Rules of Playing Blackjack at a Casino

Blackjack is one of the most widely played card games in online as well as offline casinos all over the world and is often confused with the British card game named Black Jack, which happens to be a variant of Crazy Eights. This game is commonly referred to as Twenty-one or Pontoon because the player who plays the game is required to have two cards in his hand which should add up to twenty-one or a figure which exceeds this number. The player who acquires cards which add up to twenty-one or the figure nearest to it is declared as the winner.

In an offline casino, blackjack is played at a kidney-shaped table and features seven players in each round with each player playing independently as well as a dealer. The game takes place in the following manner:

• In the first step, the cards are dealt and this may happen in three ways namely either from handheld decks or from a box referred to as 'shoe' which contains 4-8 decks or from a shuffling machine.
• The two important terminologies related to dealing of cards in Blackjack are 'upcard' meaning the card facing up and 'hole card' meaning the card facing down.
• In a normal game, the highest hand is a blackjack which is a total of twenty-one between two cards and such a player is declared as the winner.
• In case the dealer also has a blackjack then the situation which ensues is known as a 'tie' or a 'push'.

Some of the terms which are particularly associated with blackjack at an offline casino which are used by the players are described as follows:

• When a player say 'hit' it signifies taking another card and a hit is signaled by scraping cards against the table, touching the finger to the table or waving a hand.
• The term 'stand' is used when no more cards are to be taken and it can be substituted by the terms 'stick' or 'stay'. This is signaled by sliding the cards under the bet or waving the hand horizontally.
• A 'double down' means the player is allowed to double his initial bet and receiving one card from the dealer in return. This option is used after the player receives his first two cards and before he receives any further cards.
• 'Split a pair' is the term used when the player receives the first two cards of the same value and wishes to play them separately after splitting.
• There is an option known as 'surrender' which is not offered at all casinos and which is used by the player by giving up half of his bet and not playing his hand.

In an offline casino, the payoff for a player who indulges in blackjack is 3:2 meaning every time that a player places a bet for $2 the casino has to pay $3.