Place a bet and receive cards
Choose a stake before the deal. You receive two cards. The dealer receives one card face up and one hidden card. This table checks whether either side already has a natural blackjack before you make another decision.
Comparing · Casino banking · 2+ players
Blackjack.
Also known as Twenty-One
Get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. Choose when to take another card, keep what you have, double your stake or divide a pair.
D
Dealer—
Place your bet
One stake per hand. This table pays a natural blackjack 3:2.
Choose a virtual-chip stake and deal.
Y
YouOne hand, or two after a split
01 How to play
Aim for 21.
Beat the dealer.
Blackjack is played against the dealer, even when several people sit at the same table. Each player has a separate wager and hand. The playable table above seats one human player against the dealer with virtual chips.
Count your hand
Number cards count their printed value. Jacks, Queens and Kings count 10. Each Ace counts as 11 unless that would make the hand exceed 21, when it counts as 1 instead. A hand containing an Ace counted as 11 is called soft. More than 21 is a bust and loses that wager immediately.
Hit or stand
Hit to draw another card. Stand to keep your current total and end your turn on that hand. You can hit repeatedly until you stand, reach 21 or bust. After you finish, the dealer reveals the hidden card and draws until reaching at least 17. Here the dealer stands even on a soft 17.
Double down
On your first two cards, add a second wager equal to the first, receive exactly one more card, then stand automatically. This table allows doubling on any first two cards, including a hand created by a split, if you have enough virtual chips.
Split a pair
If your first two cards have the same rank, pay a second wager and turn them into two separate hands. Each receives a new card and is played in turn. This table allows up to four hands and does not resplit Aces. Split Aces get only one further card each. A 21 made after a split is a normal 21, not a natural blackjack.
Compare and pay
If the dealer busts, each player hand that did not bust wins. Otherwise a higher total wins and a lower total loses. An equal total is a push: the original wager is returned. An initial Ace with any 10-value card is a natural blackjack; it beats a non-natural 21 and pays 3:2, unless the dealer also has blackjack, when it pushes. Ordinary wins pay 1:1.
Table variations
Blackjack rules differ between tables. Some dealers hit soft 17; some games use one or eight decks instead of six; split and double restrictions vary. Insurance and surrender are optional casino features and are not offered on this practice table. Check the printed rules before playing elsewhere.
02 History & variants
From twenty-one
to blackjack.
An older family of games
Blackjack developed from twenty-one games played in Europe. An early account of the Spanish game veintiuno appears in writing associated with Miguel de Cervantes at the start of the seventeenth century. Related games later appeared in France, Britain and North America. The exact beginning of twenty-one is not known.
The modern blackjack name emerged in the United States around the end of the nineteenth century. The familiar story that a special Ace of Spades and black Jack bonus created the name is disputed; historical evidence for that bonus is lacking.
Different tables, different odds
Modern tables can change the number of decks, the dealer's soft-17 rule, the blackjack payout and whether splitting or surrender is allowed. Those details alter both decisions and payouts, so this page states its chosen rules above the game. A six-deck shoe and 3:2 natural payout make the examples here consistent from round to round.
Blackjack is a comparing game: each player competes with the dealer, and another player's total does not directly beat yours. The online version uses virtual chips only, so you can learn what hit, stand, double and split do before trying the game with a physical deck.