Blackjack Basics
Every day there are scores of online casino players who decide to play blackjack for the very first time, and whilst there are plenty of informative articles on the many different aspects of the game that new players can study at their leisure, most new players would prefer to start playing as soon as possible. To assist those players we have compiled this article on Blackjack Basics, the aim of which is to help complete beginners to make sensible decisions from the outset.
This will allow new players to start enjoying blackjack immediately and study the finer details later.
Basic Blackjack Rules
The basic blackjack rules are easy to understand. The player plays against the dealer and the aim is for him to obtain cards totalling as close to 21 as possible without going over (a hand which exceeds 21 is known as a ‘bust’). Two cards are initially dealt to both the player and the dealer and the player may Stand on his initial total or Hit and receive another card to increase his total. The dealer must generally stand on a hand totalling 17 or higher. If the player gets closer to 21 than the dealer (without busting) then he wins. If the player gets 21 with his first two cards then he has a blackjack. A winning blackjack hand pays 3:2 and any other winning hand pays 1:1.
Basic Blackjack Strategy
Blackjack is one of the few games where the player can make strategic decision which can increase his chances of winning, so it is never a good idea to play according to hunch or guesswork. You can find a complete guide to decision making in our Basic Strategy article, but for now a couple of good rules of thumb that you can use immediately would be to stand on any hand totalling 17 or more and hit on any total of less than 17 when the dealer’s up-card is a 7 or higher.
Basic Blackjack Game Choice
There are lots of different blackjack games available at online casinos, but the new player would do well to well to focus on traditional blackjack rather than on blackjack variations which involve unusual rules and/or additional side bets. The best game of all for a beginner to play would be single deck blackjack (which, as the name suggests, uses only one deck of cards), but multi-deck games are also quite suitable. In both cases you should play just one hand of blackjack at a time until you have had time to study the game in more detail.
Basic Blackjack Bankroll Management
Most brand new blackjack players don’t discover the importance of money management until they have first suffered losses (sometimes considerable losses) at the tables, so our final piece of advice in this Blackjack Basics article is to set yourself a strict budget for every blackjack session that you play. Each ‘session bankroll’ should be a sum that you can afford to lose, and it is always a good idea to make sure that you have at least one reserve session bankroll to fund subsequent games.
If you ever lose the entirety of a session bankroll then you should quit playing immediately or switch to free blackjack tables and continue for practice purposes only. Another good habit to get into is to quit playing when you have made a good profit in relation to the size of your session bank. For beginning players we would recommend that you always quit playing if you manage to double your session bankroll, and some of you might be just as happy to quit playing after making 50% of your session bank, in which case you should do so.
Summary
These Blackjack Basics won’t turn a complete beginner into an online blackjack expert by any means, but they will help the newcomer to get off to the best possible start. And of course, those of you who want to improve your game from there can study our library of more detailed blackjack articles at your leisure. Good luck at the tables and have fun!
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