Blackjack

🎯 The idea

Get closer to 21 than the dealer, without going over. Go over and you lose straight away, whatever the dealer does next — that is the house's whole advantage, and knowing it is most of the game.

🔢 What the cards are worth

Number cards are what they say. Jack, queen and king are 10. An ace is 1 or 11, whichever helps — so ace-six is 7 or 17, and the table shows you both.
An ace and a ten-card as your first two cards is a blackjack and pays extra. Reaching 21 with three cards is still good, but it is not a blackjack.

🕹️ Your choices

Hit takes another card. Stand keeps what you have.
Double doubles your bet and gives you exactly one more card — for when you are likely to make a big hand.
Split turns a pair into two hands with two bets. Split aces get one card each and that is that.
Surrender gives up half your bet on a hand that is probably lost anyway.

🚫 Why there is no Insurance button

A real casino offers you insurance when the dealer shows an ace: a side bet that they have blackjack. It is missing here on purpose, and the reason is the same one the coach exists for.
Insurance pays 2 to 1. For it to be worth taking, the dealer would need a ten-card underneath more than one time in three. There are 16 ten-cards in 49 unseen cards — about one time in three, but just under. So it loses money every time you take it, for ever, and the only reason it exists is that it feels like safety.
Never take insurance is one of the few rules in this game with no exceptions, and a button you must never press is not a choice. It is a trap with a friendly name.

🤖 The dealer has no choices

The dealer is not playing against you cleverly. They follow one written rule: draw under 17, stop at 17 or more. At the top level they also draw on a soft 17 (one containing an ace), which is slightly worse for you.
That is why this game is winnable knowledge rather than luck: you know exactly what they will do.

🎓 The coach

Blackjack is solved. For every hand you can hold against every card the dealer shows, one play is best, and the whole table fits on a card.
The coach knows it. On 🌱 Sprout it rings the right button every time. On 🧭 Scout you can ask. On 🏆 Ace you are on your own.
Learning it is worth real money at a real table: playing by feel loses about 2% of everything you bet, and playing the table loses about 0.5%.

🙂 Levels

🌱 Sprout: one deck, hit or stand only, and the coach shows the answer.
🧭 Scout: doubling and splitting, and the coach on request.
🏆 Ace: six decks, surrender, the dealer hits soft 17, no coach.

📜 The rules

🖨️ A card for the table

Print the rules on one sheet, fold it into a card and keep it in the deck box. One side, no scissors. Open the printable rules card

🃏 Blackjack