Blackjack is one of those great casino games where the only person, aside from yourself, that you need to be concerned about is the dealer. Other players at the table have nothing to do with you and you will never be playing against them as each of you plays solely against the house.

The basic premise of blackjack is that you get closer to 21 than the dealer, without going over. Both you and the dealer get dealt two cards each, the only difference being that one of the dealer’s is turned down so you can’t see it. You then decide if you want to ‘Stand’ or ‘Hit’ i.e. if you think you’re as close to 21 without going over you stand and if you think another card would help you increase your total then you take a hit. The biggest mistake people make when playing blackjack is trying to get 21! To win at blackjack you only have to beat the dealer, often you can win a hand with low cards like 14 or 12. Remember the dealer has to take a card until he reaches 17 (the minimum a dealer can stand on) so if the dealer is showing a face card and a 6, chances are he’s going to have to draw another card and go bust!

There are many variations of blackjack that you can play – the most obvious difference between them being the number of decks the tables use. For example, Reno blackjack uses one deck of cards but Atlantic City or Spanish 21 uses six.

Most games of blackjack are now played with six decks of 52 cards, contained in a shoe and to have a go without losing the shirt off your back, why not play for fun!