Classic Blackjack: Reaching for 21
If you haven’t heard of Blackjack, it is quite likely that you grew up under a rock. No matter how little gambling or card game experience one may have, the word “Blackjack” always recalls the image of a player striving to attain a pair of playing cards who values equals – or is as close to as possible – 21. Though there are various combinations of cards which are most desirable, the goal is to get closer to 21 than the dealer. If you manage to beat the dealer’s hand, then you win the game, pure and simple. What follows is a quick description of Classic Blackjack’s characteristics and rules.Classic Blackjack Rules
In Classic Blackjack, each of the cards between 2 and 10 is assigned the value of that number. Face cards (that is, Jacks, Queens, or Kings) hold values of 10, while the Ace gets a value of either one or eleven.To start the game, the dealer and the player are each initially given two cards. The player may then draw as many as nine cards in his or her attempt to reach 21. If those cards in the end exceed 21, the hand is called a “bust” in which case the player loses the money bet. If the player does in fact draw all nine cards (without exceeding 21), he or she must stand and the dealer displays his or her cards for comparison. The player also has the option of playing a “double down” – that is, doubling his or her bet on a hand of 9, 10, or 11, and then drawing one more card before standing. If the first two cards that the player draws are of the same denomination (i.e. two sevens, or two queens – but the same denomination rather than the same value), then the player has the option in the beginning of splitting the initial hand to create two separate hands. This is called a “split” and the player must place an equal bet on the second hand. However, if the player splits an Ace and then receives a card with a value of ten, this hand will not count as a “blackjack.”
Now, the best hand in Classic Blackjack is called a “natural” (also called “blackjack”) – an Ace plus a card holding a value of 10. This hand is all but unbeatable; that is, even if the player has cards the sum of whose values equals 21, the dealer holding the “blackjack” hand still wins the game.
Classic Blackjack Puts the “Class” in the Game
Classic Blackjack undoubtedly lives up to its name. Aside from being the traditional form of the game, it is also the form of Blackjack most commonly played. Essentially, that makes it the most popular form of Blackjack anywhere. And just as every game ever known to man has been digitalized and made conveniently accessible thanks to the Internet; your access to this game is virtually unlimited. Want to be classy, too? Try it now.Try Microgaming Keno!"
