How to Play Blackjack: The Rules, the Payouts, and Your First Hand

The goal of blackjack, in one sentence

Finish with a hand closer to 21 than the dealer's, without going over. That's the whole game. You aren't playing against the other people at the table, only against the dealer, and every player at the table can win the same round.

Going over 21 is called busting, and a bust loses straight away, even if the dealer busts later. That one rule is where the house gets its edge, and it's why the decisions you make matter.

What each card is worth

Suits don't matter. A hand with an ace counted as 11 is called soft (an ace and a 6 is "soft 17"), because one more card can't bust it: the ace just drops back to 1. A hand without that flexibility is hard.

How a round of blackjack works

1. You bet. Put your chips in the betting circle before any cards come out. At BlackJack Streak you click a chip (5K, 10K, 25K, 50K or 100K) and it travels into the circle.
2. The deal. You get two cards face up. The dealer gets one card face up (the upcard) and one face down (the hole card).
3. The dealer peeks. If the dealer's upcard is an ace or a ten-value card, they check the hole card for blackjack. If it's there, the round ends at once.
4. You play your hand. Hit, stand, double, split or surrender (all explained below) until you stand or bust.
5. The dealer plays. The hole card is turned over and the dealer draws by fixed rules: hit on 16 or less, stand on 17 or more. The dealer has no choices to make.
6. Settle up. Higher total wins. Equal totals are a push: your bet comes back.

Your five choices

Hit

Take another card. You can hit as many times as you like until you stand or go over 21.

Stand

Keep the hand you have. Your turn ends.

Double down

Double your bet and take exactly one more card. It's the move for strong starting hands, like 11 against a dealer's 6. At BlackJack Streak you can double on any first two cards, including after a split.

Split

If your first two cards are a pair, you can split them into two hands, each with its own bet, and play them one after the other. You can split up to four hands. Split aces get one card each, because an ace that gets a ten is too good a start to keep improving.

Surrender

Give up the hand and get half your bet back. It sounds like quitting, but against a dealer's 10 with your 16 it's the mathematically best play. BlackJack Streak uses late surrender: you can only surrender after the dealer has checked for blackjack.

What blackjack pays

A blackjack (also called a natural) is only an ace and a ten-value card dealt as your first two cards. Twenty-one made with three cards, or after a split, is just 21: it wins even money. Watch out for tables that pay blackjack 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2. That small change costs you about 1.4% of every bet you make, which is more than the whole house edge of a good game.

Insurance, explained honestly

When the dealer's upcard is an ace, you'll be offered insurance: a side bet of half your stake that the dealer has blackjack. It pays 2 to 1. It feels sensible, but unless you're counting cards it loses money over time, because the dealer has a ten underneath far less often than the 2 to 1 price assumes. Frank will tell you the same thing himself: “Between you and me, it's usually a sucker bet.”

The rules at BlackJack Streak

Rules change from table to table, and they change your odds. These are BlackJack Streak's defaults, which match a good casino table:

• Six decks, reshuffled when the cut card comes out (75% of the way through the shoe)
• Blackjack pays 3 to 2
• Dealer stands on all 17s, including soft 17
• Dealer peeks for blackjack under an ace or a ten
• Double on any two cards, and after splitting
• Split up to four hands; split aces get one card each
• Late surrender allowed; insurance pays 2 to 1

Want to try something else? Settings lets you play with 1, 2, 4 or 8 decks, make the dealer hit soft 17, switch surrender off, or shuffle before every hand.

Those numbers come from 98 million rounds of perfect basic strategy that we played through BlackJack Streak's own rules engine. The full breakdown is in our guide to blackjack odds and the house edge.

Your first hand, step by step

The quickest way to make all of this stick is to play a few hands. Here's what that looks like at BlackJack Streak:

1. Open BlackJackStreak.com. The table loads in your browser. No download and no sign-up. You start with 500,000 free chips.
2. Click a chip along the bottom to bet it, or press 1 to 5 on your keyboard.
3. Press Deal (or Space). Frank deals two cards to you and two to himself, one face down.
4. Decide. The buttons beside your chips light up gold when it's your move: H to hit, S to stand, D to double, P to split, R to surrender.
5. Watch Frank play his hand, collect or pay, and crack a joke about it either way.

Three beginner mistakes to skip

• Standing on 12 to 16 against a 7 or higher. It feels safe, but the dealer will usually make 17 or better. Against strong dealer cards, those hands need to hit.
• Never doubling. Doubling on 10 or 11 against a weak dealer card is where a lot of your profit comes from. In our simulation, doubled hands won 55% of the time.
• Taking insurance. See above. Say no and keep the chips.

When you're ready for more, our basic strategy guide gives you the full chart for every hand, and our beginner tips cover the habits that make the biggest difference. Unsure of a word? The blackjack glossary has it.