Beat The Dealer. There are some misconceptions about the objective of the game of blackjack but at the simplest level all you are trying to do is beat the dealer.
How do you beat the dealer?
-
By drawing a hand value that is higher than the dealer’s hand value
-
By the dealer drawing a hand value that goes over 21.
-
By drawing a hand value of 21 on your first two cards, when the dealer does not.
How do you lose to the dealer?
-
Your hand value exceeds 21.
-
The dealers hand has a greater value than yours at the end of the round
It’s also important to note, the other players’ hands at the table have nothing to do with winning the game of Blackjack like they do in Poker games. For all practical purposes, it’s just you against the dealer. Unskilled patrons of the game will try to convince you “it’s a team sport” but don’t be fooled.
How Do You Find a Hand’s Total Value?
Blackjack is played with a conventional deck of 52 playing cards and suits don’t matter.
2 through 10 count at face value, i.e. a 2 counts as two, a 9 counts as nine.
Face cards (J,Q,K) count as 10.
Ace can count as a 1 or an 11 depending on which value helps the hand the most.
Blackjack is usually played on a semicircular table that can accommodate varying numbers of players. The most common tables accommodate 7 players (or seven “spots”) but we’ve seen tables that only allow 5 players and other tables that have 12 spots! The dealer stands behind the table and chip rack and the players sit on the other side.
Playing Blackjack
Blackjack games come with many rule variations and different numbers of decks. The most common game of blackjack is dealt out of a 6-deck or 8-deck “shoe” (a plastic, card-dispensing device). Single and double deck games are still alive and well but not all casinos that have blackjack will have single and double deck so the “shoe games” are a little more common. Our example will be the procedure for the most common blackjack game played with 6 decks. Here is the basic overview of a round of blackjack: