Blackjack rules for beginners: the hand, the dealer, your five choices

What the cards count and what the hand is for

Cards two to nine count their pip value. Tens, jacks, queens and kings count ten. An ace counts one or eleven, whichever helps the hand; a hand with an ace still counted as eleven is called soft, because a further card cannot bust it. The aim is a total closer to 21 than the dealer's without passing 21. A two-card 21, an ace and a ten-value card, is a blackjack or a natural and pays more than a normal win.

You are not playing the table. Every seat plays its own hand against the dealer, and a bad decision at the next seat does not change your odds, however it feels when the dealer draws the card you needed.

What rule the dealer must follow

The dealer has no decisions. With 16 or less the dealer must draw; with 17 or more the dealer must stand. That fixed rule is what makes the game solvable: for every hand you hold and every dealer up card, there is one decision with the best expected result, and the whole of basic strategy is that table of decisions.

One variant changes the rule. Some tables make the dealer hit a soft 17, an ace and a six; that costs the player 0.22 percent per hand on top of the base edge. The rule is printed on the felt, and a live table in the lobby names it in the game information.

What are the five decisions a player makes

Hit: take another card. Stand: keep the total. Double: double the bet and take exactly one more card, used when the hand is strong and the dealer's up card is weak. Split: with a pair, separate the two cards into two hands with a second bet, used with aces and eights on every chart and never with tens. Surrender, where offered: give up half the bet and the hand before drawing, used against a strong dealer card with a hopeless total.

Insurance is the sixth button and the one to leave alone: a side bet that the dealer holds a natural when an ace shows, priced against the player on every table we have opened. The table RTP guide puts the whole game on one scale with roulette and baccarat.

What the payout line on the felt costs

The single largest rule is how a natural pays. Three to two is the standard, a bet of two winning three. Six to five costs the player 1.39 percent more per hand, and even money costs 2.27, which moves the best game in the casino to a price like double zero roulette. Add the soft 17 rule at 0.22 and the number of decks, one to eight, and the base edge lands somewhere between 0.28 percent on the friendliest rule set and 0.43 under Atlantic City rules, a return of 99.57 percent.

Every one of those figures assumes basic strategy on every hand. The rule prices are additive: a six to five table where the dealer hits soft 17 has given back the whole advantage the game had over a slot before the first card is dealt.

Why basic strategy is a condition, not an option

The chart is the correct decision for each of your totals against each dealer up card, worked out from the deck composition and the dealer's rule. It tells you to stand on a stiff hand when the dealer shows a weak card and to hit the same hand when the dealer shows a strong one; to double on a strong two-card total against a weak up card; to split aces and eights and keep tens together; to hit soft hands that a hard total would stand on. It has no memory and needs none.

A player who follows it pays the printed edge. A player who guesses pays more, and the difference is the casino's, hand by hand. Online the chart is the whole skill: a continuously shuffled shoe makes counting impossible, and every RNG table reshuffles between rounds. Print the chart for the rule set of the table you sit at, and keep it open beside the window until it is memorised. A live dealer will not mind and cannot see it; an RNG table gives you all the time in the world between hands. The chart is legal, expected and the reason the game is priced as it is.

How the live table differs from the RNG one

An RNG blackjack table deals from a certified generator and reshuffles every hand; a live table deals physical cards on camera from a shoe, with a dealer and other seats, at the pace of a real table. The rules are the same; the differences are speed, minimum stakes and the rule variants each studio offers. The brands we review run Evolution Gaming tables in most lobbies, with Playtech and Pragmatic Play Live in several; the live casino guide covers the studios and what the camera changes.

One warning applies to both. Bonus terms count blackjack at a fraction or not at all towards wagering, because the edge is too low to clear a requirement profitably for the casino. Play the tables with cash, and read the wagering guide before betting bonus money on a hand.