Blackjack

How to Play Blackjack

Blackjack is a race to 21 against the dealer. Number cards count face value, jacks, queens, and kings count 10, and aces count 1 or 11 - whichever helps you more. Place a bet with the chip buttons, hit Deal, and you receive two cards face up while the dealer gets one up and one face down. From there you can Hit for another card, Stand to keep your total, Double to double your bet in exchange for exactly one more card, or Split a matching pair into two separate hands. Go over 21 and you bust immediately; otherwise the dealer reveals the hole card and must draw to 17, standing on all 17s including soft 17. An ace plus a ten-value card on the deal is a blackjack and pays 3:2. This table uses a six-deck shoe and offers no insurance bet - which is no loss, since insurance is a losing wager anyway.

You start with 1,000 chips, and your best chip stack is what lands on the leaderboard. If you go broke, a rebuy resets you to 1,000 - but your recorded high score is always the biggest stack you've ever built.

Strategy Tips

• Learn basic strategy, or lean on the hint button - every hand has one mathematically best play. The built-in hint shows the correct basic-strategy move for a six-deck, stand-on-soft-17 game.
• Always split aces and eights - a pair of aces is two chances at 21, and 16 is the worst total in the game. Splitting turns both into fresh starts.
• Never split tens or fives - 20 is nearly unbeatable as it stands, and a pair of fives is really a 10 that wants to be doubled, not two weak hands.
• Double down on 11 - you can't bust, and roughly one card in three gives you 21. Double 10 against anything except a dealer 10 or ace.
• Respect the dealer's upcard - stand on stiff totals (12-16) when the dealer shows 2-6, because the dealer is likely to bust. Keep hitting those same totals against 7 or higher.
• Bet a fixed fraction of your stack - blackjack is streaky. Wagering around 2-5% of your chips per hand keeps a cold run from wiping you out.

Playing Blackjack on PlayVersusAI

Casino blackjack against a dealer who follows fixed house rules. You are dealt two cards, decide whether to hit, stand, double down or split, and try to get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. Aces count as one or eleven, whichever helps.

This is played with chips for score and nothing else. There is no real money involved anywhere on this site — no deposits, no purchases, no cash-out, and no way to convert chips into anything. It is here as a card game and a probability exercise. An optional hint system will tell you what basic strategy recommends for the hand in front of you, which is a genuinely good way to learn why the correct play is so often counter-intuitive.

What's on This Page

• High-score table — highest scores are ranked on the global leaderboard when you are signed in.
• No account required — the full game is playable as a guest, on desktop, tablet or phone.

There is no AI difficulty setting here, because the dealer is not an opponent making choices — it follows fixed rules, drawing to a set total and standing thereafter. The only decisions in the game are yours, which is exactly what makes basic strategy learnable.

Mistakes That Lose Games

• Standing on a low total because you are afraid of busting. Against a dealer showing a high card, hitting a stiff hand is correct far more often than instinct suggests.
• Never splitting or doubling. These are the two plays that shift the odds in your favour. Declining them permanently is the single most expensive habit in blackjack.
• Taking insurance. It is a side bet with a poor expected return regardless of what you hold, and basic strategy declines it every time.
• Assuming the next card is "due". The deck has no memory. A run of low cards changes nothing about the next one beyond what card counting can tell you.

Blackjack Questions

For the complete rules, the deeper strategy and the history of the game, read the full Blackjack guide, or browse guides for all 20 games.