The Casino game Blackjack, aka 21, is one of the easiest gambling games to learn, of course with regard to basic playing skills. Even if you’ve had one too many Labatt’s or had a long day at work and can’t focus, you can still relax and enjoy a game of blackjack thanks to the very simple rules.

The first thing to realize is that each card in the pack has a numerical value. Most of the cards carry the value that is written on their faces, while the Jack, King and Queen have the value of 10 and an ace can mean either 1 or 11 according to the will of the player.

In blackjack, the game of each player takes place separately against the dealer and not against other players.

The goal is to obtain cards with an aggregated value larger than the dealer’s cards, but the value shouldn’t exceed 21. When the aggregated value exceeds 21, the player loses automatically.

At the beginning of the game, the dealer deals two cards to each one of the players, and after each player had obtained his cards, the dealer exposes his first cards in front of other players.

At this point, each player must make his own calculations and decide whether he wants to ask for another card from the pack in order to increase the aggregated value, or to stick to the cards dealt to him in order to not take the risk of exceeding 21. This is a precarious decision for most players and is often the difference between winning and losing.

It’s important to remember that no matter if you play internet blackjack or traditional black jack, there is no limit on the number of cards that a player can pull out of the pack – but he should be careful not to exceed 21. For the dealer, on the other hand, the rules are different – after the players have made their decisions, the dealer is required to keep on pulling cards until he reaches 16 or more. For players who have only played blackjack at home in Canada and haven’t had the opportunity to play abroad or with friends from other countries, be aware that there are different rules out there and it’s good to clarify what they are before getting started.

After the dealer pulls the extra cards, in accordance with the rules, the player closest to 21 is pronounced the winner. In blackjack, winning actually multiplies the placed bet and losing means that the dealer gets your chips, instead of another player! Remember that you play blackjack against the dealer and not against other players.

In every article you read on internet blackjack, the first thing you are being told is that this is one of the easiest games to play, because it’s so easy to understand. While this might be true for an amateur, for those players who are willing to go deeper it is perfectly clear that blackjack is a very mathematical game and that your chances of winning go up once you know how to make the right calculations.

In order to succeed at blackjack, you must use a mathematical method called card counting. While this is not directly outlawed by all Canadian casinos, some institutions will kick you out if you get caught, so be careful.

The method is based on knowing how many cards of each kind are in the pack by knowing which cards have already been pulled. This enabled us to calculate the chance of pulling a certain card.

When we are dealing with counting, the trick is not to precisely count each card, but rather to classify the different cards in the pack to different groups and then count the groups. The groups are +1, -1 and 0.

The cards carrying the values 2-6 are assigned to group +1. The tens and royalty are assigned a -1, and 7-9 are assigned 0. Eventually, if you count all the cards in the pack, you will find that the sum is 0. According to this classification you can calculate the chances of pulling cards from each group and act accordingly.

For example, if you are playing Casino Blackjack at a regular or online casino and the dealer has pulled an ace and there aren’t many cards from the -1 group on the table, then there is a very good chance that the next card pulled by the dealer would give him a blackjack (exactly 21). In this situation, you can only win if you reach the same score. This is why, after calculating probabilities, you can say that the best solution is to ask for insurance – you lose half of the bet to the casino if you don’t get the result that you expect, but since the bet favours the dealer, the chances are you will avoid losing the full amount and eventually neither win nor lose.

Many, if not most, Canadians will feel conflicted about counting cards as it falls into a grey area between fair play and cheating, not to mention it can take some of the excitement out of the game for people who don’t enjoy the counting process. If you feel like this, don’t hesitate to enjoy the game your way instead!