Blackjack is a card game where the player competes against the dealer. The game has a certain amount of luck and a lot of skill. The skill part comes from learning basic strategies. These include knowing when to hit, stand, split, or double down. It is also important to know the odds of each decision. These odds can help a player beat the house edge and win money.

The basic rules of blackjack are simple. The players put their chips in the betting area and then the dealer deals two cards to each player and one to himself. The players then decide whether to hit (ask for an additional card) until their total exceeds 21 or to stand. When the player has a blackjack, she wins 1.5 times her bet. The dealer can only hit when her hand is below 17.

When the dealer has an ace showing, the player may take insurance, which is a bet of up to half the original bet that pays two to one in case the dealer has a blackjack. However, it is usually a bad idea to take insurance because the dealer will not have a blackjack often enough to make the bet pay off.

The dealer then checks her hole card, and if she has a 10 underneath, the dealers gets a blackjack and wins. The dealer will then sweep all the insurance bets and continue with the game. If the dealer has a ten and no ace, she will return all the original bets to the players.

A player can also split pairs of cards if they have the same value. For example, a pair of sevens can be split but not a pair of threes. The player must also be careful when splitting 10’s because it is generally considered to be a poor hand and should only be split against an up card of 2 or 3. A pair of jacks, on the other hand, can be split. The player will then have a two-card hand and the other two-card hand will be played as a separate hand. In some cases, the player can also choose to re-split the pair of cards if they want to. A re-split is not possible if the original hand is a blackjack.