1. A player bets putting chips (*) on the right position.
2. The croupier deals the cards (**) – he gives two cards to each player and two for himself, where one of those given to himself remains covered.
3. A player has to make a decision:
· he can select a card –HIT
· he can wait without selecting another card – PASS
· he can double the stake, but only if he has two cards; the croupier gives him an additional one – DOUBLE DOWN
· he can distribute the cards; but he can do that only when he has a pair. If he does it, then he has to bring a second stake to the table and play with both cards two different bets. In the end he can win both bets, he can loose both or he can win one and loose the other one- SPLIT
· if the croupier has an Ace (one of two cards that you can see) then you would be offer an insurance, in case that the dealer has a blackjack – INSURANCE. You can find more about the insurance in later chapters (***).
4. After finishing this part of game, a player looses whenever he has more than 21 in his cards. In blackjack terminology, it is called “blast”.
However, if a player has 21 points or less the croupier uncovers his second card and obeys following rules: - if he has 16 or less in both cards he has to select another one
- he must not select another card, if the value of his cards exceeds 17
5. The winner is a person, whose cards’ value is bigger but does not exceed 21.
If a player wins, it means that the croupier has to double his stake, unless the player got a blackjack (ace with one of the figures or with ten). In this case, the player earns 250 % instead of 200% that he invested at the beginning (****).The player’s loss means the loss of the invested chips. .
*- on each table, you can find the information about minimum and maximum required stake.
** - in blackjack, you play with the deck of 52 cards. Sometimes casinos use even eight decks within a single game.
*** - the mechanism of insurance: if you can see the ace in a hand of croupier, then you can buy the insurance in case the croupier gets blackjack. If you decide to purchase the insurance, you put the half of your stake on a different place (position on the table). Then dealer checks his second card and if it is a figure or ten, then the player looses the previous stake, but he gets the chips from the position “insurance” that have been tripled. In the end his overall position is “zero”. If the second card of croupier is less than ten the chips posted on the position „insurance” got lost, but the game continues. In this way, you can still win.
Should you not choose the insurance? Even without mathematical calculations, the answer is NO, YOU SHOULD NOT. Purchasing the insurance is a bet, where you believe the dealer has a higher card than the Ten. If you play with many decks the chance to be right about dealer better position is ~ 4/13. If the bet is fair, you should get a repay for your losses in 9:4. However, in reality the guaranteed repay amounts only to 2:1 (you can read INSURANCE PAYS 2:1). Summing up – do not use the “insurance” alternative, no matter how bad your cards are!
**** - this is a usual winning in most of the casinos. You can read a caption on the table BLACKJACK PAYS 3:2.
