Online blackjack is sure to be among the most popular casino games all over the world. The popularity came to this game during the WWI.

According to one of the theories, the name Blackjack was born from the picture with the player who was holding in his hand an ace of spades together with a jack of spades or clubs. The other version says that the name came from the bonus payout. Those times some casinos got additional bonuses for the player with a blackjack consisted of the jack of spades or clubs. Today the situation is different and such a combination doesn’t give you any extra payments.

Blackjack is often called a counting game, because it is based on the value of every card from 2 to 10, the face cards that are jacks, queens and kings are calculated as 10 points, Aces can count 1 or 11, depending on the situation which is more favorable for a player. The purpose of the game is to form a hand with the max card value that is near 21 and not more. Every player plays only against the dealer, he should not pay any attention to any other player while he is playing. A player beats the dealer when the player’s hand is closer to 21 than the hand of the dealer.

First the player puts a bet, after that 2 cards are dealt by the dealer to himself, one of them is dealt face down and the second face up so all who are sitting at the blackjack table can see. Then he deals two cards to every player. The players’ cards are dealt face up or down, since it doesn’t matter too much for the players, they may see the cards of each other as they play against the dealer.

When a player busts (the value of the hand is more than 21), the dealer wins even though he also busts. A player can take as many cards as he wants until he stands or busts. When the player and the dealer have hands with the exactly equal value, this is a “push”. Then nobody wins or loses. When the value of first 2 cards are 21 (it is an ace and a face card or 10) this combination is known as Blackjack, and beats any other hands, regardless of the fact that a hand can also have 21 but is made up of more than 2 cards. The player’s blackjack (when the dealer doesn’t have it) gives the player 3 to 2 of his original bet. For instance, if the player made a $10 bet and has a blackjack, then he gets $15. When both the dealer and the player get blackjack it is a push and they have even money.

One of the things that attract players to the game is that it has the smaller house edge comparing with other games.