A, stand on 17 vs. A, stand on A,7 vs. Regardless of the specific rule variations, taking insurance or "even money" is never the correct play under a basic strategy.

Estimates of the house edge for blackjack games quoted by casinos and gaming regulators are based on the assumption that the players follow basic strategy.

Most blackjack games have a house edge of between 0. Casino promotions such as complimentary matchplay vouchers or blackjack payouts allow players to acquire an advantage without deviating from basic strategy.

The basic strategy is based on a player's point total and the dealer's visible card. Players can sometimes improve on this decision by considering the composition of their hand, not just the point total.

For example, players should ordinarily stand when holding 12 against a dealer 4. But in a single deck game, players should hit if their 12 consists of a 10 and a 2. The presence of a 10 in the player's hand has two consequences: [17].

Even when basic and composition-dependent strategies lead to different actions, the difference in expected reward is small, and it becomes smaller with more decks. Using a composition-dependent strategy rather than a basic strategy in a single-deck game reduces the house edge by 4 in 10,, which falls to 3 in , for a six-deck game.

Blackjack has been a high-profile target for advantage players since the s. Advantage play attempts to win more using skills such as memory, computation, and observation. While these techniques are legal, they can give players a mathematical edge in the game, making advantage players unwanted customers for casinos.

Advantage play can lead to ejection or blacklisting. Some advantageous play techniques in blackjack include:. During the course of a blackjack shoe, the dealer exposes the dealt cards. Players can infer from their accounting of the exposed cards which cards remain. These inferences can be used in the following ways:.

A card counting system assigns a point score to each card rank e. When a card is exposed, a counter adds the score of that card to a running total, the 'count'.

A card counter uses this count to make betting and playing decisions. The count starts at 0 for a freshly shuffled deck for "balanced" counting systems. Unbalanced counts are often started at a value that depends on the number of decks used in the game.

Blackjack's house edge is usually around 0. Card counting works best when a few cards remain. This makes single-deck games better for counters. As a result, casinos are more likely to insist that players do not reveal their cards to one another in single-deck games.

In games with more decks, casinos limit penetration by ending the shoe and reshuffling when one or more decks remain undealt. Casinos also sometimes use a shuffling machine to reintroduce the cards whenever a deck has been played. Sometimes a casino might ban a card counter from the property.

The use of external devices to help count cards is illegal throughout the United States. Another advantage play technique, mainly applicable in multi-deck games, involves tracking groups of cards also known as slugs, clumps, or packs through the shuffle and then playing and betting according to when those cards come into play from a new shoe.

Shuffle tracking requires excellent eyesight and powers of visual estimation but is harder to detect; shuffle trackers' actions are largely unrelated to the composition of the cards in the shoe.

Arnold Snyder's articles in Blackjack Forum magazine brought shuffle tracking to the general public. His book, The Shuffle Tracker's Cookbook , mathematically analyzed the player edge available from shuffle tracking based on the actual size of the tracked slug. Jerry L. Patterson also developed and published a shuffle-tracking method for tracking favorable clumps of cards and cutting them into play and tracking unfavorable clumps of cards and cutting them out of play.

The player can also gain an advantage by identifying cards from distinctive wear markings on their backs, or by hole carding observing during the dealing process the front of a card dealt face-down. These methods are generally legal although their status in particular jurisdictions may vary.

Many blackjack tables offer side bets on various outcomes including: [28]. The side wager is typically placed in a designated area next to the box for the main wager. A player wishing to wager on a side bet usually must place a wager on blackjack. Some games require that the blackjack wager should equal or exceed any side bet wager.

A non-controlling player of a blackjack hand is usually permitted to place a side bet regardless of whether the controlling player does so. The house edge for side bets is generally higher than for the blackjack game itself. Nonetheless, side bets can be susceptible to card counting.

A side count designed specifically for a particular side bet can improve the player's edge. Only a few side bets, like "Insurance" and "Lucky Ladies", correlate well with the high-low counting system and offer a sufficient win rate to justify the effort of advantage play. In team play, it is common for team members to be dedicated to only counting a side bet using a specialized count.

Some casinos, as well as general betting outlets, provide blackjack among a selection of casino-style games at electronic consoles. Video blackjack game rules are generally more favorable to the house; e. Video and online blackjack games generally deal each round from a fresh shoe i.

Blackjack is a member of the family of traditional card games played recreationally worldwide. Most of these games have not been adapted for casino play. Furthermore, the casino game development industry actively produces blackjack variants, most of which are ultimately not adopted by casinos.

The following are the most prominent and established variants in casinos. Examples of local traditional and recreational related games include French vingt-et-un 'twenty-one' and German Siebzehn und Vier 'seventeen and four'.

Neither game allows splitting. An ace counts only eleven, but two aces count as a blackjack. It is mostly played in private circles and barracks. The popular British member of the vingt-un family is called "pontoon", the name being probably a corruption of vingt-et-un.

In , professional gamblers worldwide were invited to nominate great blackjack players for admission into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Seven members were inducted in , with new people inducted every year after. The Hall of Fame is at the Barona Casino in San Diego.

Members include Edward O. Thorp , author of the s book Beat the Dealer ; Ken Uston , who popularized the concept of team play; Arnold Snyder , author and editor of the Blackjack Forum trade journal; and Stanford Wong , author and popularizer of "Wonging".

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Main article: Blackjack Hall of Fame. Scarne's new complete guide to gambling Fully rev. ISBN The Oxford guide to card games. Oxford [England]. OCLC Historia del Juego en España. De la Hispania romana a nuestros días. Barcelona: Flor del Viento Ediciones. Journal of the American Statistical Association.

doi : JSTOR Retrieved May 21, Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved November 11, Retrieved September 4, Wizard of Odds Consulting, Inc.

Retrieved April 30, Archived from the original on May 13, Fine points of basic strategy in single-deck blackjack. Retrieved December 8, Total Dependent and Composition Dependent Basic Strategy in Blackjack. Retrieved December 19, The theory of blackjack: the compleat card counter's guide to the casino game of 21 6th ed.

Huntington Press. Beat the dealer: a winning strategy for the game of twenty-one: a scientific analysis of the world-wide game known variously as blackjack, twenty-one, vingt-et-un, pontoon, or van-john revised ed.

New York: Random House. Archived from the original on October 7, Retrieved October 26, Shuffle Tracking Counts. Thorp, Edward O. The Gambling Times guide to blackjack. Hollywood: Gambling Times. Break the dealer : winning strategies for today's blackjack. Eddie Olsen. New York, NY: Putnam.

Blackjack, a winner's handbook Completely rev. and updated ed. New York, NY: Perigee Books. Play Blackjack. Nicolae Sfetcu. Blackjack Side Bets.

Glossary of blackjack terms Card counting Shuffle track Hole carding. Chinese Blackjack Spanish 21 Super Fun 21 Double Attack Blackjack Double Exposure Blackjack Elimination Blackjack Pontoon Malaysian Pontoon Power blackjack Edge sorting.

Blackjack Forum Blackjack Hall of Fame Al Francesco Peter A. Griffin Thomas Hyland Zeljko Ranogajec Arnold Snyder Edward O. Thorp Ken Uston Stanford Wong Steven L.

Heston Mike Aponte Max Rubin Blair Hull Lawrence Revere James Grosjean Richard W. Munchkin Don Schlesinger Darryl Purpose. Banking games.

Baccarat Basset Blackjack Blind Hookey Banker and Broker, Dutch Bank, Honest John Blüchern Chemin de Fer Ferme Farmer Faro Lansquenet Macao Monte Bank Onze et demie Polish Bank Pontoon Quinze Rouge et Noir Seven and a Half Silesian Lottery Spanish 21 Speculation Stuss Jewish Faro Tempeln German Faro Trente et Quarante Twenty-One Yablon Acey Deucey , Between the Sheets.

The dealer is in charge of running all aspects of the game, from shuffling and dealing the cards to handling all bets. In the home game, all of the players have the opportunity to be the dealer a "changing bank".

The standard card pack is used, but in most casinos several decks of cards are shuffled together. The six-deck game cards is the most popular.

In addition, the dealer uses a blank plastic card, which is never dealt, but is placed toward the bottom of the pack to indicate when it will be time for the cards to be reshuffled.

When four or more decks are used, they are dealt from a shoe a box that allows the dealer to remove cards one at a time, face down, without actually holding one or more packs.

Each participant attempts to beat the dealer by getting a count as close to 21 as possible, without going over It is up to each individual player if an ace is worth 1 or Face cards are 10 and any other card is its pip value. Before the deal begins, each player places a bet, in chips, in front of them in the designated area.

The dealer thoroughly shuffles portions of the pack until all the cards have been mixed and combined. The dealer designates one of the players to cut, and the plastic insert card is placed so that the last 60 to 75 cards or so will not be used.

Not dealing to the bottom of all the cards makes it more difficult for professional card counters to operate effectively. When all the players have placed their bets, the dealer gives one card face up to each player in rotation clockwise, and then one card face up to themselves.

Another round of cards is then dealt face up to each player, but the dealer takes the second card face down. Thus, each player except the dealer receives two cards face up, and the dealer receives one card face up and one card face down.

In some games, played with only one deck, the players' cards are dealt face down and they get to hold them. Today, however, virtually all Blackjack games feature the players' cards dealt face up on the condition that no player may touch any cards.

If a player's first two cards are an ace and a "ten-card" a picture card or 10 , giving a count of 21 in two cards, this is a natural or "blackjack. If the dealer has a natural, they immediately collect the bets of all players who do not have naturals, but no additional amount.

If the dealer and another player both have naturals, the bet of that player is a stand-off a tie , and the player takes back his chips. If the dealer's face-up card is a ten-card or an ace, they look at their face-down card to see if the two cards make a natural.

If the face-up card is not a ten-card or an ace, they do not look at the face-down card until it is the dealer's turn to play. The player to the left goes first and must decide whether to "stand" not ask for another card or "hit" ask for another card in an attempt to get closer to a count of 21, or even hit 21 exactly.

Thus, a player may stand on the two cards originally dealt to them, or they may ask the dealer for additional cards, one at a time, until deciding to stand on the total if it is 21 or under , or goes "bust" if it is over In the latter case, the player loses and the dealer collects the bet wagered.

The dealer then turns to the next player to their left and serves them in the same manner. The combination of an ace with a card other than a ten-card is known as a "soft hand," because the player can count the ace as a 1 or 11, and either draw cards or not.

For example with a "soft 17" an ace and a 6 , the total is 7 or While a count of 17 is a good hand, the player may wish to draw for a higher total.

If the draw creates a bust hand by counting the ace as an 11, the player simply counts the ace as a 1 and continues playing by standing or "hitting" asking the dealer for additional cards, one at a time. When the dealer has served every player, the dealers face-down card is turned up.

If the total is 17 or more, it must stand. If the total is 16 or under, they must take a card. The dealer must continue to take cards until the total is 17 or more, at which point the dealer must stand.

If the dealer has an ace, and counting it as 11 would bring the total to 17 or more but not over 21 , the dealer must count the ace as 11 and stand.

The dealer's decisions, then, are automatic on all plays, whereas the player always has the option of taking one or more cards.

When a player's turn comes, they can say "Hit" or can signal for a card by scratching the table with a finger or two in a motion toward themselves, or they can wave their hand in the same motion that would say to someone "Come here!

If a player's first two cards are of the same denomination, such as two jacks or two sixes, they may choose to treat them as two separate hands when their turn comes around.

The amount of the original bet then goes on one of the cards, and an equal amount must be placed as a bet on the other card. The player first plays the hand to their left by standing or hitting one or more times; only then is the hand to the right played.

The two hands are thus treated separately, and the dealer settles with each on its own merits. With a pair of aces, the player is given one card for each ace and may not draw again. Also, if a ten-card is dealt to one of these aces, the payoff is equal to the bet not one and one-half to one, as with a blackjack at any other time.

Another option open to the player is doubling their bet when the original two cards dealt total 9, 10, or When the player's turn comes, they place a bet equal to the original bet, and the dealer gives the player just one card, which is placed face down and is not turned up until the bets are settled at the end of the hand.

With two fives, the player may split a pair, double down, or just play the hand in the regular way. Note that the dealer does not have the option of splitting or doubling down. When the dealer's face-up card is an ace, any of the players may make a side bet of up to half the original bet that the dealer's face-down card is a ten-card, and thus a blackjack for the house.

Once all such side bets are placed, the dealer looks at the hole card. If it is a ten-card, it is turned up, and those players who have made the insurance bet win and are paid double the amount of their half-bet - a 2 to 1 payoff. When a blackjack occurs for the dealer, of course, the hand is over, and the players' main bets are collected - unless a player also has blackjack, in which case it is a stand-off.

Insurance is invariably not a good proposition for the player, unless they are quite sure that there are an unusually high number of ten-cards still left undealt. A bet once paid and collected is never returned.