Blackjack is an extremely popular card game that is one of the most widely played casino games worldwide. Blackjack is also known as Pontoon and sometimes twenty one as the aim of the game is to try and get as close to a score of twenty one as possible. The best hand in blackjack is a royal card and an ace, which scores twenty one and cannot be beaten, unless the dealer himself also scores twenty one with a royal card and an ace.
One of the reasons that blackjack enjoys such a high level of worldwide popularity is because it gives players to compete against the house, or dealer rather than each other. Because of this most casinos who host games of blackjack will weigh the odds in favour of the dealer, usually by making use of several decks of cards. It is possible to minimise the dealers advantage in blackjack by using sophisticated card counting techniques, although this is a very difficult technique to master and most casinos frown upon the practice and are looking out for it especially on their blackjack tables.
Every player in a game of blackjack makes their bets independently of one another and against the dealer at the start of each round. As the rounds progress it is possible for player to increase the stakes. To progress a player will request the dealer to ‘hit me’, dealing them another card in attempt to reach twenty one, however if they are dealt a card which takes their total over twenty one they are out and the dealer takes their bets.
blackjackmaster © 2009