There are 52 cards in a standard deck of playing cards. This includes the face cards – 10, J, Q, K, A, and 2.
The Ace is the highest card and the King is the Lowest card. .
The face cards are worth 1 point each and are considered to be the “base” or “heart” of the deck. Other than that, each card is worth its face value.
For example, an Ace is worth 1 point, a 2 is worth two points, and so on.
In blackjack, each player takes turns placing bets (e.g., $2 per player) on either the number of cards they think will be drawn (e.g., an Ace or Ten), or on whether they think the dealer’s hand will total 21 (a “hard” hand).
If someone bets on whether the dealer’s hand will total 21, then they are also playing “21” (or “full-house”). If someone bets on whether the number of cards will be drawn, then they are playing “over/under”.
If someone thinks that there will be more than 21 cards drawn in the deck (an “over” bet), then they must add up all of their bet amounts (e.g., $2 + $4 = $6) and put this amount into the blackjack table as their wager.
Similarly, if someone thinks that there will be less than 21 cards drawn in the deck (a “under” bet), then they must subtract their bet amount from 21 (e.g., if they bet $2 under and there are actually 23 cards in the deck – their total bet would be $1).
Once all players have placed their bets, each dealer flips over 3 cards from their own hand – these are known as their up-card(s). These 3 cards determine which player’s first bet goes into the pot and which player’s second bet goes into the pot.
After everyone has had a chance to look at their up-card(s), each dealer flips over one more card from their own hand – this is known as their down-card(s). This last card determines which player’s third bet goes into the pot and which player’s second bet goes into the pot.
After everyone has had a chance to look at their down-card(s), each player reveals their hands one at a time and starts counting out how many points they believe each of those 8 cards represent (e.g., if someone has a 2nd card that represents 10 points in blackjack, that person would say out loud 10 while counting out 2 chips from their stack).
The person with the Lowest score after all 8 cards have been counted out is the winner of that particular round of blackjack!.
