Play Blackjack
Free play · virtual chips with no cash value · nothing to buy
Setting the table…
How to play Blackjack
Blackjack is a race to 21 against the dealer — and only against the dealer. You are dealt two cards face up, the dealer takes one face up and one face down, and from there you decide how many more cards to take. Get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over and you win the hand. Go over 21 and you lose it immediately, whatever the dealer holds.
That last point is what makes the game: the dealer plays last, so every card you take is a bet against busting before you ever see the hand you are trying to beat.
What the cards are worth
Number cards are worth their number. Jacks, Queens and Kings are all worth 10. An Ace is worth 11 or 1, whichever helps you more — and it changes as you draw.
A hand holding an Ace still counted as 11 is called soft, because it cannot bust: an Ace–6 is a “soft 17”, and if you draw a 9 it quietly becomes a hard 16 instead of a bust. Suits never matter in Blackjack.
Your four moves
Hit
Take another card. You can keep hitting as long as you are under 21. Go over and the hand is over at once — the dealer does not even have to play.
Stand
Keep what you have and pass to the dealer. If you have several hands from a split, standing moves you on to the next one.
Double
Double your bet in exchange for exactly one more card, then you must stand. It is offered on your first two cards — including after a split — and is the move for a strong start like 10 or 11 against a weak dealer card.
Split
If your two cards are the same rank, split them into two separate hands, each with its own bet, and take a new second card for each. You can go on splitting up to four hands in one round.
Blackjack — the natural
An Ace with any ten-value card on your first two cards is a Blackjack, also called a natural. It beats any ordinary 21 and pays 3:2 — three chips for every two you staked, so a 10-chip bet returns 15 in winnings.
Reaching 21 later, or on a hand made by splitting, is an ordinary 21: it still wins, but it pays even money, and against a dealer’s natural it loses. If you and the dealer both have naturals, the hand is a push — a tie — and your bet comes back untouched.
Insurance and the dealer’s peek
When the dealer’s up card is an Ace, you are offered insurance: a side bet of up to half your original stake that the face-down card completes a natural. If it does, insurance pays 2:1 while your main hand loses, and you come out even overall. If it does not, the insurance stake is gone and the hand plays on normally.
Once insurance is settled, the dealer peeks at the face-down card whenever the up card is an Ace or a ten. If it is a natural, the round ends there and then — nobody is asked to double or split into a hand that was already beaten. If it is not, the card stays face down and play continues as usual.
How the dealer plays
The dealer has no choices at all. Once every player hand is finished, the face-down card is turned over and the dealer draws to 16 and stands on 17 or more — including soft 17, an Ace and a 6, which this table stands on. If the dealer goes over 21, every hand still standing wins.
The rules at this table
- Decks
- Six, dealt from a shoe
- Dealer stands on
- Soft 17 (S17)
- Blackjack pays
- 3:2
- Double
- Any first two cards
- Double after split
- Allowed
- Splitting
- Up to four hands
- Split Aces
- One card each, no re-splitting
- Insurance
- Offered on a dealer Ace, pays 2:1
- Surrender
- Not offered
- Table limits
- 5 to 250 chips per hand
These are one common set of rules, not the only ones. Blackjack varies from table to table and country to country — some deal from one or two decks, some have the dealer draw on soft 17, some pay 6:5 on a natural, some allow surrender or re-splitting Aces. Every variation changes the odds a little, so it is always worth reading the table you sit down at.
The chips
Blackjack at PlayCards is free play. You sit down with 1,000 virtual chips, and those chips have no cash value. There is nothing to buy, nothing to deposit, nothing to withdraw and nothing to win but the hand. If you run out, the table simply gives you another 1,000 — free, instantly, with no conditions attached.
Your chips, your shoe and your statistics stay in this browser. No account, no sign-up, and nothing follows you anywhere else.
If you are just starting
- Watch the dealer’s up card before your own total. A 2 through 6 showing means the dealer is far more likely to bust, so there is less reason for you to risk it.
- Never take a card on a hard 17 or better — the only cards that do not bust you are the four ranks below a 5.
- Always split Aces and 8s; never split 10s or 5s. Two 8s make a 16, the worst hand in the game, while two 10s already make a 20.
- Insurance is its own bet, and it loses more often than it wins. Plenty of experienced players simply never take it.
Blackjack is part of the PlayCards table, alongside classic Klondike Solitaire and FreeCell — all free, all in the browser, all without an account.