Learning more Blackjack Basics

If you want to learn an enjoyable and challenging card game, why not try blackjack? Blackjack rules are easy to learn and once you start practicing the sequence of play soon becomes second nature.

Your first task is to learn what your objective is in a game of blackjack. To win, you need to obtain a hand as close as possible to the total of 21. If your cards exceed this value, you automatically lose or “go bust.” A player’s blackjack hand competes directly against the hand of the dealer. So although you may be sharing the table with a group of other players, your primary concern is to get a more favorable hand than the dealer.

The second thing you need to learn about blackjack is how the cards are valued. Cards numbered from two to nine retain their value, while the ten, Jack, Queen and King are valued as ten. An Ace can either be played at a high value of eleven or at a low value of one.

The way in which an Ace affects a blackjack hand can be seen in the following example. If you have a six and an Ace, the total value of your cards is 17. This is known as a “soft” hand because your Ace does not push you over the limit of 21. If you want to count the Ace as a one for a total of seven, the hand is said to be a “hard” hand.

So now that you know how to make up a winning hand, let’s get started!