Blackjack

Blackjack, also referred to as 21, is a popular casino card game where players attempt to have a hand value closer to 21 than the dealer without exceeding it. The game is typically played with 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 standard decks of 52 cards.

In the context of the game, a “blackjack” is also the name given to a hand consisting of an Ace and a 10-value card (10, Jack, Queen, or King) as the first two cards dealt, which is the best possible hand and typically pays out at 3:2 odds. This hand takes its name from the game itself and is an automatic win unless the dealer also has a blackjack, in which case it’s a push (or tie).

See blackjack rules and other blackjack basics below. For more in-depth blackjack topics, see the links provided in the left margin or below. More details will follow when Substack posts about blackjack are published.

Blackjack rules vary to some degree from location to location. The rules discussed here refer to those offered in Las Vegas at the tables where I dealt cards and in the casino where I conducted interviews, in the northwestern Indiana casinos, and in Prague. The end of this section will consider some common rule variations, including those that are offered in areas of where I conducted fieldwork.

The goal of blackjack is to get a higher point total than the dealer without busting (getting more than twenty-one points).  All cards are worth their face value with two exceptions: face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) are each worth ten points, and aces are worth either one or eleven points, depending on which value makes a better hand. Blackjack is played on a felt-top table with six or seven places for players who sit around a crescent shaped table facing the dealer, an employee of the casino. As few as one person can play against the dealer, and each person can use more than one betting spot (assuming it is available), although in the U.S., the minimum bet per hand is usually higher for players who wish to play more than one hand per round. Each player competes only against the dealer, not against the other players.

Common Blackjack Layout

Before the cards are dealt, players place their bets onto a circumscribed space in front of them on the felt. Players have the option to bet as much as they would like constrained by a minimum and maximum bet which is indicated at each table.[1] Bets are made in the form of casino chips that have various monetary values signified by both a color and a printed value. These may be purchased from the dealer at the table. Once all bets have been placed, two cards are dealt face up to each player and, in Las Vegas and Indiana, two cards to the dealer, one face up and the other face down (the latter known as the hole card). In the Czech Republic, no hole card is dealt to the dealer, instead dealers take their 2nd card after all players have finished with their turns . Players are not allowed to touch their cards; instead they signal their play choices using hand motions or by placing additional chips on the table.[2]

Cards are dealt from a plastic box called a shoe, which holds four, six, or eight normal decks of cards which have been shuffled together (the total number depending on the region, the particular casino, and even the location within the casino).[3] After the cards have been shuffled, the dealer hands a blank plastic card to one of the players at the table, which the player inserts into the stack of cards, marking the place where the dealer will cut (separating and inverting the top and bottom halves of the stack of cards). Subsequently, this card is inserted into the shuffled cards, usually about two-thirds of the way down, before placing the cards in the shoe and beginning to deal. When the plastic card is reached (after several rounds of dealing), that particular round of play continues until it is finished, then all of the cards are again shuffled together before beginning the next round.

The payout system in blackjack works as follows: If the player busts or if the dealer does not bust and the player gets a lower point total, the player loses and the dealer takes the player’s bet. If the player and the dealer have the same amount, called a push, no money is won or lost, and the player may take his or her original bet back, leave it out for the next round, or add to it. If the player has a higher point total than the dealer, or if the player does not bust and the dealer does, then the player wins the amount of their original bet.

If the first two cards are an ace and a ten-value card, the player (or dealer) has a blackjack. Blackjack is the most powerful hand in the game, winning against all other hands, including other hands worth twenty-one points that are not blackjacks. The player also receives a bonus for blackjack of an additional one half of the original bet (assuming the dealer does not also have a blackjack, in which case the player and dealer push).

Once the hands have been dealt, play proceeds with the first player to the dealer’s left, who must make all of his or her play choices before the next player’s turn. Players have as many as six different choices in blackjack: hitting, standing, doubling down, splitting, and taking insurance or even money. The two most common choices are between hitting and standing which involve, respectively, either taking additional cards or not taking additional cards and ending the turn.

Doubling down is an option on the player’s first two cards. This requires doubling the original bet at which point the player receives exactly one additional card, no more, no less. If players would like to double down for less than the amount of their original bet, they may.

Splitting is an option if the player’s first two cards have the same value, including any two ten-value cards, such as a ten and a king. Splitting requires the player to match his or her original bet, as with doubling down. The dealer then usually asks whether the player wishes to double or split, and once “split” is indicated, separates the two cards placing one of the bets in front of each card, and dealing a second card to each original, so that the two cards make two new hands which are then played separately. If the split cards are aces, the player can only receive one card to each ace, and if this new card is a 10-value card, the hand only counts as a normal twenty-one, not as a blackjack. With all other split hands, the player may hit, stand, and double down as though playing a new hand.

If the dealer’s upcard is an ace, players are given the option to take insurance before they begin play. The insurance bet is a side bet that the dealer will have a blackjack. The standard insurance bet is half the amount of the player’s original bet, although players are allowed to insure for less than half if they wish. If the dealer has a blackjack, the insurance bet pays the player two to one, covering the amount of the player’s original bet (assuming the player insures for the maximum amount), thus the name. If the dealer does not have a blackjack, the insurance bet is lost, and play commences as normal.

If one of the players has a blackjack given the insurance choice, this player has the option to take either even money or insurance, or just even money, depending on the rules in a particular location. If the player takes even money, the dealer pays out the amount of the player’s original bet before checking the hole card for a blackjack, thus guaranteeing the player a win. If the player does not take even money, play commences as usual, such that the player either wins 1.5 times his or her original bet if the dealer does not also have a blackjack, or pushes, neither winning nor losing, if the dealer does have a blackjack. Taking even money results in an identical outcome to taking insurance for the full amount, although many players (and many casino employees) do not realize this. In both cases, a player with blackjack will win exactly the amount of their original bet, whether or not the dealer ends up having a blackjack.

In Las Vegas and Indiana, before participants commence play, the dealer checks for a blackjack (assuming he or she has either a ten-value or ace upcard) using a mirror built into the table. If the dealer has a blackjack, all losing bets and the corresponding cards are removed from the table. Double-down or split bets are not lost since they have not yet been placed. If the dealer does not have a blackjack, play commences as usual. In the Czech Republic, the dealer does not have a hole card, and thus does not check for a blackjack before play commences. If any players have blackjacks, they are also paid immediately (assuming the dealer does not also have a blackjack, in the US, or the potential for a blackjack, in Europe) and their hands are removed from the table. During a player’s turn, if they bust (go over 21), their bet is immediately removed and their cards taken away, such that even if the dealer subsequently busts, the player still loses.

When all the players have finished with their turns, the dealer either turns over his or her hole card (in Las Vegas and Indiana) or takes a second card from the shoe (in the Czech Republic). The dealer must then hit or stand by a set of predetermined rules that do not depend on the players’ cards. If the dealer’s total is sixteen or less, the dealer must hit. If the total is seventeen or more, the dealer must stand. Thus, even if every player at the table has an eighteen and the dealer only has a seventeen, the dealer must still stand, losing to all players at the table. If the dealer receives a blackjack in the Czech Republic, the casino takes the players’ split and double-down bets along with the original bets.

The player has the following advantages over the casino: they can see previous cards dealt out of the shoe, the dealer’s upcard, and their own cards, and then choose how to play their hands accordingly, while dealers must play their hands uniformly regardless of what the players have or what has been removed from the deck; they can choose to double their bets by doubling down or splitting after they have seen their own hand and the dealers’ upcard, selectively increasing the amount they can win based on their initial cards; and blackjacks pay an additional one-half the player’s original bet, even though a dealer blackjack only wins the amount the player risks. The casino advantage comes from the fact that the most common type of tie, when both the player and the dealer get more than twenty-one, goes to the casino since the casino takes the players’ money the moment the player busts, even if the dealer subsequently busts as well. Under normal circumstances this advantage overwhelms all of the player advantages.

While this set of rules is standard for the casinos where I conducted my fieldwork, there are a number of blackjack rule variations that frequently occur around the U.S. and around the world (and often even within the same casino from table to table). The common rule variations include 1) the number of decks used, which commonly include one-, two-, four-, six-, and eight-deck games; 2) whether or not the player may double down after splitting; 3) whether or not the player may double down on any two cards, or only a subset, usually limited to ten and eleven, or nine, ten, and eleven; 4) whether the dealer hits or stands with a soft seventeen; whether the dealer waits until after play choices have been made to check for a blackjack and then keeps or returns double-down and split bets; and whether or not players may surrender their hands, which involves giving up half of one’s bet after the cards have been dealt but before any play choices have been made, and throwing in one’s cards. In Las Vegas, when this latter rule is allowed, it is only permitted after it has been determined that the dealer does not have a blackjack. In the Czech Republic, it is not permitted against the dealer’s ace. These rule differences all have repercussions for how people in fact play their hands, for how they ought to play their hands given the goal of maximizing expected value, and for the casino’s advantage assuming optimal play. A number of conventions also vary from casino to casino, such as whether the cards are dealt face up or down and whether the player can touch the cards (they are dealt face down and the player can touch the cards in most single- and many double-deck games), whether the player can take insurance with a blackjack or just even money, whether the player can insure or double down for less than their original bet, and whether gamblers can place bets on the outcome of other players’ hands (they can in the Czech Republic, but not in Las Vegas or Indiana).

Finally, it is worth note that these rules are based on the time period when I did my research, in the early 2000s, and some norms may have changed.

[1] In Las Vegas minimums go as low as $1 per hand, although in most Las Vegas Strip casinos the lowest minimums are between five and ten dollars. Fancier casinos have certain tables with minimums as high as $100 or higher. Maximums tend to be around one thousand times the minimum bet at the table, with a cap at around $10,000. In Indiana, minimums ranged from as low as five dollars (though usually ten dollars) to as high as one hundred dollars; maximums from as low as $1,000 to as high as $10,000. In Prague casinos tend to have tables with minimums that range from one or two hundred crowns (approximately $3.70-7.40) at the lowest tables and 500 crowns (approximately $18.60) at the highest tables. Maximums are only ten to thirty times the minimum at the tables, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 crowns (approximately $111 to $370).

[2] Hand motions are generally required so that the video surveillance can record the player’s choice in order to settle potential subsequent disputes. In single deck and sometimes double-deck blackjack, the cards are dealt face down and the player must hold their cards, but that is not available in the Czech Republic and so I did not focus on that version of the game.

[3] In the locations where I conducted my fieldwork, four-deck shoes were not used.

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