If you’re new to the game of blackjack then there are a couple of important things to remember before you go hell for leather at the table. Blackjack isn’t a game of luck; knowing how to play the game, using developed strategies and tips will all give you an advantage over the house. 

The casino or house has a 2%-3% advantage at the Blackjack table which believe it or not is pretty good given the house advantage over some of the other casino games. But, despite this low advantage, blackjack tables are the second highest source of revenue for casinos. This seems a little strange – how exactly does a game with such good odds for players bring in so much revenue for the casino?

The answer is simple – players make too many mistakes, through arrogance, ignorance or plain errors. Because the odds are in the players favour, many tend to go out with a ‘beat the house’ attitude and end up losing instead. When enough people play this way the errors mount up and so does the casino revenue!

As a beginner you do not want to fall into this trap so remember these tips:

• Find a table whose minimum is no more than 5% of you total stash – if you have £20 to play with then make sure that the minimum you can play with is £1 per hand.
• Since the dealer has to hit (take a card) on any hand 16 or lower, you’ll never win with less than 17 unless the dealer busts.
• Take a hit on your hand below 17 when the dealer shows Ace, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 or 7
• If you are dealt two cards of the same value, you may “split” them, doubling your bet and playing two hands.
• Never split 10′s or 5′s.
• Always split 8′s or 7′s against a dealer’s card of equal or lower value.

These are only meant as basic beginner tips – if you’ve already gotten a handle on the game you should move on to more advance tips, also available in this section.

In a Blackjack game you can follow basic strategy to reduce the houses edge on the game. Use the chart below to work out whether you should HIT, STAND or DOUBLE DOWN. Using this basic Blackjack strategy doesn’t guarantee a win everytime! but it has been mathematically proven to be the correct course of action during a hand.

To work out if you should ‘Hit’ or ‘Stand’ you need to look across the row of small cards to the right of ‘your hand’ under each of the dealers card is a coloured bar. Depending on the colour under the dealers hand you should either ‘Stand’ ‘Hit’ or ‘Double’.

You can print out this guide to basic Blackjack strategy ~ just click on the image above it will open in a new window and you can print it from there.

Blackjack has consistently been one of the most popular casino games in the world. Blackjack’s origins can be traced back to 16th century Spanish card game “veintiuna” which translates as 21. When the game was first introduced into America it wasn’t very popular. American casinos decided to add a bonus payment to players with hands containing an Ace and any Black Jack, the big bonus payments eventually died out but the name ‘Blackjack’ stuck like glue.

In this section of ‘Blackjack Tips’ we are going to take you through everything you need to learn about playing Blackjack. Our free guide will give you a general overview of the game, details on the rules, how to value the cards and some great tips to help you play better Blackjack and identify the mistakes you need to avoid.

Learning to play Blackjack is essentially very easy, learning to win at Blackjack is a little harder but it can still be done by anybody armed with a little knowledge and basic maths skills. Most people have a good understanding of how a Blackjack is play, if you don’t then you should check out the ‘Blackjack Rules’ section first – Click Here.