Few other card games gather more players or draw more intensity than a game of blackjack. With its immersive gameplay and a worldwide reputation as an iconic card game, it’s one of the most straightforward games you’ll find in the entire casino range.

Blackjack may look simple on the outside, but beneath the surface, you’ll find there’s much more to this classic card game. Let us tell you more in our beginner casino guide. Here you’ll get the basic rules, card values and more, so you get acquainted with the game in any setting.

Already know the game? Log in or join LiveRoulette and get your seat at the table.

What’s The Aim Of Blackjack?

Ultimately, the aim is to beat the dealer’s hand without exceeding 21- It’s that simple! If your hand goes higher than 21, you “bust”, which means you lose that hand.

What Are The Rules?

Whether you want to play live, online or
otherwise, the rules of the game are pretty much the same. Up to seven players
are seated around the semi-circular table (but more players can be seated
online, such as in a game of Infinite
Blackjack). There’s a betting spot in front of each player, where you
must place your wager in the form of chips before the dealer plays the hand. If
space allows, you can play more than one hand at the table, placing chips in
each betting spot.

Once everyone has placed their chips, the dealer will hand out two cards to each player. They will then draw themselves a card turned face down (known as their “hole card”). Note that there are some variations of this game that allow the dealer to receive two cards: one turned down and the other facing up.

Next, each player can decide to hit (take another card) or stand (keep just their current cards). This all depends on the value of the hand in front of you.

What Are The Card Values?

The game is played with standard playing cards and up to eight decks. The cards from 2 through 10 are worth their exact value while all the face cards – King, Queen and Jack are worth 10. An Ace can have two values – either worth 1 or 11.

How Does The Game Start?

If the total value of the cards you get is 21 (for example if you get a 10 and an Ace), you immediately win a Blackjack, and the dealer will pay out odds of 3:2 on your initial wager. This is the ideal scenario! But what are your options if you don’t get this hand?

You Can Hit…

Essentially, you’re requesting another card from the dealer to increase your hand’s value. You can do this as many times as you like – just be careful you don’t go over 21 and bust!

You Can Stand…

If you stand you won’t accept any more cards for that round and gameplay will move to the next player. So, if you have a hand with two 10-value cards and you stand, your final value of 20 will be pitted against the dealer.

Or You Could Split

If you have two of the same value cards dealt to you, you can split them, and place the same wager again on the second hand. Now, you can choose to hit and stand on each hand independently depending on what cards you’re dealt next. Now that’s potentially two chances to beat the dealer instead of one.

What Does It Mean To “Double Down”?

This option allows you to double
your initial bet in return for receiving one (and only one) more card. In
most casinos, you can only double down after you receive your first two cards
and before drawing another card. There are
plenty of guides and strategies for doubling down, but it all depends on what
card the dealer holds and what’s left in the deck: not easy to know.

Check out our five-minute blackjack strategy guide for more on how to double down.

Dealer’s Play

Unlike you, the player, a blackjack dealer has specific rules to follow. Casino rules specify that a dealer must keep drawing a card if their hand totals less than 17 and stand when the total is 17 through 21. There are variations to dealer’s play, so make sure you check out the table rules carefully before you take a seat.

Insurance

Some casinos will allow you to take an
insurance bet, which only becomes available if the dealer draws an Ace as their
first card. In essence, you’re betting that their next card will be a 10-value
card, resulting in a Blackjack. An
insurance bet enables you to win back half your original wager instead of potentially
going bust.

How To Play Live Blackjack

A game of live blackjack doesn’t vary that much from a game at the table. There may be more variations to play such as single-deck games, party-style games and tables where more players can take part. Check out LiveRoulette’s library live games and discover just how easy it is to switch from table games to live!

And Finally: Blackjack Payouts

The payout for a winning hand is 1:1, so if you put down a €5 bet, you’ll get €5. If you manage to win on a natural Blackjack, you’ll receive a payout of 3:2, making it the highest return in the game. There are various table limits available, giving you diverse betting options that match your bankroll and playing style.

That’s everything a first-timer needs to know to get by in a game
of blackjack. Why not put your newly found knowledge to the test in one of
LiveRoulette’s games?

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Blackjack is one of the most popular card games ever invented, perhaps because it is also one of the easiest casino games to pick up. Over the years, mathematicians and professional gamblers have strived to find the perfect formula for playing the game, with many believing that there are ways to beat the odds.

Some players have found great success over the years. This has led to some seriously huge payouts and accumulated winnings which have gone down in history. So, what have been the biggest blackjack payouts ever? We highlight five of the very biggest. And are these feats still possible today?

If you’d like to try a game of blackjack for yourself, then open an account on LiveRoulette and try over 15 unique tables on our Canadian online casino.

1. Shoeless Joe – $1.5 Million

A mystery man won $1.5 million after entering a US casino without any shoes on. As the story goes, he used a $300 security check and played a terrible game in terms of strategy, splitting and doubling when all the theory says you shouldn’t. He managed to take up quite the cash pot, but kept on playing and eventually lost the lot.

2. Dana White – $2 Million

Dana White is well-known as the president of UFC, and the American
businessman is used to being in the public eye. In 2012, he was in the media
for the wrong reasons, though. At this time, White was accused of card counting
by Palms Casino. He had won a considerable amount of money on blackjack but the
Las Vegas resort refused to pay up and banned him.

In 2014, White was allowed back into the casino after the CEO changed. Over
the course of a few months, the man with a net worth of $500 million managed to
accumulate winnings of $2 million. He may have been able to earn more if he
hadn’t faced a cap in the amount he could win. First, the casino made him lower
his bets from $25,000 to $5,000, and then they capped his wins off at $2
million to end his streak.

White continues to be a major blackjack fan and can be found playing at
casinos that will have him. But up to now, he has never recreated the streak
which gained him such notoriety back in 2014. White is not completely banned
from Palms Casino either, as he still holds UFC events at the Pearl Arena in
the complex.

3. Ken Uston – $4.5 Million

Ken Uston was often referred to as the King of Blackjack Strategy and one of
the technically most successful players ever to sit at the felt. It was
this American player, strategist, and author who actually came up with the idea
of teaming up to play blackjack. Along with mastering strategy and the
mathematical side of the game, Uston is credited with having pretty
much invented card counting.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Uston led a blackjack team around
various casinos in the USA. They would place outrageous bets which would
sometimes value at around $12,000 per hand, and rake in millions in winnings
from the process.

It is estimated that Uston and his team gathered around $4.5 million in winnings during their operational period. This could be considered among the first big blackjack wins and a catalyst that influenced a great number of other players.

4. Kerry Packer – $40 Million

Kerry Packer was a millionaire before he even played blackjack and he used his wealth to place gigantic stakes on the cards. At the time of his death in 2005, the Australian had a net worth of AUS $6.5 billion (over €3.9 billion or USD $4.3 billion). Obviously, the bigger the bet, the bigger the payout, and Packer made a name for himself by taking down two of the most insane blackjack pots ever seen. The first was in 1991 at the Hilton in Las Vegas, where he picked up a cool $7 million in a single night.

Unsatisfied with such meagre winnings, Packer returned to Las Vegas in 1995
and played blackjack at the MGM Grand. The media tycoon placed a series of
$250,000 bets and within forty minutes had racked up a stack of $40 million.

The dealers had a good time on that incredible night, too, as Packer decided
to leave a $1 million tip. While the casinos may not be too happy about
players taking down huge blackjack pots, it is certainly the dream of most
dealers to be at the table when it happens.

5. MIT Blackjack Team – $50 – $100 Million

The MIT blackjack team is well known in popular culture from the film, 21, and
the book that it was based on, Bringing Down the House. The team operated over
a number of years and featured around eighty different members.

They went to a wide variety of casinos across Atlantic City and Las Vegas from the 80s and 90s in order to avoid suspicion. This was because they employed a card counting technique which helped to influence their bets on the games. If a shoe contained a lot of cards of high value it was regarded as hot, which meant that the players should bet big on it. If the majority of remaining cards were instead low in value, it would be a cold shoe.

During their prime, it is estimated that this world-renowned blackjack team
earned anywhere between $50-100 million. Understandingly, then, the major
casinos didn’t look lightly upon the methods used by these
genius mathematicians and the film plot rests on an attempt to thwart the
students’ efforts.

If any of these success stories have inspired you to try your hand at mastering the classic casino game of blackjack, you could play live blackjack online to develop your skills.

Get Started With LiveRoulette

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Blackjack, also known as Twenty-One, is a hugely popular card game, dating all the way back to the 17th century. And of course, in 2019, there are plenty of exciting live versions to try out. But first, you’ve got to get basic blackjack strategy down.

In this bite-sized blackjack strategy guide, you’ll learn all you need to know to get started on our Canadian online casino, in as little as five minutes! 

Splitting A Pair

Splitting
pairs is one of the more better-known blackjack basic strategies, and it was
first introduced to help players bring down the casino’s house advantage a notch or two. However,
splitting pairs is usually not always
used very effectively, so let’s see how to make this blackjack strategy
work for you.

You can split
a pair when you have a hand with two cards of the same value, such as a 2 of
Hearts and a 2 of Clubs. You split the pair by placing an equal chip right next to the original wager. Don’t put your additional chip on top – that means you want to double up (more on that later). Placing your chip
adjacent to the original lets the dealer know that you want to split your hand.

So which hands should you split? Not all cards are equal. For instance, it’s recommended to split a pair of aces (totalling 11) as splitting will give you a much two chances to land two stronger hands. It’s also a good idea to split eights, to potentially improve a hand of 16. Never split a pair of 10 though, as by splitting you might be sacrificing a really good hand. Low numbers aren’t recommended to split either.   Why is splitting such a useful blackjack strategy? Because with this strategy you could transform a weak hand into a winning one with one wager or one click, and potentially win more money.

Doubling Down – Hard And Soft Hands

Do you need a
good blackjack basic strategy to help you break even or even possibly win when
your odds are not looking good? Then
doubling down is the blackjack strategy you need.

Doubling down is when you’re given the opportunity to double your initial wager, however, you will then only be able to draw one more card. To double, simply place an equal chip on top of your first wager. Some casinos will have different rules on when you can double down: you can usually double down on any two cards but some casinos may only allow it when you draw a hand of 10 or 11. So, when should you double down? You usually should double down when you have the hard 8, 9, 10, and 11 cards. A hard hand is a hand that doesn’t include an ace.

But what happens when your hand includes an ace (known as a soft hand)? If your hand includes an ace and an eight card or higher, it doesn’t make much sense to double.

The Rule Of Nine

An easy way to decide whether you should double down or not on a soft hand can be summarised below:

• If your
  dealer’s up-card and your non-ace card add up to nine or more, then double
  down.
• If the sum
  of the dealer’s card and your non-ace add up to less than nine, then you can
  hit.
• Never
  double down when the dealer holds a seven or higher.
• Never
  double down when the dealer holds an ace either.

Surrendering A Hand

The blackjack
strategy of surrendering a hand can be confusing, due to its misleading name.
When you surrender a hand, it doesn’t
mean that you’re surrendering the
game, and can be a highly useful strategy.

So, how does
it work? After having a look at your two-card hand as well as the dealer’s
up-card, and the cards just aren’t looking so good, you can apply this method and surrender half of your wager. The dealer will then take half of
your wager, as well as your two cards and will place them in the discard pile.

You might be
asking why this blackjack strategy is so great if you’re losing half your wager? You’re
losing 50% of your wager instead of potentially losing all of it, so you can
retain half your stake for the next hand. 

Hitting And Standing

Our last blackjack strategy for today is
a summary of hitting and standing.
This is the bread and butter of playing a
game of blackjack, whether online, live or at the casino.

When you hit, you’re asking the dealer for another card and when you stand, it means that you’re happy with cards you’ve been dealt and don’t want any additional cards.

So, when should you hit and when should you stand?

Well, this all depends on what your dealer’s holding:

• If the
  dealer has an ace, they have a high chance of hitting a 10 value card (10,
  Jack, Queen or King), so you should aim to have a hand of 17 or over.
• If the
  dealer has a 10 card, they still have a strong chance of hitting 20. So we
  recommend you hit until 17 or higher to give yourself the strongest hand you
  can.
• If your
  dealer has between seven and nine, at least they won’t be able to hit a
  Blackjack with their third card, but they can still get a high hand.  Hit until 17.
• If your
  dealer has a card worth four up to six, you could potentially stand on anything
  above 12.
• If your
  dealer has a two, you can hit up to a value of nine, but it’s wise to stand on
  a hand of 13.

And there you go, the four key components of blackjack basic strategy to help you polish up your skills. Why not try out the strategies you’ve learned by playing on LiveRoulette’s range of 15 live blackjack games, such as Exclusive Blackjack, Blackjack Party, and Infinite Blackjack, and show off your know-how?

18+ | begambleaware.org | Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. Terms & Conditions apply.

If you know anything about casino games, you’d know that Blackjack has been one of the most popular ones for decades.

The Blackjack journey first began at a range of land-based casinos, but the advent of online casinos has meant that there are more possibilities for the game’s progression.

One of the biggest progressions is the world of live Blackjack, and due to its takeover of the casino industry, many myths and misconceptions have emerged.

Carry on reading to debunk some of the biggest myths about the live dealer variation of the game, so you can play in confidence…

“Live Blackjack results are predetermined”

Even though where you play both games are different, the fairness of traditional Blackjack and live Blackjack is no different.

Some mistakenly believe that the outcome of a live game is predetermined or influenced by past results, but this is incorrect.

Instead, it’s just like the traditional game, which relies on a completely random shuffle of cards where each hand is independent of the ones that came before.

Therefore, the outcome of a game is completely determined by chance to create the fairest game possible.

“Live Blackjack is rigged”

Similarly to the previous myth, some believe that the virtual element of live Blackjack means that the game can be easily rigged.

However, the best online casinos use independent audits to keep games fair.

Live Blackjack uses physical cards and real dealers to ensure no rigged outcomes.

But what about the dealers?

“Live Blackjack dealers cheat”

Some players think that live Blackjack dealers cheat to ensure that players lose, although this myth largely stems from a misunderstanding of how live dealer games work.

The dealers are professionally trained, so they follow strict protocols to ensure that each game is kept fair.

They have no incentive to cheat due to their employment being based on upholding their integrity and a casino’s reputation.

Live games are closely monitored and suspicious behaviours by anyone involved would be thoroughly investigated.

The risk of cheating is low and the majority of dealers are honest and want to provide a fun and fair gaming experience to all.

“Live Blackjack requires a high bankroll”

Like many casino games, with live Blackjack, you don’t need a massive bankroll to enjoy a game.

There is a wide range of betting options, so you can find the one that suits you.

It’s always important to only wager what you can afford to lose and live Blackjack allows you to do just that!

“Live Blackjack isn’t secure”

Of course, it’s natural to be concerned about your financial security when playing online.

But reputable online casinos utilise advanced encryption technology to safeguard player data, so it’s important to look out for that before wagering on your live Blackjack game.

There are many ways to look out for a reputable site, but one major thing to look out for in the UK is whether it’s certified by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which you’ll find at the bottom of your chosen gaming site.

With five live Blackjack myths debunked, you can now go into your next game with maximum confidence of having a fun and fair time playing.