Okay, I hope you’re ready to get right into the blackjack action. In the last installment of our blackjack series we talked a little bit about blackjack tables and the overall setup of the game, including playing with multiple decks. For this installment we’re going to talk about the action of blackjack. I’ll talk about what happens when you sit down to play a hand whether it’s online or in the real world.
The first thing needed when you sit down to play a great game of blackjack is a decision of how much you’re going to bet. In fact, we’ll talk more about betting, betting strategies, and money management deeper in this blackjack series. To play a hand of blackjack you must make a bet.
Once you’ve made a bet it’s now time to play. If you’re playing in the real world or online with multiple players, you need to wait until everyone has placed their bets. Once this happens it’s now time to deal the cards and this is where the anticipation starts.
As I’ve mentioned before, the action starts immediately to the dealers laughed and proceed in a clockwise fashion to the dealer’s right. The dealer will deal one card to everybody and then deal a second card to everybody. One of the dealer’s cards will be placed face up, called the up card. It is this card that you look at and base much of your strategy around.
If you’ve been dealt an Ace and either a face card or a 10, you have blackjack and win automatically. However, if the dealer is showing and an Ace you will get the option of taking even money. We’ll talk a little bit more about this and insurance later. But I just wanted you to know that to get a real blackjack it has to be on the first two cards that were dealt to you.
So it’s your turn and you will have a series of options. First, if you like your first two cards, you can stand. When you stand, you are saying that you want to end your turn. Another option is to hit. Basically, when you hit you get one card. During your turn you are allowed to hit as many times as you want as long as you are still at 21 or under. If you go over 21, its called a bust and you lose your hand instantly.
There are many more actions you can take, such as splitting, doubling down and so forth. In our next installment I will continue the blackjack action by talking about these options.
