How Many Decks Are Used In Casino Blackjack?

How Many Decks Are Used In Casino Blackjack
Rules of play at casinos – Initial deal Player action Dealer’s hand revealed Bets settled At a blackjack table, the dealer faces five to nine playing positions from behind a semicircular table. Between one and eight standard 52-card decks are shuffled together. To start each round, players place bets in the “betting box” at each position.

In jurisdictions allowing back betting, up to three players can be at each position. The player whose bet is at the front of the betting box controls the position, and the dealer consults the controlling player for playing decisions; the other bettors “play behind”. A player can usually control or bet in as many boxes as desired at a single table, but an individual cannot play on more than one table at a time or place multiple bets within a single box.

In many U.S. casinos, players are limited to playing one to three positions at a table. The dealer deals from their left (“first base”) to their far right (“third base”). Each box gets an initial hand of two cards visible to the people playing on it. The dealer’s hand gets its first card face up, and, in “hole card” games, immediately gets a second card face down (the hole card), which the dealer peeks at but only reveals when it makes the dealer’s hand a blackjack.

Hole card games are sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor used to peek securely at the hole card.
In European casinos, “no hole card” games are prevalent; the dealer’s second card is not drawn until the players have played their hands.
Dealers deal the cards from one or two handheld decks, from a dealer’s shoe, or from a shuffling machine,

Single cards are dealt to each wagered-on position clockwise from the dealer’s left, followed by a single card to the dealer, followed by an additional card to each of the positions in play. The players’ initial cards may be dealt face up or face down (more common in single-deck games).

The object of the game is to win money by creating card totals higher than those of the dealer’s hand but not exceeding 21, or by stopping at a total in the hope that dealer will bust.
On their turn, players choose to “hit” (take a card), “stand” (end their turn and stop without taking a card), “double” (double their wager, take a single card, and finish), “split” (if the two cards have the same value, separate them to make two hands), or “surrender” (give up a half-bet and retire from the game).

Number cards count as their number, the jack, queen, and king (“face cards” or “pictures”) count as 10, and aces count as either 1 or 11 according to the player’s choice. If the total exceeds 21 points, it busts, and all bets on it immediately lose. After the boxes have finished playing, the dealer’s hand is resolved by drawing cards until the hand achieves a total of 17 or higher (a dealer total of 17 including an ace valued as 11, also known as a “soft 17”, must be drawn to in some games and must stand in others).

The dealer never doubles, splits, or surrenders. If the dealer busts, all remaining player hands win. If the dealer does not bust, each remaining bet wins if its hand is higher than the dealer’s and loses if it is lower. A player total of 21 on the first two cards is a “natural” or “blackjack”, and the player wins immediately unless dealer also has one, in which case the hand ties.

In the case of a tie (“push” or “standoff”), bets are returned without adjustment. A blackjack beats any hand that is not a blackjack, even one with a value of 21. Wins are paid out at even money, except for player blackjacks, which are traditionally paid out at 3 to 2 odds.

How many decks of cards do the casinos use for blackjack?

The Pack – The standard 52-card pack is used, but in most casinos several decks of cards are shuffled together. The six-deck game (312 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.

Do casinos use multiple decks for blackjack?

How Blackjack Works Casinos have taken a number of steps to negate the advantage gained by counting cards since the first counting systems were introduced in the early 1960s. In many ways, these “countermeasures” have worked, and the card counter of today doesn’t have as much of an advantage.

The first attempt to stop counters was a clumsy move in which casinos sharply limited the players’ ability to double and split.
The result was a drastic decline in players at the blackjack tables, so the rule change was revoked.
The casinos’ next attempt was the real counter-killer.
Until card counters arrived, blackjack was played at casinos in much the same way you might play it at home – with a single deck of cards.

To make it harder to keep track of the cards in the deck, casinos soon switched to a multideck game, with two decks shuffled together. Today, most casinos use six, eight, or even more decks shuffled together. This is why few dealers deal by hand. It’s too hard to handle that huge stack of cards.

Instead, they use a plastic box called a shoe,
With so many cards in the deck, each card represents a smaller percentage of the deck, so counting provides a smaller advantage.
Methods have been devised to account for multideck play (see sidebar), but the fact remains that it makes things a lot harder for card counters.

The casinos didn’t stop there. They also burn (discard) more than one card, or burn cards after every play. Usually, the burn cards go into the discard tray, and the player never sees them. This is obviously a major hindrance for the card counter. Blackjack dealers also tend to shuffle the deck more often,

This resets the count and prevents the counters from getting a favorable deck with a high count. If a player suddenly makes a large bet after betting the minimum for many hands, the dealer may suspect a counter and shuffle immediately. If someone continues to win at the blackjack table despite all these obstacles, the casino will simply apply “heat.” The pit boss or several security guards may arrive at the table and take a sudden interest in the winning player, watching him carefully and closely.

As a last resort, they may simply escort the counter out of the casino and ask him not to return. Well-known counters will have their picture posted, so casino security will know them by sight. As Michael Benson put it in, “You can tell that you are getting to be a good blackjack player not just when you go home with more money than you started with, but when casinos begin to keep an eye on you.” The system players aren’t left defenseless, however.

While casino pit bosses are able to easily spot individual counters by their sometimes slow play and obvious betting patterns, blackjack teams have walked away from the casinos with millions of dollars before the casinos caught on.
One legendary team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology practiced in mock casinos and refined its techniques over the years, winning big before they were discovered.

(You can read about the strategy in, by Ben Mezrich.) Here is an example of a typical blackjack team making a run at a casino: One player, the spotter, sits at the table playing the table minimum. His bet never varies. At the same time, he’s counting cards carefully, but not obviously.

Because his bet never changes, the pit bosses never suspect him of counting.
If the casino is very busy, a back-spotter might be used.
Typically, this is a female team member, made to look like a player’s girlfriend, standing behind him and rubbing his shoulders as he plays.
The whole time, she’s keeping up the true count.

Meanwhile, another team member is hanging around nearby, but he’s not playing blackjack. Taking advantage of common stereotypes that pit bosses encounter, this player might be a young man who looks like he could be the son of a rich, foreign businessman – a big spender (known among casino owners as a “whale”).

When the true count shows an advantageous deck, the spotter gives a subtle signal to the big spender.
A hand in a pocket or arms folded across the spotter’s chest are enough to bring the big spender over to the blackjack table.
Acting like a drunk, reckless rich kid, the big spender lays down a huge bet as soon as he reaches the table and keeps betting big until the spotter signals that either the count is getting low or the pit boss is getting suspicious.

Then the big spender stumbles away with his winnings, and no one on the team ever changed their betting pattern or did anything else the casinos usually look for in catching counters. Now, counting is hard, but cheating at blackjack is even harder. In fact, it’s usually the players getting cheated, not the casinos.

Running Count and True Count In a one-deck game, the running count is accurate enough to gain the counter a decent advantage. In multideck play, the number of decks remaining in the shoe need to be accounted for. While there are many formulae for coming up with this “true count,” at the most basic level, you simply need to divide the running count by the number of decks remaining in the shoe.

A running count of +4 with two decks still in the shoe results in a true count of +2. You can see that in a multideck game, it is much more difficult to achieve a count high enough to give the counter a big advantage. : How Blackjack Works

How many decks are used in blackjack Vegas?

Blackjack in Las Vegas can use one to eight decks. How many decks may not make any difference to a beginner player who knows just knows and plays basic strategy without paying attention to the cards played. However, the main thing you need to pay attention to is the rules of the specific table AND blackjack payouts.

How many decks of cards do casinos use in a day?

The game uses 2 decks at a time. Local casinos near me change cards every 4 hours. That would be 12 decks in a 24 hour period just for one table.

How many decks does MGM use for blackjack?

6-Deck Hit on Soft 17 – Most of the games feature six decks. There are over 25 tables featuring 6-deck shoes where the dealers are supposed to hit soft 17, so this is the most commonly played Blackjack game at this casino. Double downs are allowed, re-splitting aces is also allowed.

Do casinos tell you how many decks?

One of the most popular games out on the casino floor, blackjack is still shrouded in a fair degree of mystery. Players who sit at the tables to participate in the almost-ritualistic gameplay that has been around since at least the 1400s seldom ask themselves the question of how many decks are used in blackjack.

Well, it’s a good question and one that may help you win a little more if you know how many decks you are dealing with.
So, how do many decks of cards do casino use? The answer is – that depends, but the good news is that each table at the casino will openly inform you on the number of decks.
The fewer decks there are, the better your odds of winning become.

Well, sort of. It’s easier to keep track of the tens and picture cards that have been in play if there are fewer decks in play, though, and it’s good to make use of that knowledge to your benefit.

Are blackjack odds better with more decks?

Why Do More Decks Increase the House Edge in Blackjack? By John Grochowski on Monday January 9, 2012 blackjack, gaming, gaming-strategy, tourism, tunica If you play blackjack, you’ve probably heard that fewer decks are better for the player. And if all other rules are equal, that’s true. The house edge is lowest on single-deck games, and increases with each deck added. A player emailed me to ask, “Why does adding decks increase the house edge?” Similarly, if the dealer has an 10-value face up in a single-deck game, four of the other 51 cards, or 7.8 percent, are Aces. In a six-deck game, 24 of the remaining 311 cards, or 7.7 percent, are Aces. Again, more blackjacks are dealt with fewer decks, and that’s in the players’ favor.

With fewer decks, you’re more likely to draw a 10 in double down situations. If you have 6-5 in a single-deck game, 16 of the other 50 cards, or 32 percent, are 10 values that will give you 21. In a six-deck game, it’s 96 of 310 cards, or 31 percent. You’ll get that wished-for 10 on your double downs more often with fewer decks.

Still, when you’re choosing a game, watch out for that “if all other rules are equal” condition. Rules on the dealer hitting soft 17, limiting double down situations paying only 6-5 on blackjacks can leave single-deck games as weaker plays than their multideck counterparts.

Do casinos reuse decks of cards?

Newsletter Signup Stay informed with the NEW Casino City Times newsletter! Recent Articles Best of John Marchel G aming G uru The playing cards used in casinos today are manufactured to a much higher quality than standard decks sold to the general public. However, since they are used at a much higher rate than cards played at home, they are also discarded at a much greater rate.

Some casinos will change a deck of cards every few hours, while decks in a six-deck shoe game for example, might last an entire eight-hour shift.
One question that comes up is: How many decks of cards do casinos use? One answer is that the United States Playing Card Company, the largest manufacturer of playing cards in the world, sells more than 20 million decks to casinos each year.

When the decks are removed from a game, casinos go to great measures to ensure they don’t appear again. The cards are “canceled” to prevent single or multiple cards from being reintroduced into a game later on. It is simply a security issue to discourage cheating at the casino.

Some casinos will cancel the cards themselves while others send them to companies that do the canceling for them. Most cards from casinos in Nevada are sent to one of the prisons in the state where the “residents” cancel them. After returning them to a casino, the decks are given away to customers, sold in gift stores or given to charitable intuitions, and sometimes sent to military organizations servicing around the world.

The reason casinos are so concerned about canceling the cards is that when cards are removed or additional ones added to a deck, it changes the odds of the game. This is certainly frowned upon not only by casino management but also the state. In fact, it is considered a felony in the state of Nevada to alter the outcome of a card game by altering the cards.

If a person is convicted of that offense it will result in a sentence, even for the first offense, of no less than one year in state prison. It should also be noted that many other states follow Nevada’s enforcement guidelines. The decks themselves are “canceled” in a variety of ways. Some will be trimmed on one or two of the corners of the deck or diagonal corners will be rounded, usually by an industrial cutting machine.

Some are simply marked across the side of the deck with a black ink marker. Some decks will be canceled by simply drilling a hole through the middle of the entire deck. The cards will then be sorted, packaged, resealed and returned to the companies or the casino.

No matter which method is used to deform the deck, it would be quickly recognized by a dealer if a canceled card was being reintroduced into a card game.
Players can get obtain these decks and use them as mementos of casinos visited.
They can also be used as a small but unique gift for a friend back home.

There is also the need to obtain a deck so one can practice to become a better player. How can you get one of these unique prizes? There are many ways that are inexpensive or even free sometimes. First, ask a pit boss in a blackjack pit. If he doesn’t have them to give away, he might send you to the player rewards center where they give decks away to patrons who sign up for a players card.

One other place that you are almost sure of finding a canceled deck is the gift store.
You can expect to pay for these decks but they are usually inexpensive, ranging from 25 cents to two dollars.
Pick up a deck of casino cards on your next trip to a casino.
By owning your own personal casino deck it might bring back some fond memories of an exciting, fun and maybe even a profitable visit.

There could also be a chance that some rich or famous person won thousands of dollars in that casino that you have a deck from, and now you own those lucky cards. That would make a great story to tell the folks back home. BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW • In 1685, the re-supply ship to French’s Quebec colony in the New World was delayed for several months.

The colony’s Intendant (governor) was without funds to pay his troops.
He took decks of playing cards, cut them into quarters, wrote a money value on each card and used them until they could be exchanged later for French currency.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.

Spades — King David, Clubs — Alexander the Great, Hearts — Charlemagne and Diamonds — Julius Caesar. • The image of the king used in most standard decks of playing cards today is said to have been based on Charles I, the English monarch who was beheaded in 1649.

The modern day four-suit system of playing cards; spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, originated in France around 1480. • The first woodcuts on paper were, in fact, playing cards. The term Kartenmahler or Kartenmacher, ‘painter’ or ‘maker of cards,’ appears in German in 1402. • When it comes to playing cards, when giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank should be given first followed by the suit, e.g., “ace of spades.” Shorthand notation should also list the rank first: A?.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network’s managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network.

To contact Frank, please e-mail him at [email protected],
Recent Articles Best of John Marchel John Marchel is an author, speaker, teacher and player – what John plays are casino games.
He’s been a casino player for over 25 years and has played successfully in Europe, Panama, the Caribbean, Canada, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, on Indian reservations, cruise ships and in over 350 casinos throughout the US.

He is also the author of six books about gambling, and has written numerous magazine articles and is currently a columnist for three gambling magazines and one internet magazine. Since 1988 John has combined his experience as a manager, teacher and player to present seminars and lectures about gambling.

Do casinos rig blackjack decks?

The Cards Are Not Rigged – OK, this might seem like a blindingly obvious point to those of you that are sensible but it appears that a lot of players out there suffer from this paranoid belief that their cards are fixed. One poster, 01d, asked why the dealers keep hitting 20 and why the players seem to always hit 22 after a 12 from two cards.

Do casinos play blackjack with one deck?

Yes! Single deck blackjack is one of the few casino games that actually allow players to beat the house. You will need to count cards to perfection and make bets per your running count, but this will give you a significant edge over the dealer.

Do most casinos hit soft 17?

What’s the Difference between the Dealer Hitting or Standing on Soft 17 Q: The best blackjack rules include the dealer standing on soft 17, but it seems most casinos hit that total. What’s the difference in odds of winning between standing and hitting with soft 17? And why is one better than the other? A: [Editor’s note: This answer provided by blackjack Hall of Fame member Arnold Snyder.

Arnold is also the author of our books and,) These days you almost have to play in games where the dealer hits soft 17, as most casinos have adopted this policy.
But if you have a choice, playing where they stand is better.
Hitting soft 17 increases the house edge by 0.22%.
Most players either don’t realize this or simply don’t care – that extra edge sounds negligible.

But putting it into perspective indicates otherwise. Let’s say you’re a $10 bettor and you play 50 hands per hour. That’s $500 in action, so the casino makes an additional $1.10 per hour off you now – not insignificant. There’s no simple way to explain why hitting soft 17 increases the house edge, except to say that computer simulations have determined conclusively that this is the case.

Soft 17 is a bad hand that’s more likely to improve when taking hit cards.
Interestingly, the casino is more likely to bust with this rule in place, but the times that the hand is improved to a winner for the house more than make up for the increased percentage of busts.
It’s worth noting that there are some variations to basic strategy when the dealer hits soft 17: Double 11 against ace (instead of hit) Surrender 88 against ace (instead of split) Surrender 15 against ace (instead of hit) Surrender hard 17 against ace (instead of stand) In Las Vegas, most of the time, the tables that have higher-denomination minimum bets stand on all 17s, while the lower-minimum tables hit soft 17s.

The reason for this is that higher-limit players are often more knowledgeable gamblers and look for better odds on the games they play. At these higher-dollar amounts, the casino makes more money by virtue of the total action and doesn’t need to take that extra 0.22% (at the risk of running off a big player who may walk across the street to get that 0.22% back at a competitor’s game that stands on soft 17).

In most cases, though, players are simply ignorant of the difference.
Hitting soft 17 is just one example of casinos trying to balance the conflicting imperatives of increasing their edge without alienating players and we’d call it a successful one.
The latest – and to date the boldest – of such moves has been the revised payout on blackjacks from 3-2 to 6-5.

Judging by the amount of correspondence we receive on the subject, a lot of our readers do notice and don’t like this change. And with good reason: A game with a 6-5 payoff on naturals increases the house edge about five times more than hitting soft 17.

So while it’s often acceptable to play at a blackjack table where the dealer hits soft 17, this can rarely be said for games where blackjacks pay 6-5.
No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

Tomorrow’s Question How about a rundown of which buffets haven’t reopened and never will? : What’s the Difference between the Dealer Hitting or Standing on Soft 17

Is blackjack played with a full deck?

The most common game of blackjack is dealt out of a 6-deck or 8-deck ‘shoe’ (a plastic, card-dispensing device). Single and double deck games are still alive and well but not all casinos that have blackjack will have single and double deck so the ‘shoe games’ are a little more common.

How often do casinos throw away cards?

4. Vegas Casinos Change Decks More Than You Change Your Pants – Image: eBay Ever wondered how long decks of cards are used in casinos before they’re thrown away? In Las Vegas, decks can last for up to 12 hours before being discarded or sold. How long a deck is in play depends on factors such as how busy the specific table is and whether shuffling is done by hand or machine.

Do casinos care if you count cards?

When it comes to getting an edge over the casino, many players look to card counting, This age-old practice involves keeping a mental tally of the cards dealt, so you know information about the cards that haven’t been dealt. Many people believe that card counting is illegal, but that’s not actually the case.

Can you actually count cards at a casino?

Counting cards is legal, but, QUESTION: When it comes to blackjack, why is counting cards considered a form of cheating? I see it as a case of someone being very good at the game. In my view, it’s no different from a poker player who is skilled at bluffing and reading the body language and facial expressions of others at the table. — Gary P. ANSWER: When it comes to counting cards, you don’t need to be a math whiz. All card counting does is establish mathematically the degree to which the as-yet-undealt deck favors the dealer or the player. Counters do this by tracking the changing imbalance of big and little cards in a diminishing deck.Card counters theoretically have an advantage of anywhere from 0.5% to 1.5% over the casino. A deck rich with high cards (10, jack, queen, king, ace) favors the player, whereas an excess of low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) favors the dealer. When that ratio favors the counting player, he or she bets more money; when it favors the dealer, the counter bets less. Your implied assertion, Gary, that counting cards is considered a form of cheating is erroneous. Card counting is NOT illegal under federal, state and local laws in the United States as long as players don’t use any external card-counting device or people who assist them in counting cards.In their effort to identify card counters, casinos can ban players believed to be counters — sort of. It depends on where you are playing. For instance, in Atlantic City, casinos will let you take a whack at counting cards — again, sort of. The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that players cannot be discriminated against because of their playing skills (counting), even if they’re detected. As a result, Jersey shore casinos employ countermeasures to hinder card counters. They try to impede a card-counting blackjack player by using eight-deck shoes, shuffling at will to thwart bet variance and instructing the dealers to move the cut card near the top of the shoe. In Nevada, before you sit down at a blackjack table, you’re expected to check your brain at the door. There, laws allow casinos to operate somewhat like a private club, so plan on being asked to leave for using your cerebral matter. Though counting isn’t technically illegal, casinos in Nevada bar counters from playing blackjack by backing them off games. Counters can expect a pit boss to come up to them and unsympathetically say: “We appreciate your business, but we are going to ask you to stop playing blackjack here. Feel free to play any of the other table games that we offer.” Translated, that means go play any other game that has a much higher house edge. Mark Pilarski is a contributing editor for numerous gambling publications. E-mail questions to [email protected] : Counting cards is legal, but,

Do casinos play blackjack with one deck?

Are blackjack odds better with more decks?

By John Grochowski on Monday January 9, 2012 blackjack, gaming, gaming-strategy, tourism, tunica If you play blackjack, you’ve probably heard that fewer decks are better for the player. And if all other rules are equal, that’s true. The house edge is lowest on single-deck games, and increases with each deck added. A player emailed me to ask, “Why does adding decks increase the house edge?” It’s all in the math. Similarly, if the dealer has an 10-value face up in a single-deck game, four of the other 51 cards, or 7.8 percent, are Aces. In a six-deck game, 24 of the remaining 311 cards, or 7.7 percent, are Aces. Again, more blackjacks are dealt with fewer decks, and that’s in the players’ favor.

With fewer decks, you’re more likely to draw a 10 in double down situations.
If you have 6-5 in a single-deck game, 16 of the other 50 cards, or 32 percent, are 10 values that will give you 21.
In a six-deck game, it’s 96 of 310 cards, or 31 percent.
You’ll get that wished-for 10 on your double downs more often with fewer decks.

Do casinos use the same deck of cards?

Some casinos will change a deck of cards every few hours, while decks in a six-deck shoe game for example, might last an entire eight-hour shift. One question that comes up is: How many decks of cards do casinos use? One answer is that the United States Playing Card Company, the largest manufacturer of playing cards in the world, sells more than 20 million decks to casinos each year.

Some casinos will cancel the cards themselves while others send them to companies that do the canceling for them.
Most cards from casinos in Nevada are sent to one of the prisons in the state where the “residents” cancel them.
After returning them to a casino, the decks are given away to customers, sold in gift stores or given to charitable intuitions, and sometimes sent to military organizations servicing around the world.

If a person is convicted of that offense it will result in a sentence, even for the first offense, of no less than one year in state prison. It should also be noted that many other states follow Nevada’s enforcement guidelines. The decks themselves are “canceled” in a variety of ways. Some will be trimmed on one or two of the corners of the deck or diagonal corners will be rounded, usually by an industrial cutting machine.

No matter which method is used to deform the deck, it would be quickly recognized by a dealer if a canceled card was being reintroduced into a card game. Players can get obtain these decks and use them as mementos of casinos visited. They can also be used as a small but unique gift for a friend back home.

One other place that you are almost sure of finding a canceled deck is the gift store.
You can expect to pay for these decks but they are usually inexpensive, ranging from 25 cents to two dollars.
Pick up a deck of casino cards on your next trip to a casino.
By owning your own personal casino deck it might bring back some fond memories of an exciting, fun and maybe even a profitable visit.

The colony’s Intendant (governor) was without funds to pay his troops. He took decks of playing cards, cut them into quarters, wrote a money value on each card and used them until they could be exchanged later for French currency. • Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.

The modern day four-suit system of playing cards; spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, originated in France around 1480.
The first woodcuts on paper were, in fact, playing cards.
The term Kartenmahler or Kartenmacher, ‘painter’ or ‘maker of cards,’ appears in German in 1402.
When it comes to playing cards, when giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank should be given first followed by the suit, e.g., “ace of spades.” Shorthand notation should also list the rank first: A?.

To contact Frank, please e-mail him at [email protected],
Recent Articles Best of John Marchel John Marchel is an author, speaker, teacher and player – what John plays are casino games.
He’s been a casino player for over 25 years and has played successfully in Europe, Panama, the Caribbean, Canada, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, on Indian reservations, cruise ships and in over 350 casinos throughout the US.

How many cards do blackjack dealers have?

Blackjack The North American game of Blackjack, also known as 21, has been one of the most popular casino games of the last hundred years and has spread throughout the world. In the 21st century it has been overtaken in popularity by Slots (), but it remains one of the most popular casino card games and is available in almost all casinos both on and offline.

Blackjack is a casino banked game, meaning that players compete against the house rather than each other.
The objective is to get a hand total of closer to 21 than the dealer without going over 21 ( busting ).
At the start of a Blackjack game, the players and the dealer receive two cards each.
The players’ cards are normally dealt face up, while the dealer has one face down (called the hole card) and one face up.

The best possible Blackjack hand is an opening deal of an ace with any ten-point card. The house advantage of this game is derived from several rules that favour the dealer. The most significant of these is that the player must act before the dealer, allowing the player to bust and lose their bet before the dealer plays.