How to Play Blackjack: Rules, Strategy Chart and Odds

Blackjack gives you one job: finish closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. You see one dealer card before you decide, and your options are hit, stand, double down, split a pair, or surrender where the table offers it.

The decision that moves the most money over a session is whether you follow basic strategy or play by feel. On this page we set out the rules, the chart for 4-8 deck games with double after split allowed, the payouts printed on the felt, and what New Zealand players see at land-based tables and at licensed online operators.

How to Play Blackjack, Step by Step

A round runs in six parts, and the order does not change.

Place your bet in the box in front of you. Cards come out once every player at the table has bet.
Take your two cards. The dealer takes one card face up for themselves, so you already know half of their hand.
Add up your total. Cards 2 to 10 count at face value, Jack, Queen and King count 10, and an Ace counts 1 or 11.
Pick an action: hit, stand, double down, split a pair, or surrender where the table offers it. An Ace plus a 10-value card in the first two cards is a blackjack, and that hand ends there.
The dealer completes their hand under the rule printed on the felt: either dealer stands on soft 17 or dealer hits soft 17.
Compare totals. Closer to 21 than the dealer wins and pays 1:1. A blackjack pays 3:2 at most tables. Anything over 21 loses. A tie returns your bet.

Card Values and Soft Hands

Numbers 2 to 10 count at face value. Jack, Queen and King are worth 10 each. The Ace counts as 1 or 11, and you use whichever value suits the hand you are holding.

A hand with an Ace counted as 11 is soft. A,6 is soft 17 and A,7 is soft 18, but both drop to 7 and 8 the moment the Ace switches back to 1. That switch happens when you take another card and the total would otherwise pass 21, so nothing about the hand is fixed while the Ace sits in it.

Blackjack is narrower than a 21. It means an Ace plus a 10-value card in the first two cards, and the payout ratios in the next sections are written around exactly that hand. Card values carry over to the rest of our casino games coverage, where the same numbers appear on the felt.

Hit, Stand, Double, Split, Surrender, Insurance

Six options cover every decision you make at a table. Two of them belong to every hand. The rest depend on your cards and on the dealer’s upcard.

Hit

Take one more card. You can hit as many times as the table allows until you stand, double or go over 21.

Stand

Keep the total you have and pass the turn to the dealer. Standing is the correct play on a hard 17 or better.

Double Down

Double the bet and take exactly one more card, then the hand is finished. On the chart below you double a 10 against dealer 2-9 and an 11 against dealer 2-10.

Split

When your first two cards are a pair, you put up a second bet of the same size and play each card as its own hand. Aces and 8s get split every time, and 10s and 5s never do.

Surrender

Where a table offers late surrender, you give up half the bet and end the hand before playing it out. It shows up on hard 16 against 9, 10 or an Ace, and on hard 15 against 10.

Insurance

Insurance is offered when the dealer shows an Ace, and it is a side bet at 2:1 that the dealer has a blackjack. Basic strategy never takes it, whatever the deck count looks like.

The Basic Strategy Chart

These lines hold for 4-8 deck games where the dealer stands on soft 17 and double after split is allowed. The range after each entry is the dealer’s face-up card.

Hard Totals

8 or less: hit.
9: double against 3-6, otherwise hit.
10: double against 2-9, otherwise hit.
11: double against 2-10, hit against an Ace.
12: stand against 4-6, otherwise hit.
13-16: stand against 2-6, otherwise hit.
17 or more: stand.

Soft Totals

A,2 and A,3: double against 5-6, otherwise hit.
A,4 and A,5: double against 4-6, otherwise hit.
A,6: double against 3-6, otherwise hit.
A,7: double against 3-6, stand against 2, 7 and 8, hit against 9, 10 and Ace.
A,8 and A,9: stand.

Pairs

Aces and 8s: always split.
10s and 5s: never split – play 5,5 as a hard 10.
9s: split against 2-6, 8 and 9, stand against 7, 10 and Ace.
7s: split against 2-7.
6s: split against 2-6.
4s: split against 5-6.
2s and 3s: split against 2-7.

Surrender (late, where offered): hard 16 against 9, 10, Ace; hard 15 against 10.

3:2 or 6:5: Read the Table Felt

A standard win pays 1:1. A blackjack traditionally pays 3:2, which turns a $10 bet into $15 of profit. Some tables pay 6:5 instead, and the same $10 bet returns $12.

That difference is the reason we read the felt before we watch a single card. With basic strategy on common multi-deck rules the house edge sits around 0.5%. A 6:5 blackjack payout adds roughly 1.4 percentage points on top of that figure. Playing by hunch instead of basic strategy pushes the edge up again, and the two mistakes stack on the same hand.

Insurance sits on the same layout at 2:1, usually printed near the betting circle. The dealer rule is printed too: either dealer stands on soft 17 or dealer hits soft 17. Standing on soft 17 is better for the player, so between two tables that look identical otherwise, that is the line we would look for.

Card Counting in Plain Words

Tracking high and low cards is legal in itself, and a casino can still refuse your play. That is the whole practical limit of it.

Continuous shuffling machines and frequent shuffles cut what a count is worth, because the deck is never far from a fresh mix. Online RNG blackjack reshuffles every hand, so nothing carries from one round into the next. Counting matters most where a physical shoe runs long enough to be worth following, and that is a land-based setup rather than a screen.

Live Dealers, Software, and What the Bonus Terms Say

Online blackjack comes in two forms. Live blackjack streams a real dealer from a studio, and RNG blackjack runs on software with a random number generator handling the deal. The rules follow the same structure as a casino table. Our live dealer casinos section covers the studio side in more detail.

Read the contribution rate before you take any bonus against blackjack play. SpinsUp counts card games at 5% towards wagering. Jet counts non-slot games at 0%. SpinCity and XON count live blackjack at 10%. QuickWin counts table and card games at 0%. A low percentage means most of your blackjack play does nothing to clear the requirement, and the bonus terms are where those numbers are printed. If you want to see what a rate does to a balance, the wagering calculator runs the arithmetic for you.

Under the Online Casino Gambling Regulations 2026, a licensed online casino must show game rules, odds and RTP before the first play (reg 22), and must not suggest that playing longer raises your chance of winning (reg 19). Our gambling law section carries the regulation text we work from.

Where to Play in New Zealand

Christchurch Casino lists 32 table games, among them blackjack, roulette, Midi Baccarat in squeeze and non-squeeze versions, Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em. Grand Casino Dunedin offers blackjack, American roulette, baccarat and Caribbean Stud Poker. SkyCity Queenstown runs 8 table games including blackjack, roulette and baccarat, and SkyCity Auckland holds 150 tables across more than 10 game types.

You must be 20 or over to enter a New Zealand casino, which is worth checking before you plan an evening around one. Our NZ casinos pages cover the venues; if the wheel or the baccarat table interests you more, the roulette and baccarat guides sit alongside this one.

Questions Players Ask

Which strategy actually cuts the house edge?

Basic strategy, played without deviation, is the one that holds the edge near 0.5% on common multi-deck rules. The chart above is short, and its entries are not judgement calls. A 6:5 payout, a hunch bet, or a split that the chart does not list each push the edge up, and the 6:5 line alone adds roughly 1.4 percentage points.

Is insurance ever worth taking?

Basic strategy never takes it, on any hand. Insurance pays 2:1 on a side bet that the dealer has blackjack, and the frequency of that hand does not cover the stake. A table can offer it every time the dealer shows an Ace; the answer stays the same.

Does the dealer hit on soft 17?

It depends on the table, and the rule is printed on the felt: either dealer stands on soft 17 or dealer hits soft 17. Standing on soft 17 is better for the player. Where two tables look identical otherwise, we would take the one where the dealer stands.