Words of caution

The odds

Playing Hit or Stand will improve your strategy, and improve your chances of winning money. But unless you count cards the odds of Blackjack are against you even if you play perfectly. Chance may fall your way for a while; the rule still holds — the more you gamble, the more you lose.

Gambling addiction

Gambling is addictive. Really. If you find yourself spending an unreasonable amount of time in casinos, or if gambling is having a bad effect on your life or your finances, get help. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, and Gamblers Anonymous is a good place to start.

Counting cards

Counting cards can put the odds of Blackjack in your favour, but it asks an enormous amount of you: it is difficult to learn and slow to play. Be sceptical of what you read about it — a great many of the books and websites that teach counting are selling something, and they have every reason to make it sound easy and profitable. Note too that online Blackjack shuffles after every deal, so there is nothing there to count.

Gambling can be fun and harmless, as long as you expect to lose. Treat what you lose as the ticket price for a night out.

Blackjack rules

Hit or Stand is based on the multiple-deck rules of the large Atlantic City and Las Vegas casinos. Rules vary from house to house, which is what makes learning strategy complicated — but many correct moves are fundamental enough that they never change, and most large casinos sit close to one of those two.

The basics

• The goal is to beat the dealer’s hand without going over 21.
• Face cards are worth 10. An ace is worth 1 or 11, whichever makes the better hand.
• Everyone starts with two cards. One of the dealer’s stays hidden until the end.
• To hit is to ask for another card. To stand is to keep your total and end your turn.
• Go over 21 and you bust: the dealer wins, whatever they are holding.
• Two cards making 21 — an ace and a ten — is a Blackjack, and usually pays one and a half times your bet.
• The dealer hits until reaching 17 or more, then stands.
• Double is a hit with the bet doubled, and you get exactly one more card.
• Split turns a pair into two hands. It doubles your bet, because each new hand carries the original one.
• You can only double or split on a first move — including the first move of a hand made by a split.
• Split aces take one card each and are then finished.

The house rules this game deals by

Six decks, the dealer stands on soft 17, no surrender, Blackjack pays 3 to 2, and a pair can be split once. The two rule sets the game teaches differ in a single thing: Atlantic City lets you double a hand that came from a split, and Las Vegas does not. That one difference is what moves the seven marked cells in the tables below.

Blackjack strategy

These are the tables Hit or Stand judges your moves against. A move that is correct on either one is accepted, and the two differ only in the seven marked cells — all of them pairs.

Using them will not make you money. The odds stay against you. The only way to turn them is to count cards, which is a large subject of its own.

• H hit
• S stand
• D double
• P split
• the two tables disagree