Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is one of the most popular casino card games in the world. Blackjack’s precursor was vingt-et-un (“twenty-one”), which originated in French casinos around 1700.

In Blackjack a player competes against the Dealer. The goal of the game for a player is to beat the Dealer’s hand by either getting a better hand without exceeding 21 or by the Dealer’s hand going bust (going over 21). Both the player and the Dealer are dealt two cards, and from there, the player may request as many cards as he wants, as long as he doesn’t exceed the value of 21. After the player finishes with his hand, the same process occurs to the Dealer’s hand, after which the two hands are compared, bets paid or collected.

A Blackjack is a total of 21, when a hand contains an Ace and any ten-valued card (Jack, King, Queen
or Ten), but only in case these two cards are the first two cards dealt to a player or Dealer.

Card Values

Blackjack hands are scored by their point total. In Blackjack, cards are valued in the following way:
• An Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11 (it is explained below).
• The cards from 2 through 9 have their face values.
• 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10

The value of a hand is simply the sum of point counts of each card in the hand. For example, a hand containing (5, 7, 9) has the value of 21.

An Ace can be counted either as 1 or 11. An Ace always has the value that makes the best hand. Suppose you have (Ace, 7). The value of this hand can be either 8 or 18. If you stop here, it will be 18.

Let’s assume you’ve drawn one more card. The hand contains (Ace, 7, 8). Its total value is 16.

Game Results/ Payouts

Aftera player stands with a hand (stops to draw cards) and after the Dealer completes his hand, the player’s and the Dealer’s hands are compared.
The winning hand is considered the one, which total is greater. If a hand has BJ, such hand beats any hand including a regular 21. In case the hand total is greater than 21, such hand busts.

A Blackjack game can have three possible results:

Win – A player wins if his hand total is greater than the Dealer’s hand total, without busting (going over 21). WIN indicator appears near the hand.
Lose – The player loses if his hand total is less than the Dealer’s, or if the hand busts. BUST indicator appears next to the corresponding hand.
Push – Push is a situation where both the player’s hand and the dealer’s hand are of equal value. PUSH indicator appears next to the player’s hand.
• A regular win pays out 1 to 1; this means that a $10 bet pays out $10
• Blackjack pays out 3 to 2; this means that a $10 bet pays out $15.
• Insurance bet usually pays out 2 to 1; let’s say, a player’s initial bet is $10, he has Insurance option and decides to place the insurance bet (insurance bet equals half the initial bet), in case the Dealer has Blackjack, a player gets 2:1 on his $5 Insurance wager and receives $10.

How to Play

Placing a bet

You are allowed to bet on up to three hands and play for central, right and left players.

To place a bet, use betting chips found at the bottom right part of the table. To select a chip, click the desired one with the left mouse button. You may need several chips to reach the desired bet amount; in this case the stack of chips will be formed on the betting area. To place a chip, use one of the ways provided below:
• Click a betting spot where you want to place the selected chip.
• Drag and drop the chosen chip on the desired betting square.
• Click Repeat button to place a bet equal to the previous one
(Note: in case it is your first bet, Repeat control is disabled).

The total bet value is displayed in a small square beside the chips placed. The betting limits are displayed in the frame at the top left side of the game table.

Removing/Decreasing a bet

To remove a bet completely or decrease its value, you need to remove a chip (chips) placed. You may do it in several ways:
• Click and drag chips from the table to the betting chips area.
• Select ‘X’ chip and then click the chip/stack of chips placed. The chips will be removed one by one.
• Press CTRL and then left click the chip/stack of chips placed. The chips will be removed one by one.
• Use Clear control to remove all the chips currently placed on the table.

Dealing

Click Deal button to start dealing cards. Once the button is clicked, both you and the Dealer are dealt two cards. You receive cards face up, the Dealer – one card face down, the other one – face up.

If you play multiple hands, several hands will be dealt to you. For each hand, two cards are dealt face up. In this case each hand will be treated separately.

Note: If you are dealt Blackjack, you are immediately paid 1.5 times the placed bet, unless the Dealer also has Blackjack, in which case it is a Push.

The Dealer starts playing his hand once all the player’s hands are completed. The Dealer stands on 17.

Game Options

To proceed with the game:

• Click Hit button to draw an additional card to a hand (You may draw as many cards as required. If the total reaches 21, you are not allowed to hit any more. If your hand busts (its total exceeds 21), this hand is removed from the table and you lose).
• Click Stand button to stop drawing cards to a hand (‘STOP’ flag will be displayed for a moment)
• Click Double to make use of use Double option, it can be used once you are dealt two cards. Once Double control is clicked, your original bet amount will be doubled and you’ll be dealt one more card.
No more cards can be drawn for this hand.

Depending on the game situation Split and Insurance options may become available.

Split – If first two cards are of the same value (two Aces, two Sevens, etc), you may use ‘Split’ option. Jack, King, Queen have value of 10, therefore two face cards are considered to be acceptable for splitting. This rule applies if you have a Jack and a Ten, for example, or a King and a Ten.

Once Split control is clicked, your hand is split into two separate hands. One card is dealt from the shoe to each of two hands, and one more bet is placed on the betting area, equal to the original bet. Each hand
formed is treated as usual. It is allowed to split a hand only once.

Insurance – This option becomes available if the Dealer’s up card is an Ace. In this case, a player has the possibility to insure against the dealer’s Blackjack. ‘Insurance’ message, ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ controls appear on the game table.

To make an Insurance bet click Yes button. In this case an additional bet will be placed, equal to half your initial bet.
• If the Dealer does have a Blackjack, you lose the original bet but your insurance returns 2 to 1. The game continues in its normal way.
• If the Dealer does not have Blackjack, Stand, Hit and Double buttons become available to proceed with the game.

Note: To start playing a new game round, click New Game button.To repeat the bets placed in the previous game round, use Repeat control.

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When we talk “volatility” in casino games, we’re often talking about electronic games. Reel-spinning slot machines concentrate more of their returns in fewer big wins than video slot machines, which bring more frequent small wins. The reel-spinners are more volatile.

Same deal in video poker. House edges are similar on 9-6 Jacks or Better (99.5 percent) and 9-5 Super Double Bonus Poker (99.7), but Super Double Bonus is much more volatile. The 2-for-1 payoff on two pair helps keep Jacks or Better on more of an even keel. Super Double Bonus pays only 1-for-1 on two pair, and concentrates more of its return on big four-of-a-kind hands. For a five-coin bet, Jacks or Better pays 125 coins for any four of a kind, while Super Double Bonus pays 800 on four Aces, 600 on four face cards, 400 on four 2s, 3s or 4s, and 250 on any other quads. We can win big money faster on Super Double Bonus, but the lower payoff on the far more common two-pair hands means that without the big hits, we lose much faster. It’s a more volatile experience.

The same concept applies to table games. The house edge on betting odd or even is the same 5.26 percent as betting single numbers. But odd or even brings 18 winners per 38 spins of the wheel, and pays even money. Any single number comes up an average of once per 38 spins, but the payoff is a 35-1 bonanza. Bet single numbers, and you can win big, or lose fast — there’s more volatility than in playing odd/even.

Sometimes players add their own volatility to games. When players ask me about betting progressions, increasing their bets as they win, I tell them that the main effect is to add volatility. The house edge is the house edge, a mathematical certainty no matter how you size your wagers. But volatility — that’s different. You can take a steady chug or ride the roller-coaster, depending on whether you bet the same amount on every hand or play a progression.

I remember the first time I ever tried a progression. It was at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, at a time when it had a little less of a threadbare feel than it does today. I started out wagering $5 a hand at a six-deck blackjack table. After two consecutive wins, I increased to $10, then to $15 and $20, adding $5 with each win. After any loss, I brought my bet back to $5. In 45 minutes, I won $300.

It was an incredible feeling. Nothing like that had ever happened to me. In those days, I was strictly a $5 bettor, and I could budget a whole three-day trip to Las Vegas on $300 in gambling money. I’d had winning sessions before, but the big ones were $40 or $50. This time, I’d doubled my stake for the trip in 45 minutes.

Soon, I learned the down side. Betting progressions do bring some spectacular wins, far larger than if you kept your bets flat. But they also turn some potential winning sessions into losers. They add volatility.

I came home with more money than I’d brought, but continued play with my little progression had eroded that $300 win a bit.

When you’re on a roll, a betting progression is a huge bankroll booster. On my modest little progression, winning five hands in a row meant winning wagers of $5, $5, $10, $15 and $20 — a total win of $55. If I’d bet $5 a hand in my usual style of the time, I’d have won just $25.

That’s the upside. The downside comes when you have more normal short streaks, such as two wins followed by a loss. Keep your bet at a flat $5, and that means two $5 wins and a $5 loss, yielding a $5 profit. On my progression, two $5 wins would be followed by a $10 loss, with no profit at all even though I’d won more hands than I’d lost.

Another problem: Unless you put a limit on the number of increases in your progression, you will always lose your largest bet. On my longest streak at what I now know to have been an extraordinarily lucky session at the Trop, my bet reached $40, with eight wins in a row. Then I lost.

Most progression players use much more aggressive systems than the one I was using that day, increasing wagers more rapidly, but also applying a limit such as four wins, then returning to the minimum bet.

How does it all come out? On balance, pretty much the same. Bet flat, and the winning sessions will be smaller. Bet a progression, and that big wins will be bigger, but the losing sessions will be more frequent. If a flat bettor and a progression player start with the same base wager, the progression player will lose a little more money in the long run because the total of his wagers is larger. Progressions can’t overcome the house edge. They just add volatility.

Even keel or wild ride? Take your pick.

John Grochowski