Blackjack for Beginners: What Happens After the Cards Are Dealt? Now that you have been dealt your hand, you have to decide what to do next. Ideally, you want to hit Blackjack on your first hand – i.e. An Ace and a 10-value card. However, the chances of this happening are only 4.8%, regardless of the number of decks you are playing with. Blackjack is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. The face cards – Jack, Queen and King, amount to 10, values between 2-10 stick to their respective values, while the aces amount to either 1 or 11. The objective is simple – beat the dealer. Place your bets and form a hand that does not exceed the number 21.

• Blackjack Books For Beginners
• Blackjack For Beginners

Blackjack is one of the most exciting games offered at any casino and with many sites offering the game to be played online, players from all over the world can enjoy great action and have the best chances to win. The game offers some excellent odds for the player, which is why many players will head straight for the blackjack section of an online casino.

By practicing the game and employing some basic strategies, the house edge is only 0.5%, so it is clearly evident that players have an advantage and have excellent opportunities to collect payouts when playing different blackjack variations. When playing online, players will have the ability to play for real money or for free and will be pleased with the selection of games, with some sites offering 10 or more blackjack variations that can be enjoyed.

Objective of Blackjack

Many players believe that the objective of the game is to come close to obtaining a hand that is valued at 21. This is not the true objective of the game. The ultimate goal is to beat the dealer and this can be done with many different hand values. It is possible to beat the dealer and win with a hand that is valued at just 13, so the 21 aspect is not the true objective. Since the dealer can bust, players will often win with low valued hands. Players need to remember that the goal is to beat the dealer, either by having a higher valued hand that is below or equal to 21 or having the dealer bust.

Card Values

There are different types of hands that are created when playing blackjack and players will use all of the cards in the deck, ranging from Ace to King. The cards are valued as they are in poker, but the main difference with blackjack is that the Ace can be worth 1 or 11, whichever will benefit the player. All other cards are worth face value and Jack, Queen and King are worth 10.

• Hard Hand – When playing blackjack, players will hear the term Hard Hand. This means that the hand does not have to contain an Ace, but it can. The value of the ace will be 1 instead of being 1 or 11.

• Soft Hand – With a Soft Hand, the Ace can be 1 or 11 and players will have more chances to draw and beat the dealer. With a soft hand, the Ace will usually count as 11, so a hand with an Ace and a 5 is considered a soft 16.

Single Deck and Multiple Deck Blackjack Games

Online casinos offer different types of games and players will find blackjack games that use a single deck of cards and those that use multiple decks. Whenever possible, it is beneficial for players to choose a single deck game. The reason for this is that players will get more blackjack hands when playing with a single deck. It can also benefit those that count cards since it is easier to keep track of just 52 cards in play. Unfortunately, most online casinos offer games that use multiple decks.

With multi-deck games, players will see casinos using between 2 and 8 decks on most blackjack games. The number of decks used will vary based on the blackjack variation that is selected. 2 deck games are rare, but when players can find them, they are beneficial to play. The most commonly found 2 deck game is Vegas Downtown Blackjack. It is always beneficial for players to play blackjack games that use the fewest decks.

The Play

The game begins with placing a bet on the table, which can vary per casino and pr game, so always check the game minimum and maximum bet amount. Once bets are placed, the dealer will deal two cards to each player and two to himself, one face up and one face down. Based on the value of player cards, they can choose to do different things. The game choices are explained below and each of these options can be used to enhance the chances of winning.

• Blackjack/21 – If players are dealt an Ace and a face card or a ten, they will immediately receive a payout as this is a blackjack.

• Hit – If players desire, they can hit and take an additional card to increase their hand value. This can be done as many times as needed.

Blackjack Books For Beginners

• Stand – When players do not wish to make any more moves, they will choose to stand and their turn ends.

• Double Down – With the double down option, players will double their bet amount and take only one more card.

• Insurance – If the dealer card is an Ace, players can take Insurance. This is a side bet on whether the dealer has a blackjack. The bet offers even money in return, but there is a high house edge, so players should avoid taking insurance.

• Surrender – The surrender option allows players to only risk half the bet amount. This is a good option when players are sure they will lose the hand, but it is not offered in many online casinos.

Using A Basic Strategy

To benefit from the low house edge and have the most success playing real money blackjack, players should learn and always employ the basic blackjack strategy. There are tables offered online that offer players information on how to play every hand combination. While it can be difficult to memorize all actions, players can refer to these charts when they are playing online, but will not be able to reference them if they are playing at a land based casino.

A basic strategy will tell players when to hit, stand, double, split or surrender. Using this strategy will reduce the house edge to the lowest of 0.5% and will provide players with the best opportunities to win.

Practice Blackjack for Free Online

Not every player is familiar with the rules or strategies of blackjack, which is why free games are beneficial. These games require no wager, so there is no risk to the player. However, they will be able to play multiple hands of blackjack and practice their skills and strategies to prepare for when they start to play for real money. Most online casinos offer an array of free games so that players can test out different variations and learn the rules of the games before betting.

Our team at BlackjackGala have listed a nice selection of free Blackjack games, courtesy of a few prominent online casinos, that you can play without any download or installation. Go here to see the full list of free blackjack games that you can start playing in just in a matter of a few seconds.

A lot of blackjack tips pages don’t account for the skill level of the reader. You’ll find people suggesting that you learn to count cards or that you practice shuffle tracking.

This post consists of my seven best blackjack tips for beginners. To become a better blackjack player, keep reading below and start applying the following strategies and tips.

1. Master Basic Strategy

Honestly, if you ignored all the other tips on this list and just mastered basic strategy, you’d be way ahead of most other blackjack players.

What’s basic strategy? Well, it’s the mathematically optimal play in every blackjack situation.

You have the following information during each blackjack hand:

1. You know what total you have.
2. You know one of the dealer’s two cards.

A basic strategy table compares your total with the dealer’s face-up card to give you the mathematically best play.

In some situations, the mathematically correct decision is the one that loses the least amount of money over time. In others, the mathematically correct decision is the one that wins the most money over time.

If you ignore basic strategy, you’re probably dealing with a house edge of 3% to 4%. That’s a lot of money to lose just because you didn’t want to memorize basic strategy.

You can find basic strategy tables on hundreds of sites on the internet, but you can also find text explanations for how to play each hand correctly. You can even buy a plastic laminated basic strategy card in the gift shop at the casino.

2. Never Take Insurance

The only time that taking insurance is mathematically correct is if you’re counting cards. Since this is a list of blackjack tips for the beginner, that doesn’t apply to you.

Insurance is a side bet that the dealer has a 10 in the hole. It pays off at 2:1. The casino calls it “even money,” but the truth is, the house has a high edge on the insurance bet.

Let’s assume you’re playing in a single-deck game, and the dealer has an ace showing. You have two cards, too, and neither of them is a 10. This means you have 49 cards that aren’t accounted for in the deck. Of those, 16 of them are worth 10—all the jacks, queens, kings, and 10s.

So, you have 33 ways to lose the insurance bet compared to 16 ways to win. The bet pays off at 2:1, which is the same as 32:16. That’s one extra way that the casino has to win means that the casino has an edge, but how much of an edge?

Let’s say you bet $100 on insurance 49 times. You’d win $200 on 16 of those bets, for total winnings of $3,200. But you’d also lose $100 on 33 of those bets, for total losses of $,3300.

Blackjack For Beginners

That’s a net loss of $100 on 49 bets, or an average loss of $2.04 per hand. This means the house edge for the insurance bet is at least 2.04%. And that edge goes up if you have a card worth 10 in your hand, because you have more ways to lose.

It’s crazy to make a bet with a house edge of 2% in a game where the house edge is only 0.5%. Insurance is a sucker bet. Just don’t take it.

3. Play in the Good Blackjack Games

The rules from one blackjack game to another vary. You should play in the game with the best rules you can find.

What kinds of rules variations should you look for?

• Probably the best variation is a game played from a single deck. Always find the game being dealt from the fewest number of decks.
• If you can find a single deck game or even a game dealt from two decks, go for that game (everything else being equal).
• Next, look for games where the dealer must stand on ANY total of 17. If the dealer hits a soft 17, the house edge goes up.

It’s beyond the scope of this post to cover all the possible rules variations, but those are two of the biggest to look for: the number of decks and whether the dealer hits a soft 17 or not.

4. Don’t Mess With Counting Cards

It isn’t as hard as you think to learn how to count cards, but if you’re a beginner, you should focus on mastering basic strategy. If you can’t play with perfect basic strategy on every hand, counting cards won’t help you much anyway.

The concept behind counting cards is probably easy to understand. The idea is that the ratio of high cards to low cards changes because of the random nature of the game. Sometimes, the remaining cards in the deck are mostly high cards, and sometimes they’re mostly low cards.

High cards are 10s and aces, and they’re important because they increase your probability of getting a natural.

What should you do if you have a better chance of getting a blackjack? Obviously, you should bet more.

But if you’re a beginner, focus on mastering basic strategy first. You can learn to count cards when you become an intermediate player.

5. Skip 6/5 Blackjack Games

A recent trend in Vegas blackjack is to offer games where the payoff for a natural is 6:5 instead of 3:2. Some casinos even brag about it as if it’s a boon to the player.

The idea is that six is a bigger number than three, so unsophisticated gamblers (beginners) will think 6/5 blackjack is a better deal. But it’s not.

Sure, you’ll only get a blackjack once out of every 20 hands or so, but why would you want to give up $30 per hand? That $30, averaged over 20 hands, is an additional loss of $1.50 per hand.

Let supply and demand send 6/5 blackjack to the graveyard where it belongs.

6. Skip Video Blackjack

Video blackjack games vary widely. Some of them only offer even-money payouts on a natural. Obviously, you should avoid those games.

Video blackjack games generally deal from eight decks that are shuffled after every hand. The rules are usually worse than the rules at any of the table versions of blackjack.

On top of all that, video blackjack is twice as fast as playing at a table with a dealer, which means you’ll put twice as much money into action per hour.

Suppose you see 100 hands of blackjack per hour at a standard table, and you play for $5 per hand. That’s $500 in action. With a house edge of 0.5%, the house expects to win $2.50 per hour from you.

Double the number of hands per hour on a video blackjack game, and even if you’re facing the same rules, you’ll lose $5 per hand.

Why lose more money per hour playing blackjack than you have to? Just say no to video blackjack.

7. Practice Online

One of the greatest things about the internet is the availability of free games at real money online casinos. Beginners can get a feel for how the actions work in a blackjack game without having to leave their homes or taking as much risk.

Of course, knowing how to double down and split will come in handy when you play for the first time in a live casino, too.

Conclusion

This page on blackjack tips for beginners was meant to offer advice specifically to those who are just getting started. That’s why I didn’t go into detail about how to count cards or about the specifics of basic strategy.

I hope you found it helpful. If you’d like to learn more about blackjack strategies and tips on how to become a better gambler, this site offers plenty of information for you to utilize. Good luck at the tables!