Learn Blackjack
Blackjack has a fairly simple set of rules, many of which are certainly easy enough for anyone to pick up, and you could learn to play like a pro in as little as a few sessions…well, almost. In any case, while actually playing blackjack like a pro would require a bit more time than that, you should be able to manage pretty well after a few weeks of playing.
Blackjack Basics
For anyone who is trying to learn to play blackjack, one of the first things to learn is that the natural hand–that is the 10, the Jack, the Queen and the King cards, coupled with an Ace–is the most powerful hand in the game. This hand will beat out any hand that the dealer can come up with, unless he or she has a natural as well, of course.
Easy enough, right? Another important aspect to get straight when you want to learn blackjack is value of all the cards used in the game. The numbered cards are easy enough to figure out, since they have the same value as indicated. The values of the face cards are also quite easy to remember, since they are all equivalent to 10.
As for the Ace, one of the first things you will find out when you learn blackjack is that this card can have a value of either 1 or 11. This allows players to use the Ace card in any way that he or she feels will be most beneficial. With a hand comprised of a 10 and an 8 for instance, assigning the Ace card a value of 11 would result in a bust. Use the Ace as a 1 however, and you have a pretty respectable hand with a fairly hard-to-beat value of 19.
That’s pretty much the most complicated thing to learn regarding the different hand values, and once you get that down, you have managed to learn blackjack as much as you need to play a few games.
Practice Blackjack Online
A good way to learn blackjack quickly is to join in on a few games in an online casino. This will give you experience with real world blackjack scenarios and common dealer practices such as how the cards are dealt and what your options are at that point. For instance, in most casinos, the dealer will deal out the cards face up (a notable exception is in Pontoon blackjack wherein the cards are dealt face down). The dealer then gets two cards as well, with one card facing down and one card with the face exposed.
It may also be helpful to learn blackjack in terms of what you can do with the hand that is dealt to you. When you first start to learn blackjack, you will probably want to "hit" or "stand" most often. Asking for a hit simply means asking for another card in order to get a hand total that is closer to 21…hopefully without going over. When you stand on the other hand, you indicate to the dealer that you are satisfied with your present hand and have no desire for any other cards.
