The principles of online blackjack are simply that you want to end up with a hand which is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, but you must not go over 21 (known as going bust). Unlike many other popular card games such as poker, Other players at the table are not competiting with one another; each plays against the dealer, so your hand is essentially only played out against the hand of the dealer.

In all casino blackjack play the dealer has strict rules to which he must play, meaning that the dealer has no need to make any decisions regarding his approach to the strategic side of the game. The most typical rule you will find at most online casino outlets is that a blackjack dealer must draw on 16 and stand on anything 17 or above. Often you will find this described as ‘Dealer stands on 17′ – sometimes this is marked on the table for clarity.

The value of the cards:

Blackjack begins with each player sat the table being dealt 2 cards and the dealer also drawing two cards. The dealer will then display to the other players the value of one of his cards.

In the game of blackjack an ace can count as either 1 or 11, while cards from 2 through to 9 are valued as shown with 10, Jack, Queen and King all being valued at 10.

So as an example, if a player is dealt an Ace plus a 4, the value of the hand would be either 15 or 5 (ace = 11 or 1 and 4 = 4), if the next card dealt to the player has a value of 8 the player would end up on 13, as the value of the ace now MUST be 1, as if it were 11 the player would be bust.

If the hand dealt to the player equals 21 (an Ace plus a 10 or face card) then the player has blackjack. Many online casinos pay 3 to 2 (occasionally 2 to 1) on all blackjacks. Sometimes certain casinos only pay out this inflated rate on suited blackjacks.

Each player will be given the option of drawing another card (hitting), sticking with their hand as it presently is (standing) and, depending on what was dealt, they could choose a more advanced options such as doubling up their bet or splitting the hand.

So, with this basic blackjack strategy and knowledge, and even without getting into the advanced side of blackjack, you can easily make some profits from this game…