and make sure you understand the fundamentals of the game of blackjack before you spend any real money online gambling.

In blackjack, you play against the house (or the dealer).

The objective of blackjack is to receive cards from the dealer that total as close to a value of 21 while taking calculated risks about how many cards you let the dealer deal. You need to stop the dealer from giving you too many cards, or you go over a total value of 21, which is known in blackjack as going bust.

How Is It Scored?

Blackjack is played with a standard deck of cards with the jokers removed. For the game of blackjack, apart from some very specific rule variations, you can ignore the colors and suits of the cards because we’re only interested in the card values.

Cards 2-10 are worth exactly what’s written on the card. All the face cards (jack, queen, and king) are worth 10 and an ace can be worth either 11 or 1, depending on how it fits into your hand. You add up the value of your hand and try to get as close to 21 as possible.

Some examples of scores:

• A 3-card and a Queen would give you a total of 13.
• An ace (worth 1 or 11) and a 4-card might be 5 or 15.
• A queen and a king are both worth 10, so you’d have a score of 20.
• A jack and an ace give you a score of 21, also called a blackjack.

The Order of Play

Each player puts up a bet before a round begins.

Thedealer will then deal each player a card in a clockwise direction, and then deal themselves a card. They will then repeat thisso each player and the house have two cards. Play then goes around the table player by player.On each player’s turn, they can either keep what they have on their first two cards or ask for as many additional cards as they want until they are satisfied with their score, or their total is over 21, in which case they are bust and they lose their bet.

Once all players have played, the dealer will play. Any player that receives a higher score than the dealer wins. If a player receives a blackjack (an ace and a face card), they win more, depending on the odds of the table.

Blackjack is one of the easiest games on the casino floor to learn and play, but mastering it is challenging and requires a lot of mental arithmetic and knowledge of the odds of the game to know when to take another card, and when to stay with what you have. Good luck!