a casino may even give you a hard time cashing in its own chips on occasion.

Before you start, you need to exchange cash for chips. Assuming you have not deposited money with the casino, place your money between two of the betting spots just before the start of a new round. If you place the money in the betting spot, this could be an indication that you want “money plays” or all the money put on one bet. However, they would ask first before assuming this and more and more casinos these days will convert the money to chips anyway. Casinos really do not like bets made with cash as it requires more attention from the pit boss. The denominations of chips the dealer hands you depend on the table minimum and the amount of money you drop on the table. If you want different denominations, like no green chips at a $25 table, say “all black,” or if you want chips below the minimum for tips or cocktail waitresses, just say so.

Objective

A casino Blackjack game consists of a dealer and one to seven players. Tables generally seat five, six or seven players. You do NOT play Blackjack against other players; you play against the dealer. In fact, other players are usually not relevant to your play. They are mainly a distraction. You are betting that you have a better hand than the dealer. The better hand is the hand where the sum of the card values is closer to 21 without exceeding 21. A hand that is greater than 21 is referred to as “busted” and automatically loses.

Card values

The value of cards two through ten is their pip value (two through ten). Face cards (Jack, Queen, and King) are all worth ten. Aces can be worth one or eleven. A hand's value is the sum of the card values. Soft hands and hard hands exist. A soft hand contains an ace that is being counted as eleven. (Remember, an ace can count as one or eleven.) For example, if a hand has an ace and a six, this is a soft 17. This hand cannot be busted by drawing another card. If a ten is drawn, the ace would be counted as one instead of eleven, and the hand would still have a value of 17. However, this would now be a hard 17, because the ace now counts as one and an additional draw could cause a bust.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger