Blackjack

How blackjack is scored

Number cards count their value, J, Q and K count 10, and an ace counts 11 unless that would bust you, then 1. A hand with an ace counted as 11 is soft; it cannot bust on the next card. A two-card 21 is a blackjack, paid 3 to 2: a 25-chip bet wins 37.5. A 21 made after a split is an ordinary 21 and pays 1 to 1.

Basic strategy chart

For six decks, the dealer standing on all 17s, doubling allowed (also after a split) and no surrender. H hit, S stand, D double, P split. Find your hand in the left column and the dealer’s up card across the top. This chart is generated by the same function that powers the hint, so the two cannot disagree.

Hard 8 and below always hit; hard 17 and above always stand. With a pair you check the Pairs table first and fall back to the hard or soft table when it says to play the total (5,5 plays as hard 10).

Why the house still wins

The player must act first, so a player bust loses even if the dealer would have busted too. That asymmetry is worth about 8 percentage points to the house, and good rules (3 to 2 payouts, doubling, splitting, a stand on soft 17) win most of it back. Use the expected value calculator to see what a bet is worth in the long run. This is a teaching game, not gambling advice.

How to play blackjack here

You start with 1,000 play-money chips. Pick a bet of 10, 25, 50 or 100 and press Deal. You and the dealer each get two cards, and one dealer card stays hidden. Then choose: Hit to take a card, Stand to keep your total, Double down to double your bet and take exactly one more card, or Split if your two cards have the same value. Get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. If you run out of chips, one button resets them to 1,000. The chips have no value and cannot be cashed out, so this is practice only.

The dealer’s rules

The dealer has no choices. They must draw until reaching 17 or more and then stand, including on a soft 17 (an ace counted as 11). If you bust, you lose at once, even if the dealer would also have busted. If the dealer busts and you have not, every remaining hand wins. A tie is a push and your bet comes back.

Payouts

• Win: pays 1 to 1 (a 25 bet returns 50).
• Blackjack (an ace and a ten-value card on the first two cards): pays 3 to 2, so a 25 bet wins 37.5.
• Push: your bet is returned.
• Double down: the doubled bet wins or loses as a single bet of double size.

Splitting pairs in this game

With two cards of the same value you can split them into two hands, each with a bet equal to your first. You play each hand in turn. You can split up to four hands in total. After splitting aces each ace gets exactly one more card and you cannot hit again, which is the usual casino rule. A 21 after a split pays 1 to 1, not 3 to 2. Doubling after a split is allowed. If you do not have enough chips to match the bet, the Split and Double buttons are hidden.

Using the strategy hint

Tick Show strategy hint and the game tells you the basic-strategy play for the current hand, based on your cards and the dealer’s up card. The hint comes from the same table printed above. Use it to learn the chart, then switch it off and test yourself. Following basic strategy gives the lowest house edge available, but it cannot make the player a long-run winner, and it does not remove the need to treat real gambling as entertainment with a fixed budget.

Practice drills

• Always stand on hard 17 or more, and hit hard 11 or less unless the chart says to double.
• Learn the doubling hands first: hard 9, 10 and 11 against a weak dealer card.
• Learn the pair splits: always split aces and eights, never tens and fives.
• Play 100 hands with the hint on, then 100 with it off, and count the plays that differed.