Blackjack is the most widely played of all casino games in the world, and its popularity in gaming houses has carried over to the world of online casinos. It is first recorded in print in the early 17th century in a story by Miguel deCervantes, author of Don Quixote, under its original name of Twenty-One.<\/p>\n
Blackjack is played with either one or several decks of 52 cards, with court cards counting as ten and aces worth one or 11. A game of Blackjack commences with the dealer dealing two cards to each player as well as to himself. The aim of the game is to score a hand adding up to 21, as the original name suggests, with either the first two dealt cards, or reaching the total nearest to 21 with subsequent cards or until other players have all exceeded that number.
\nPlayers then decide in turn whether to take another card (also called to \u2018hit\u2019), stick with the cards that they have (also called \u2018stand\u2019) or double. This means that the player draws another card but must immediately stick with the cards he has. This is a risky strategy, as the player does not know what card he will be dealt, but the risk can be offset by the fact that his stake is doubled. If a player has two cards of the same value, he may choose to \u2018split\u2019 \u2013 turning the two cards into two separate hands, or he may choose to surrender, retiring from the round but losing only half of his stake. In many casinos, it is also possible to make an insurance bet on the side against the dealer holding an ace in his hand.<\/p>\n\n