AIM OF THE GAME
In Blackjack, you and the dealer (the computer) are dealt two cards to start. The objective of Blackjack is to accumulate cards that add up closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21. Cards are worth their face value with the exception of Kings, Queens, and Jacks which are each worth 10 and Aces which are worth either 1 or 11. If the value of your hand is closer to 21 than that of the dealer you win. If the value of the dealer’s hand is higher than yours you lose. If the hands are of equal value the deal is a push and your money is returned. If you have a total of 22 or higher (a busted hand), you lose regardless of whether the dealer also busts.
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SUMMARY OF RULES
8 52-card decks are used.
The deck is re-shuffled after each hand.
Dealer stands on all soft 17’s.
Doubling after splitting allowed.
No re-splitting of cards allowed.
No surrender.
Only one additional card allowed on each ace when splitting a pair of aces.
HOW TO PLAY
William Hill Casino Blackjack is played with eight fifty-two card decks. After each game has been played, the used cards are shuffled back into the deck. All face cards are valued at ten and the cards from 2-10 are valued as indicated. Aces can be valued at either one or eleven; if counting the ace as eleven would put the hand over twenty-one, the ace is automatically counted as one instead. You do not need to specify which value the Ace has as it’s always assumed to have the value that makes the best hand. The value of a hand is the sum of the values of the individual cards. For example, a hand containing a Jack, 3, and 4 has a value of 17.
Your chips are stacked by Ligawd denomination (£1, £5, £25, £100, £500) at the bottom of the screen. Select the amount you would like to wager on a given hand by clicking the left mouse button on the chip of that denomination. The amount wagered per hand may be increased or decreased by placing the mouse on the stack that you wish to add or subtract to your bet. Each time you click the left mouse button you will add a chip from that pile to your planned wager amount. Likewise by clicking on the right mouse button you can decrease your planned wager amount. You may repeat your last bet by simply hitting the “0” button of your numeric keyboard. Other keyboard shortcuts are summarised below.
You begin a hand of blackjack by placing a bet on the table as described above. You will then receive two cards face up. The dealer will receive one card face up and one face down. Once you have been dealt your two cards (and based on the nature of these cards) you can do the following by clicking with the left mouse button on the appropriate button:
HIT
Requests another card. You can request a hit as many times as you like, but if your total goes over twenty-one, you will Bust and lose the hand.
STAND
Requests that you receive no more cards. The hand as it currently stands will be judged against the dealers.
SPLIT
If you have two cards of the same denomination, a Split button will appear. You can split your cards into two hands and play each hand separately. Your original bet will be duplicated for the new hand, and each hand will be played out as usual. A pointing finger will appear over each hand indicating which hand is active. The split option can only be used once per hand — you cannot split part of a split hand.
DOUBLE
If you select this option, two things will happen: you will get exactly one more card, your turn will end, and your bet will be doubled.
After each player has pressed either the Deal or Pass button, the Player and Banker are dealt two cards. All tens and picture cards are worth zero, aces are worth 1, and all other cards are worth their face value. If the value of cards exceeds 9, then the value is adjusted by subtracting 10 from the total.
INSURANCE
Whenever the dealer’s up-card is an ace, the player has an option of taking insurance. The player may opt to take insurance by clicking on the “Insurance ” button. If you do not wish to take insurance, you may simply click on one of the other buttons (hit, double down, stand, etc.) to proceed with the rest of the hand. If the player believes that the dealer’s down-card is a 10 ranking card, then the player is permitted to place a side bet of half the original wager as insurance. If the dealer does have a 10 ranking card, the player is immediately paid 2-to-1 on the insurance bet, but the original wager is lost unless the player too has a blackjack and pushes with the dealer. Here the player is simply betting that the dealer’s unseen card is a 10 valued card.
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PAYOUTS
Result Payout
Winning Hand 1 to 1
Blackjack 3 to 2
Insurance 2 to 1
BASIC BLACKJACK STRATEGY TABLE
Basic blackjack strategy is defined as the proper play of cards knowing only your hand and the dealer’s exposed card. It does not involve card counting (an advantage lost in playing William Hill Casino with 8 decks reshuffled after each hand) or remembering which cards were played previously. The basic blackjack strategy is created through intensive computer simulations which perform a complete combinatorial analysis. In this method, the computer “plays” tens of thousands of hands for each BlackJack situation possible and statistically decides which decision best favours the player.
Basic strategy is usually printed as tables with the dealer’s upcard the first row and your two card combination the first column. The other entries in the table tell you what to do (Stand, Hit, Double-Down, Split) with the different combinations of dealer and player’s hands. Basic blackjack strategy tables for William Hill Casino rules (8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double-down on any two cards, double after split allowed, no re-splitting of cards allowed, no surrender) are shown below for hard totals, soft totals, and pairs along with a legend.
