How To Play Blackjack

Once you understand the basics, blackjack is a very easy game to understand and play. What I am going to do now is go through the absolute basics on how to play online blackjack starting from logging into a casino.

Choosing Your Game

Upon logging in you will firstly need to choose a blackjack game to play. Before you start your game you will need to consider the following two things:

1. You will need to choose what table limits you would like applied to your game. Table limits simply mean the minimum and maximum bet that you can make on each hand. For example at Bet365 the table limits for most of their blackjack games are a choice between £1-£200 or £5-£500.

2. You need to decide whether you want a multiple hand game or a single hand game. The difference between these is that in a multi hand game you can have up to 5 sets of cards for each hand and in a single hand game it's obviously just one.

Starting The Game

Once you've chosen your game the fun can begin. With blackjack you play against the dealer and the idea is to get as close to 21 as you can without going over. 

You start out by placing your bet and then you hit the "deal" button. After this both you and the dealer are given two cards. You will only be able to see one of the dealer's cards and obviously you will see both of your own.

Then for your next move you will have the following options:

Hit - This means that you want another card.

Stand - This means that you don't want another card and are happy with the value of your two current cards.

Double Down - This means that you will double you original bet and take one more card.

Split - If you get two of the same cards you can split them which would mean you would have two active bets rather than one. For example, if you had an original bet of £1 and then you got two tens and split them, you would place a £1 bet on the second ten as well and then you would draw cards for both of them.

Surrender - This is when you give up the game and you will lose half your original bet. You will normally surrender if the total of your first two cards give an unfavourable value like 16 and the dealer has an ace. Side note - not every game will have the surrender rule.

If you chose to stand then the dealer will draw their cards and they will either get closer to 21 than you did, or they will go bust. If on the other hand you chose to hit, split or double down the game will continue until you stand or go bust.

If you win then you double the amount that you wagered in the first place. So if you placed a bet of £1 you will win £2 back. However if you get an Ace and a card with a value of ten, this is automatically worth 21 and you win 150% of your bet e.g if your original bet was £1 you will win £1.50 back. Another thing worth taking note of is that if you get an Ace and a 10, it's called Blackjack.

Card Values

Obviously cards numbered 1-10 are worth exactly that.

The King, Queen, and Jack are worth 10.

The Ace is worth either 1 or 11.

With the Ace being either 1 or 11 it can be confusing so an example would be the best way to clear it up. If your first card was a 5 and then you get an Ace, your total will be either 6 or 16.

If you chose to stand then you would stand at 16. However if you chose to hit and you got a 6, you would automatically get a value of 12. This is because 16+6 would give you 22 which is a bust, therefore the Ace goes down to a value of 1.

We also recommend reading blackjack rules for a more in depth description of a few of the rules and then read blackjack strategy to learn how to play with the best odds.