Black Jack Single Player Rules

Black Jack Single Player Rules (Atlantic City Blackjack rules):

In Single Player Blackjack, you and the dealer (or the computer) are dealt two cards to start. The objective of Blackjack is to accumulate cards that add up closer to 21 than that of the dealer's cards, without going over 21. Cards are worth their face value with the exception of Kings, Queens, and Jacks which are each worth 10 and Aces which are worth either 1 or 11. If the value of your hand is closer to 21 than that of the dealer you win. If the value of the dealer's hand is higher than yours you lose. If the hands are of equal value the deal is a 'push' and your money is returned. If you have a total of 22 or higher (a busted hand), you lose regardless of whether the dealer also busts.

Summary of the Rules

• 8 x 52-card decks are used
• The deck is re-shuffled after each hand
• Dealer stands on all 17's
• Doubling after splitting allowed
• No re-splitting of cards allowed
• No surrender
• Only one additional card allowed on each ace when splitting a pair of aces

How the blackjack game is played:

VIP Casino Blackjack is played with eight fifty-two card decks. After each game has been played, the used cards are shuffled back into the deck. All face cards are valued at ten and the cards from 2-10 are valued as indicated. Aces can be valued at either one or eleven; if counting the ace as eleven would put the hand over twenty-one, the ace is automatically counted as one instead. You do not need to specify which value the Ace has as it's always assumed to have the value that makes the best hand. The value of a hand is the sum of the values of the individual cards. For example, a hand containing a Jack, 3, and 4 has a value of 17.

Betting and Winning:

Your chips are stacked by denomination ($1, $5, $25, $100, $500) at the bottom of the screen. Select the amount you would like to wager on a given hand by clicking on the chip of that denomination. The amount wagered per hand may be increased or decreased by placing the mouse on the stack that you wish to add or subtract to your bet. Each time you click the left mouse button you will add a chip from that pile to your planned wager amount. Likewise by clicking on the right mouse button you can decrease your planned wager amount. You may repeat your last bet by simply hitting the "0" button of your numeric keyboard.

Hit:

Requests another card. You can request a hit as many times as you like, but if your total goes over twenty-one, you will Bust and lose the hand.

Stand:

Requests that you receive no more cards. The hand as it currently stands will be judged against the dealers.

Split:

You can split hands and play each hand separately. Your original bet will be duplicated for the new hand. Each hand will be played out as usual except when splitting aces, where only one additional card per hand is dealt. A pointing finger will appear over each hand indicating which hand is active. The split option can only be used once per hand -- you cannot split part of a split hand. Any winning 21 obtained after splitting a pair is paid 1 to 1.

Double Down:

If you select this option, two things will happen: you will get exactly one more card, your turn will end, and your bet will be doubled.

Insurance:

Whenever the dealer's up-card is an ace, the player has an option of taking insurance. The player may opt to take insurance by clicking on the "Insurance" button. If you do not wish to take insurance, you simply click on the "Pass" button to proceed with the rest of the hand. If the player believes that the dealer's down-card is a 10 ranking card, then the player is permitted to place a side bet of half the original wager as insurance. If the dealer does have a 10 ranking card, the player is immediately paid 2-to-1 on the insurance bet, but the original wager is lost unless the player too has a blackjack and pushes with the dealer. Here the player is simply betting that the dealer's unseen card is a 10 valued card.

Winnings:

If you win the hand, you will get back your original bet plus the same amount in profit. A hand that consists of an Ace and any ten value card is called a natural twenty-one, or a natural blackjack. If you win with a natural blackjack, you will be paid off at three-to-two, which means you get your original bet back plus 150% profit. (So if you bet $50 and win with a natural twenty-one, you get $50 (your bet) plus $75 (your bet plus half of your bet), which totals to $125.

Basic Blackjack Strategy Tables

Basic blackjack strategy is defined as the proper play of cards knowing only your hand and the dealer's exposed card. It does not involve card counting (an advantage lost in playing VIP Casino with 8 decks reshuffled after each hand) or remembering which cards were played previously. The basic blackjack strategy is created through intensive computer simulations which perform a complete combinatorial analysis. In this method, the computer "plays" tens of thousands of hands for each Blackjack situation possible and statistically decides which decision best favors the player.

Basic strategy is usually printed as tables with the dealer's up card the first row and your two card combination the first column. The other entries in the table tell you what to do (Stand, Hit, Double-Down, Split) with the different combinations of dealer and player's hands. Basic blackjack strategy tables for VIP Casino rules (8 decks, dealer stands on 17, double-down on any two cards, double after split allowed, no re-splitting of cards allowed, no surrender) are shown below for hard totals, soft totals, and pairs along with a legend:

Legend:

• S - Stand
• H - Hit
• D - Double
• Y - Yes, split
• N - No, don't split

Hard Totals:

Soft Totals:

Pairs:

For further information on blackjack, these books provide excellent additional reference material:

1. Carlson, Bryce. Blackjack for Blood, Compustar Press, 1992.
2. Humble, Lance and Cooper, Carl. The World's Greatest Blackjack Book, Doubleday, 1987.
3. Scoblete, Frank. Best Blackjack, Bonus Books, 1996.
4. Uston, Ken. Million Dollar Blackjack, Carol Publishing Group, 1994.
5. Tamburin, Henry. Reference Guide to Casino Gambling, Research Services Unlimited, 1993

Key words for this page:
Black Jack Casino Gaming, Black Jack Single Player Rules