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Casinos for Blackjack
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Blackjack is a table card game played against the dealer, when
playing the pictures have a value of ten and the ace can be either
1 or 11 (a hand with an ace counting as 1 or 11 is called soft
otherwise the hand will have a hard total), all other cards have
their face value.
You must first place your wager and then the dealer will deal
two cards to each player and two cards to himself, one face down
and one face up, the aim of the game is to get closer to 21 than
the dealer without going over (known as busting), if you bust
you lose your wager, if you draw with the dealer you will not
win or lose, but if you beat the dealer you get paid at even money.
Although the player can stand or hit on any value the dealer must
play by one simple rule, 17 or greater he will stand 16 or lower
he will hit.
When playing blackjack a number of other options will become
available to the player as follows:
- Blackjack - when the player has a total of 21 with two cards
this is called blackjack and will be paid at 3-2 if he beats
the dealer.
- Double - the player may place a bet equal to his initial wager
but will only be able to draw one more card.
- Splitting - when the player has two cards of equal value he
may place a second bet equal to his first and the two cards
are split and another card drawn to each card creating two separate
hands, these hands are then played as normal.
- Insurance - when the dealer is showing an ace the player may
make a bet up to half his initial wager, if the dealer gets
blackjack the insurance bet will be paid at 2-1, otherwise it
will lose.
- Surrender - If the player feels he has a bad hand he may surrender
his hand and half his bet.
Blackjack probably has more rule variations than any other casino
table game and so you must find out which rules are in action
at the table you want to play at before placing your first bet.Some
of the rule variations are as follows:
- Blackjack - a few rare casinos will pay 2-1 for a blackjack.
- Double - some casinos will restrict the totals which you can
double with, only doubling with a hard total of 9,10 or 11 is
a fairly common rule.
- Splitting - a casino may not allow you to split ten value
cards or may not allow more than one card to be drawn to split
ace's, also some casino will limit the number of times you can
split a single hand and whether or not you can double a split
hand.
- Insurance - some casinos only allow you to take insurance
if you are holding a blackjack.
- Surrender - many casinos do not give this option but when
available it is normally a variation called late surrender,
this is when the dealer checks his card to see if he has blackjack
before allowing players to surrender. Early surrender is very
rare and is done before the dealer checks for blackjack.
- Hit soft 17 - in some casinos the dealer will take a card
when he has a soft total of 17.
- No hole card - some casinos will only give the dealer one
card to start with, he will then draw his second card after
all the players have completed their hands.
As an example here are the rules used in all casinos in the United
Kingdom.
- Blackjack - pays 3-2.
- Doubling - only on two cards with hard totals of 9,10 or 11.
- Splitting - you may not split 4's, 5's or ten value cards,
only one card is drawn to ace's but there is no limit to the
number of splits (even with ace's) and you may double split
hands.
- Insurance - only when the player has blackjack and the dealer
has an ace.
- Surrender - NO surrender.
- Hit soft 17? - NO
- Hole card? - dealer has no hole card.
There are also some major variations on blackjack, one of these
is called double exposure blackjack and another is called Spanish
21. Double exposure shows both of the dealers cards before the
player plays his hand - but this does not come cheap, blackjack
is only paid at even money and the dealer wins all hands which
would normally stand (except for blackjack). Spanish 21 give's
a number of bonuses such as 3-1 for three sevens or 3-2 for a
five card 21 - to compensate for this all tens (not face cards)
are removed from the deck.
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