How to Play Blackjack

Brian Tracey: Hey everybody. Welcome to Players World Casino where everybody is a player. I'm Brian Tracey and this is my partner Dana West. Hi Dana.

Dana West: Hi.

Brian Tracey: How are you doing? You look absolutely gorgeous as always.

Dana West: Thank you very much. You know how they have they have those casino with slot of host walking around the floor. Well, that’s us.

Brian Tracey: That would be us. Now, we’re going to be playing Blackjack a little bit later.

Dana West: We sure are.

Brian Tracey: Are you feeling lucky?

Dana West: I’m always feeling lucky. You know what; I have my little lucky rabbit’s foot right here. I’ve also got my lucky two-dollar bill right here. I’ve got my lucky horse shoe, right here.

Brian Tracey: Just happen to have it on you?

Dana West: I just happen to have it. I’m going to win and I’ve also got my lucky anklet which is right here.

Brian Tracey: I think we can look for that a little bit later on.

Dana West: Alright. Well, do you have any lucky charms?

Brian Tracey: Actually, I don’t any, you know why?

Dana West: Why?

Brian Tracey: Because I've got you.

Dana West: Isn’t that sweet?

Brian Tracey: You’re my lucky charm.

Dana West: Thank you. Well, anyway last night I ran into my friend Jack Black PI.

Brian Tracey: Now he’s a detective type that kind of runs around and tries to solve the mystery of how all these games are played, right?

Dana West: Exactly. This time he has got himself in a real jam. He’s trying to remember the history of Blackjack. Take a look at this. Get another gripping episode of Jack Black, PI.

Male: I was working my last hand of Blackjack. I put down a substantial bet that could buy the lady that mensch at the keepers arm. Problem was my hand was a stiff 16 and my power to conscience is more than a seven. All he wanted to know was one thing, stand or hit. I had no clue, I thought, what would the pioneers of this game have done. The images flashed through my mind like an old movie, how Blackjack also called 21 developed in 19th century in America with its origin to the French game Vingt-Un.

The Italian game Baccarat and the Spanish game 30 in 1 --. Then I remembered how the adieus crank up although the current game was from the back room casinos and Indiana racetracks over the century. That was on the good old days when they raised to pay the five-buck bonus for a two-card 21. These are good Jack of spades or clubs, given the game it's name. Still didn’t help me with my problem.

Then it hit me like the fist of a showgirl’s boyfriend, I remembered how in 1956, then Maryland. Four engineers analyzed tens of thousands of Blackjack hands on primitive calculators and they came up with a chart of best strategies. I was elated. I can picture the scene as clear as day. But chart however, remained a fuzzy blur.

I would’ve killed to get my hands on one of those consoles with the chart on it. But unfortunately the gift shop was closed. So I was on my own. I know I should’ve watched the Players Network. Alright, bud. I’ve made my decision, this is for my lady.

Dana West: You know I wonder if Jack’s woman got the mink. Do you think?

Brian Tracey: I don’t know, I supposed we’ll never know but I’d be willing to bet that she did get it.

Dana West: I wonder.

Brian Tracey: You know unlike Jack your Blackjack game, doesn’t really have to be a crab shoe. All you really need to do is to know a little bit more about the game and it really will increase your chances of winning. Justin Priestley is going to give us a scoop on the basics of Blackjack.

Justin: It's the question of the heart of Blackjack, should you stand or should you hit? The object of the game is to beat the dealer without going over 21. So sit down at a table after checking out the minimum bet. Say hi to the dealer, buy some chips and ask him where he’s from. Hi there.

Male: Hi.

Justin: Can I buy some chips please?

Male: Sure.

Justin: Where are you from?

Male: Oklahoma.

Justin: Oklahoma is okay. So you want to make friends with the dealer so he gives you some good cards. Thank you. Now, place your bet and he’ll deal. Either from his hand if he’s got one or two decks or from a shoe that’s four or six or eight decks. Now, he deals from the first base to the third base. See it's like a baseball diamond and you, the player are at the back.

The first base is on your right. The third base is on your left. Now, the dealer is one card faced down, that’s called the hole card and one card faced up, that’s the up card. Now, look at your own cards. If you want to hit, do what I call the point and if you want to stand, do the chop. Now, many casinos deal your cards faced down, that’s exactly the same game, just different customs. If so, pick them up and just use one hand please and look at them.

And if you want to hit, do the scratch, if you want to stand do the tuck. Okay, now, you know the etiquette, let's play. Face cards are worth 10 and the aces are worth one or eleven. So let's say you have to face cards, congratulations that’s twenty, an extremely strong hand. And it's pretty unlikely the dealer’s going to beat that, so you stand.

Now, the dealer must deal himself until he gets at least 17. If he gets 17, 18, or 19 on his hand, you win even money. If he gets 20, you push and your bet isn’t touched. If he gets 21, you loose your bet. But if he goes over 21, he blasts and you win even money.

Now, if you’re dealt an ace and a 10 or a face card, you’ve got a Blackjack and you’re paid three to two. That is unless the dealer is too nervy to deal himself a Blackjack, in which case, it's a push. By the way, the dealer would love if you gave him a toke that means a tip in this town after you get a Blackjack. Put a tip right here and now it's in play for the next hand. You double your money. He doubles his toke. Dealers love tokes, right?

Male: That’s right.

Justin: Now, the juicy part, strategy. There are five basic tips you should memorize. Tip number one, when you're holding a 17 through a 21, stand. You're already where you want to be. Tip number two, when your hand is a stiff which means a 12 through a 16 and the dealer is holding a weak card, anything from a two to a six, stand. The exception to that rule is if you have a 12 and he has a two then hit, just.

The lady of luck, the great spirit of Players World that helps everyone wins.

Female: I have a tip that’ll help your luck. Think 10, 10 appears more often than any other value comprising for out of the 13 denominations, you can assume the next card is likely to be a 10 because if the dealer is showing a two through a six, chances are he’ll bust. Because if his whole card is a 10 and first hit is a 10, he will wind up 22 through 26 and we know what that is, a bust. Good luck.

Justin: Thanks lady luck. Okay, continuing with our tips. Tip number three, when your hand is a stiff, a 12 through a 16 and the dealer is showing a strong card, seven, eight, nine, 10 or ace, hit. He has a good chance of getting a 10, so you’ve got to take the chance to beat him. Tip four, when you’re holding a 10 or an 11 against the dealer’s two through nine, double down. How? Place any amount up to your original bet next to it, you’ll get just one card more.

If the chances are good, you’ll get a card worth 10 giving you 20 or 21. And tip number five, when you're dealt a pair of aces or a pair of eights split them. Throw down your cards and double your bet. Now, you have two hands with a good chance of winning on each.

Let’s go over those tips again. Tip one, when you're holding a 17 through 21, stand. Tip two, when your hand is a stiff, a 12 through a 16 and the dealer’s card is weak, two through six, stand. The exception, 12 of yours against the dealer’s two.

Tip three, when your hands a stiff and the dealer’s hand is strong, seven or over, hit. Tip four, double down if you have a 10 or 11 and the dealer has a nine or below. Tip five, split aces and eights. Now, tip on casinos have different customs. Sometimes you can double down only if you have a 10 or 11 and sometimes you can bail out of a scary hand by surrendering half your bet and keeping the other half. Ask the dealer.

A couple of more things for your gaming pleasure, first, attribute to the amazing ace. It starts out worth an 11 so an ace and a five is worth 16, it's called a soft 16. And you can take another card and if you go over 21, that ace is now worth one and you’ve got a second chance. And last, try to get your hands on one of these basic strategy charts, available in those gift shops as a card or in books about Blackjack.

It gives the exception to the tips I’ve mentioned and tells you have to get the mathematically best odds possible. If you memorize the basic strategy and play strictly by the chart, no hunches, you’ll reduce the house advantage to less than 1% making it one of the best bets in the joint. So have fun, good luck and study the chart. Study the chart.

Brian Tracey: Study the chart, study the chart, and study the chart.

Dana West: Brian, hello. Snap out of it.

Brian Tracey: Oh, I’m back.

Dana West: Hello. Welcome back.

Brian Tracey: I’m back.

Dana West: Nice to have you here.

Brian Tracey: Well, thank you.

Dana West: Like to talk about Blackjack?

Brian Tracey: Yeah. I love Blackjack.

Dana West: Alright. Blackjack is a game of strategy, right?

Brian Tracey: Right.

Dana West: Right. We have the players’ world, resident gaming expert Barney Vincent here.

Brian Tracey: Hi Barney, how are you doing?

Dana West: Nice to have you here.

Barney: Hi, thank you.

Dana West: Please help us out, we want to win.

Barney: First thing you want to do is learn the right way to play it. But then the thing is you don’t want to worry about your cards. What you want to do is worry about the dealer’s cards. Now, we’re assuming the dealer’s bottom card is a 10, so what do we assume the dealer has?

Dana West: Fifteen.

Brian Tracey: Fifteen, so do you want another card or do you want the dealer to take it?

Brian Tracey: Well, what would you normally do?

Dana West: Normally, I would hit. Normally I would hit.

Brian Tracey: But I think we’d probably shouldn’t.

Dana West: So we’re going to stay?

Barney: Right. You should. You want to make the dealer break. You’re not trying to make a good hand. You’re just trying to beat the dealer’s hand. So we’re assuming the dealer has 15, in this case he did and we’re assuming the next card will be another 10 and we’ll put him over 21. Well, it wasn’t a 10 but it was bad enough the dealer busted.

Brian Tracey: And it works, you know it works, very good. Barney, what about this game called Spanish 21?

Barney: It’s similar to a regular Blackjack except there are no tens in the deck. There are Jacks, Queens and Kings but no tens so you're playing with a 48-card deck instead of a 52-card deck. The neat thing about Spanish 21 is that you have all these different options where you get bonus pay-offs as you can see from the chart.

And another thing I like about Spanish 21 is a fact that if you get three suited sevens and the dealer is showing a seven, you get a jackpot of $1,000.00 and that every other player at the table gets a bonus jackpot or Indie jackpot of $50.00.

Brian Tracey: And I’ll bet they like that, right?

Dana West: I love that. This game sounds good. What about you mentioned the charts, is there two different charts with the same chart you can use for Spanish 21 and Blackjack?

Barney: No. There are two different charts. So what you have to do is study the chart.

Brian Tracey: Study the chart. Study the chart. Study the chart.

Dana West: Watch this. Let’s get down in the floor and boogie down. I’ve got a tide to show you. So come with us. I’m Dana West and for Brian Tracey. There’s no way you cannot play and you know what dance.