Blackjack Rules: How the Game Is Played
Updated
You are trying to finish closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. Cards 2 through 10 are worth their face value, jacks, queens, and kings are worth 10, and an ace counts as 1 or 11, whichever helps you. A blackjack is an ace plus a ten-value card on your first two cards, and it should pay 3:2.
- Goal: beat the dealer's total without busting.
- Values: 2–10 face value, J/Q/K = 10, ace = 1 or 11.
- Blackjack pays 3:2. Walk away from 6:5.
- Dealer draws to 16 and stands on 17. Ties push.
- The correct play for every hand is on the basic strategy chart.
Card values
- 2 through 10 are worth exactly what they show.
- Jack, queen, king are each worth 10.
- Ace is worth 1 or 11, and it switches automatically to whichever keeps you alive. You never have to declare which one you mean.
Suits do nothing in blackjack. A hand is only ever a total. There is more detail in card values explained.
How a round goes
- You bet by placing chips in the circle in front of you, before any cards come out.
- Cards are dealt. You get two face up. The dealer gets one face up, plus a face-down hole card in the American game.
- The dealer checks for blackjack if the upcard is an ace or a ten. If they have it, the hand is over immediately.
- You play your hand, one decision at a time, until you stand or bust.
- The dealer plays by a fixed rule with no choices at all.
- Totals are compared and bets are settled.
Whether the dealer takes a hole card at all depends on where you are playing, and it changes correct strategy. The comparison is in European versus American blackjack.
What you can do on your turn
- Hit takes one more card. You can keep hitting until you stand or go over 21.
- Stand ends your turn with what you have.
- Double down doubles your bet and gives you exactly one more card, then your turn is over. See when to double down.
- Split turns a pair into two separate hands, each with its own bet. See when to split.
- Surrender gives up the hand for half your bet. Not offered everywhere, and worth looking for.
- Insurance is a side bet that the dealer has blackjack. Without a count it loses money, every time. See insurance.
Hand signals and table etiquette
You do not say your decisions out loud. Cameras cover every table, and the house wants a visible gesture on the recording. Learn these four and you will never look lost.
| Action | Shoe game (cards face up) | Handheld game (cards in your hand) |
|---|---|---|
| Hit | Tap the felt with a finger | Scrape the cards lightly toward you |
| Stand | Wave a flat hand over your cards | Slide the cards under your bet |
| Double down | Place a matching stack beside your bet, then point one finger | Same, cards go face up |
| Split | Place a matching stack beside your bet, then make a V with two fingers | Same |
Two more habits that mark you as someone who has done this before. Do not touch your chips once the cards are out, and in a shoe game do not touch your cards at all. To buy in, set your cash on the felt rather than handing it to the dealer.
How the dealer plays
The dealer has no decisions. They draw until reaching at least 17, then stop. That is the entire strategy, and it is why the house edge comes from you acting first and busting first.
The one variation that matters is what happens on a soft 17, meaning an ace counted as 11 plus a six. At an S17 table the dealer stands on it. At an H17 table the dealer takes another card. S17 is better for you by about a fifth of a percent. The full breakdown is in dealer rules.
Soft hands and hard hands
A soft hand contains an ace counted as 11, so A‑6 is a soft 17. You cannot bust a soft hand with one card, because the ace quietly drops to 1 if you would go over. That safety net is why you play soft hands far more aggressively than they look.
A hard hand has no ace worth 11, either because there is no ace or because it already dropped to 1. Hard 16 is the worst hand in blackjack, and there is a reason the chart tells you to surrender it when it can.
Payouts and the house edge
- A win pays even money, 1:1.
- A blackjack pays 3:2, so $10 returns $15. At a 6:5 table the same hand returns $12, and that single change costs you more than every other bad rule combined. See 3:2 versus 6:5.
- A tie is a push. Your bet comes back and nothing happens.
- Insurance pays 2:1 when it hits.
Play a standard six-deck game with perfect basic strategy and the house keeps roughly 0.44% of what you bet. That is one of the best numbers on the casino floor, and it evaporates the moment the rules change.
The rules to check before you sit down
Every table has a placard. These are the numbers behind what it says, computed for a six-deck game.
| Rule | Effect on house edge |
|---|---|
| Blackjack pays 6:5 instead of 3:2 | +1.36% |
| Blackjack pays even money | +2.27% |
| Dealer hits soft 17 (H17) | +0.20% |
| Doubling restricted to 10 and 11 | +0.18% |
| No double after split | +0.14% |
| No hole card (dealer takes no second card) | +0.11% |
| Late surrender offered | −0.08% |
| Resplitting aces allowed | −0.08% |
| Doubling after splitting aces allowed | −0.19% |
We compute these ourselves rather than copying them. The method is in how we calculate, and you can price your own table in the live counter.
What exactly counts as a blackjack?
An ace and a ten-value card, dealt as your first two cards. Nothing else. Reach 21 with three or more cards and it is an ordinary 21 that pays 1:1 and can be pushed by the dealer's own 21.
A hand of 21 made after splitting a pair of aces is also not a blackjack at almost every casino, which is one reason the resplit and double-after-split rules matter.
Blackjack, 21, black jack
All the same game. "Twenty-one" is the older name and still shows up in older books. "Black jack" written as two words is just a spelling that stuck around. The rules, payouts, and strategy do not change.
What does differ is the branded variants you will see on a modern floor: Free Bet Blackjack, Blackjack Switch, Spanish 21, and the rest. Those change real rules, and their strategy charts are not this one.
Keep reading
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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