Black jack

Welcome to a brief set of introductory articles. We're going to assume you've never played this game before and give you a basic guide. Once you've got the theory, you can build up experience by playing the free online black jack.

The first thing to talk about is the relationship between online black jack and black jack in a real world casino. If you walked into a real casino, you'd find sets of tables offering a range of games including black jack. Each black jack table clearly advertises the minimum and the maximum bets allowed. There's usually a sign on the tabletop. When you look around, the quick way to tell which is which is to see where the most people are standing. Those are likely to the tables with the lowest minimum bids. Most people play for fun at lower stakes or to build up experience. Only those with a bigger bankroll and more experience go to the higher stakes tables.

You're likely to see the words, "black jack pays 3 to 2" printed on the table felt. This means that, when you draw a black jack (that's 21 in two cards) the House pays 3 to 2, meaning you win 3 dollars for every 2 you bet.

The next thing to look out for is the "shoe". This is a stacking system for holding as many as eight decks shuffled together. It's used to eliminate the possibility that the dealer might "sharp" the cards. Some people can manipulate the deck to cheat. By reducing the dealer's movement to a simple downward motion of the fingers on the back of a card, everyone round the table can be confident that the same card touched is the one dealt. If you want to start understanding the process of calculating the probabilities, you need to check exactly how many cards are in the shoe to start off. That way, if you keep a rough count of how many are dealt, you can think about how many important cards are left. There is one key thing I should tell you. The more decks in the shoe, the better the House percentage. When you get better at the game, you should start playing with fewer decks. That evens up the odds. The chips are self-explanatory with different colors so you can keep track of how you're doing more easily.

The really important thing to look out for are the table rules. These set the way in which the dealer plays his hand. The most popular rule variations affect when the dealer must draw or stand, i.e. does not draw any more cards. All casinos have to tell you which rule is in effect. So look on the felt. The most common rule is, "Dealer must stand on all 17s". So, when the dealer reveals the downcard, there are two possibilities:

So if the dealer draws Ace,8 this counts as 19 and the dealer stands. Similarly, Ace,6 counts as 17 and the dealer stands. But Ace,5 is only 16 and the dealer is required to draw cards until the hand's value is 17 or more. And so on.

The alternate rule is, "Dealer hits soft 17". This works in exactly the same way except when the dealer has a "soft" total of 17. A soft total is where the total is reached by using one or more aces - Ace,6, Ace,4,2 and Ace,Ace,5 all make a soft 17. The dealer must draw another card. This means that the dealer actually stands on a hard 17 or a soft 18 or higher. Playing this rule gives the House a slightly better percentage.

In both cases, the dealer draws until he reaches at least 17 or busts by going over 21. The dealer is not allowed to split pairs.

So, if you now click the free online black jack option, you'll find exactly what I've just described. Next time, I'll explain what the options of double, split and insurance mean and how to bet.