Rules of blackjack

The player must wager before any cards are dealt. He does this by placing his bet in front of his
table position. Next, the dealer deals two cards to each of the players and two to himself. (One of
the dealer's cards is dealt face up, one is dealt face down). Face cards count as ten, ace counts
as one or 11, and all other cards are counted at their face value.
A blackjack occurs if the player's first two cards are an ace and a ten or face card. This is usually
a winning hand, although if the dealer also has a blackjack, it is a tie. A winning blackjaack pays
the player three to two.
The dealer must draw on 16 and stand on 17.

Basic terminology
Hit or Stand - Hit means to draw another card, which the player signifies by tapping the table with
his cards or a similar hand motion. Stand means that the player wants no more cards, which the
player signals by placing his cards under his wager or holding his hand in a horizontal direction. If
the player hits and busts (goes over 21), his wager is lost.
Double down - The player is allowed to double his original bet on his first two cards, then draw
one more card.
Splitting - If the first cards a player is dealt are a pair, they may be split into two hands which are
played separately. The bet on each hand must be the same amount. Aces receive only one card.
After splitting, Ace-ten counts as 21, and not as blackjack.
Insurance - A bet not exceeding one-half of the original bet. When the dealer's up card is an ace,
the player may take insurance. If the dealer's down card is a ten or face card, the player wins two
to one. Any other card means a win for the dealer.
Surrender - To give up after the deal of the first two cards. Only one-half of the original bet is lost.
Not all blackjack games offer surrender.

A Simple Strategy:
All of your decisions in these four basic steps are based on the value of the dealer's up card.
If the dealer's up card is 7 or higher, continue to draw cards until you have a hard count of at least
17 or higher, or a soft count of 18 or higher. (A "soft" hand is one that has an Ace that is counted
as 11. A hand that either contains no Aces or the Ace is counted as a 1 is called a "hard" hand.)
If the dealer's up card is 6 or lower, draw cards until you have at least 12. Stop when you have
12 or higher.
Double down when your first two cards total 10 or 11, If the dealer has a 9 or lower. To double
down simply means you can double your original bet after you receive your first two cards. If you
decide to double down you will then receive only one more card.
Always split aces and eights. Do not split any other pairs. To split a pair simply means that when
you receive any pair on your first two cards, you can split them into two separate hands. You can
then play each hand as individual hands.

More detailed strategy:

While you can't beat the house in the long term using this strategy alone, it does reduce the
house's advantage considerably.
Your Hand
5,6,7,8
9
10
11
12
13,14
15,16
17,18,19,20
Soft 13,14
Soft 15,16
Soft 17
Soft 18
Soft 19,20
A-A
2-2,3-3
4-4
5-5
6-6
7-7
8-8
9-9
10-10

Dealer's
2 3 4
H H H
H D D
D D D
D D D
H H S
S S S
S S S
S S S
H H H
H H D
H D D
S D D
S S S
P P P
P P P
H H H
D D D
P P P
P P P
P P P
P P P
S S S

Up
5
H
D
D
D
S
S
S
S
D
D
D
D
S
P
P
P
D
P
P
P
P
S

Card
6 7
H H
D H
D D
D D
S H
S H
S H
S S
D H
D H
D H
D S
S S
P P
P P
P H
D D
P H
P P
P P
P S
S S

8
H
H
D
D
H
H
H
S
H
H
H
S
S
P
H
H
D
H
H
P
P
S

9 10
H H
H H
D H
D D
H H
H H
H H
S S
H H
H H
H H
H H
S S
P P
H H
H H
D H
H H
H H
P P
P S
S S

A
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
S
H
H
H
H
S
P
H
H
H
H
H
P
S
S

H=Hit, S=Stand, D=Double down, P=Split

Card counting systems
Card-counting systems are based on the principle that the make-up of a deck of cards changes as cards are
played. Analysis has shown that a deck is in the player's favor when it has more ten-count cards in it. The
reason the deck favors the player is because the player has a better chance of getting blackjack which pays
3 to 2, more money than an average win.
By assigning a simple value such as +1 for high cards and -1 for low cards, a card counter can roughly
determine the ratio of high cards to low cards remaining in the deck at anytime during play. When the deck
contains more high cards and the odds are in his favor, he increases the amount he bets so he can win
more. When the deck isn't favorable, he bets the minimum so he loses less. The count also affects his
decisions on when to hit, stand, double and split.
An example of a card-counting system from the Internet:
The strategy underlying this system is to bet more money when the count is high (favorable for the player)
and less when the count is low (favorable for the casino).
1) Identify the count. Just after the shuffle, before any cards are dealt, the count is zero. As cards are dealt
during the course of play, the count will change. For each 2,3,4,5, or 6 that emerges, increase the count by
one. For each 10, J, Q, K, A that emerges, decrease the count by one. In other words, the low cards have a
value of +1 and the high cards have a value of 1. 7,8, and 9 have no value.
2) Place your bet. At the beginning of the deck, when the count is zero, play the blackjack table minimum. I
will refer to this as one unit. At the beginning of subsequent hands, if the count is positive, bet as many
units as the count (example: If the count is three bet three units, or three times the table minimum). If the
count is zero or negative, bet one unit.
During play, use basic blackjack strategy. By altering the amount you bet in this way, you will be betting more
money when the cards are in your favor and less when the cards are in the casinos favor, resulting in more
money won and less money lost.