Insurance in Blackjack

If the dealer’s face up card is an ace he will ask the players if they want insurance, before he peaks his hole card. In case the player wants insurance, he can bet up to half of his bet by placing the insurance bet chips below the player’s normal bet, and if the dealer has a ten-value card as the down card (blackjack), the dealer will pay of the insurance bets at two to one but the player loses his original bet. At the end it is basically a push if the insurance was half of the original bet and the dealer has a blackjack. When the dealer does not have a blackjack then the player loses the insurance bet and the dealer removes the insurance bets.

Doubling Down in Blackjack

Doubling down is a term for doubling the size of your original bet. To double down the player must place his cards face up in front of him and place a bet equal to his original bet behind his original bet. If a player doubles down he is dealt only one more card for that hand, and he cannot stand on his original hand or take more then 1 additional card. In deferent casino there are deferent rules for doubling down. In Atlantic City for example the rules of Blackjack are standardized and they are the same in all casinos, but in other cities there are casinos that do not permit players to double-down after splitting a pair, and other casinos will not allow a player to double down after receiving an ace as a first or second card. There are casinos that allows doubling down only on totals of 10 or 11. That is the reason why it is very important for a player to establish the casino rules before starts playing.

Splitting Pairs in Blackjack

Generally this is when you split any two cards of the same value. When you are dealt two Jacks, for example, they can be split. If you want to do so, you have to place a bet of exactly the same amount as the original bet next to where your original bet is located on the table, and you should place your cards face up, side by side in front of you with some room in between prior to placing the new bet. The result of this is that you are now playing two hands. When you play these hands, the your right hand is played first until you stand on that hand, bust or pass. Then all this is repeating for the left hand. Splitting two ten value cards is rare because the total hand value is 20 and it has a good chance of winning. You should split, when you have two aces, but you should remember that you will only be given one more card for each hand. In most cases the casinos allow to re-split after the original split if you get another pair, but some casinos have limits on re-splitting aces.

Card Values in Blackjack

In Blacjack are used 6 or 8 standard 52 card decks. The suits here have no relevance unless the casino has a special pay out for certain hands. The cards from 2 to 10 are counting as their own face value, the Jack, Queen and King are counting as 10 points. The Ace can be counted as 1 or 11 points depending on the player’s decision and it’s value can be changed during the playing of the hand. The most common card in the deck is a card with a value of 10 (there are 16 such cards in a standard deck), and all other point values only have 4 cards in a deck. The most powerful card in the deck is the ace, not only because it can be used as two distinct values, 1 and 11, but also because only with this card you can create a Blackjack.