THE RULES OF CASINO BLACKJACK INTRODUCTION The rules of blackjack as played in a casino differ from the rules commonly found in 'home' games, so unless you've played in casinos, read this section. BASICS Each card in the deck counts as its face value in points. (Eg: 7 of spades=7). All face cards count as ten, and aces may count as 1 or 11. The card suits have no bearing on the hand and all face cards are of equal worth (a jack is the same as a queen etc). The winner of the hand between the player and dealer is the hand whose total point value is closest to, but not over, 21. Exceeding 21 is known as 'busting' and loses automatically. If both the player and the dealer have the same total, the hand is a tie, or a 'push', and no money changes hands. A push does not apply if both player and dealer bust, in which case the dealer wins. A two-card combination of cards totalling 21 (ace-ten) is known as a blackjack and is an automatic winner. TABLE LAYOUT AND DEAL The typical casino blackjack table seats up to seven players. The players must place all bets before any cards are dealt. Once that's done the dealer will deal two cards to each player and to himself. One of the dealer's cards will be dealt face up and the other will be dealt face down. The players' cards will be either both up or both down. PLAYING THE HANDS After the initial two cards have been dealt, each player, and the dealer, checks their hand for a 'blackjack'. If the dealer has a blackjack he will collect all the bets (except from any player who also has a blackjack) and the hand is over. If the dealer does not have a blackjack he will pay any player who does at the rate of 3/2. (eg: a $10 bet wins $15) After the blackjacks are settled each remaining player may in turn draw additional cards, or 'hit', until he elects to 'stand', or busts his hand. Should he exceed 21 the dealer collects the bet and that player's participation in the hand is over. The player has several other options apart from standing or hitting, which will be explained later. THE DEALER'S HAND After all the players are satisfied with their hands the dealer will turn over his concealed card ('down card' or 'hole card') and play out his hand. Unlike the players who may hit or stand as they choose, the dealer must play his hand according to strict guidelines. The dealer MUST draw an additional card to any hand of sixteen or less and MUST stand on any hand of 17 or higher. The dealer must also count an ace as eleven unless doing so exceeds 21. Therefore, on any hand containing an ace which may be counted as one or eleven (known as a 'soft total' as opposed to a 'hard total') the dealer would have to stand if the higher total were 17 or more (eg: ace-six = 17 = stand). Should the dealer bust, he will pay all players at the table excluding those who have already busted their hands. With a total of 17-21 he will pay any player whose hand has a higher value and collect from any player whose hand has a lower value. If both dealer and player have the same total, no money changes hands. PLAYER OPTIONS If the above were all there was to the game it would be rather dull. However, the player has several other options which make for a much more interesting and challenging game. The standard player options are listed below: DOUBLE DOWN After receiving his initial two-card hand the player may double the size of his bet on condition that he draw one additional card. This is generally done on totals such as 10 or 11 where a face card would give the player a very strong hand. PAIR SPLITS If the player's initial two-card hand contains a pair, the player may match the size of his original bet and play each card as a separate hand. On each card he may now draw as many additional cards as he chooses. If the second card drawn on one of the split hands is a card of the same value as one of the player's original two cards, then this card may be be split into a third hand (requiring a third wager, of course). Most casinos limit this pair re-splitting to a maximum of four hands. All ten value cards (Ten-King) are considered a pair, even if not of the same rank, and may be split. If the player splits a pair of aces, he is only dealt one additional card to each ace. No additional hits and no re-splits, should he draw a third ace, are possible. After splitting, an ace-ten combination is a total of 21 and not a blackjack. INSURANCE Whenever the dealer has an ace as an upcard the player may 'insure' his original wager against a dealer blackjack. This side bet must be one half of the original bet and if the dealer has blackjack it will be paid at 2-1. If the dealer does not have a blackjack he will collect the insurance bet and the hand will be played out for the original bet. As an example: Player bets $10 and receives a hand of 6-5 and dealer's upcard is an ace. If the player chooses to take insurance he must put up an additonal $5. If the dealer has blackjack he will return all the player's money (the $5 bet winning back the original $10 bet) and the hand is over. If the dealer does not have blackjack he will collect the $5 insurance bet and the hand will be played out normally for the original $10 wager. RULE VARIATIONS With the above you have the basic rules of blackjack as it is played in Las Vegas. The rules elsewhere (and in Vegas) may differ from area to area, even from place to place in the same area. Listed below are additional options and variations on the above basic game. MORE DECKS At one time, blackjack was played with one, or at most two, decks of cards. Now four, or even as many as eight decks has become more common. In Nevada, many casinos still use only one deck, but in the rest of the world 4-6 decks is standard practice. SURRENDER After receiving his original two-card hand, the player may elect to give up his hand for half of his wager. The Vegas variation allows this only after the dealer has checked to see if he has a blackjack. Another variation is early surrender where the dealer does not check his hand for a blackjack until after all players have finished play of their hands. In this variation the player is allowed to surrender even when the dealer has a blackjack. Early surrender is extremely favourable for the player, and for that reason, rarely found in casinos. DEALER HITS SOFT 17 Generally the dealer must stand on any total, hard or soft, of 17 or more. In some casinos the dealer must draw to a total of soft 17 (eg: ace-6 or ace-4-2,etc). This is common in downtown Vegas and Reno/Tahoe and is clearly marked on the table layout as 'Dealer Hits Soft 17'. On higher soft totals (18-21), the dealer will stand. NO DEALER HOLE CARD In most European casinos the dealer will not take his down card until all the players have played out their hands. This favours the casino in those cases where the dealer draws a blackjack (still an automatic winner), as the dealer will also win any extra wagers made by the player in doubling or pair splitting. A few casinos follow this method but will collect only the original wager on a dealer blackjack. DOUBLE AFTER SPLIT Many casinos will allow the player's two-card hand after splitting to be played as an initial hand for the purposes of doubling down. For example: player receives 2-2 and splits, on his first 2 he is dealt a 9, he may now double his wager on this hand for an additional card. This could also be repeated for the next hand and on any additional splits. DOUBLE DOWN RESTRICTIONS In Las Vegas the player may double on any two-card hand. Outside of Vegas, many casinos impose restrictions on which particular hands may be doubled. No doubling on soft hands, or double on 9-10-11 only, are common variations in Europe and the Carribean. Most Reno casinos are even stricter and allow doubling only on totals of 10 or 11. Some casinos may allow doubling not only on any given total, but also on three-card hands as well as two-card hands. PAIR SPLIT RESTRICTIONS The norm is for the player to be able to split a pair up to a limit of four hands, but some places will allow the hand to be split once only (England, Atlantic City). Some casinos in the Carribean do not allow the player to split aces at all. In others, the player may be allowed to re-split aces, or draw additional cards to split aces. 6 CARD WIN With this rule any player hand of 21 or less with six cards is an automatic winner. If this rule is used the casino will also pay any five card hand of 11 or less and any five card soft hand, as you could obviously draw a sixth card safely. DEALER WINS TIES This variation is sometimes found at fairs and exhibitions and totally changes the nature of the game. Although the basic rules provide a game in which the odds are about even, the dealer winning ties gives him an edge of over 9%. ASSORTED MISCL. RULES Insurance may not be allowed in some casinos and others may restrict insurance to players having a blackjack. A few casinos in northern Nevada offer special payoffs for unusual player hands (eg: three sevens, Ace of Spades-Ten of Spades, etc). These hands are extremely unlikely to occur and do not have any significant effect on the probabilities of the game.