Insurance

If the dealer's up card (the card that is showing) is an ace, you are allowed to make an “insurance” bet. This is a side bet that the dealer has a ten-value card as the down card, giving the dealer a Blackjack. The dealer will ask for insurance bets from all players before the first player plays. You make this bet by placing chips equal to a maximum of half of your current bet on the “insurance bar” just above your cards. If the dealer has a ten, the insurance bet pays 2:1. In most casinos, the dealer then peeks at the down card and pays or takes the insurance bet immediately. In other casinos, the payoff waits until the end of the play.

In face-down games, if you are playing more than one hand, you are allowed to look at all hands before deciding. This is the only time that you are allowed to look at the second hand before playing the first hand. Using one hand, look at the hands one at a time.

Surrender

A few casinos allow an option referred to as “surrender”. In these casinos, you can surrender a lousy hand before you have drawn any additional cards. You will lose half of your bet. There are old hand signals for surrender, but no one uses them and they will just confuse the dealer. This is one circumstance where you just verbally call out “surrender.”

Hands

Most players play one hand. You may play more hands if the seats next to you are open. Casinos have different rules governing this. They may require a higher minimum bet when you are playing multiple hands — for example, double the minimum bet on each hand with two hands or triple with three hands. Very crowded casinos may limit multiple hands, but this is not common in the U.S. Also, at a few tables you cannot increase the number of hands in the middle of a shoe. You must wait for a shuffle.

Dealer Hand

Once all the players have completed their hands, it is the dealer’s turn. She will not even play if all players have either busted or received Blackjacks. She will simply turn over the hole card. On

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger