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Glossary of Blackjack Terms

• Basic Strategy - The Basic Strategy is a blackjack strategy which has been developed over the years by looking at statistical probabilities in order to work out when a blackjack player should hit, stand, double down and so on. By doing so, blackjack experts and statisticians believe that they can dramatically reduce the house edge. Blackjack players use strategy tables to tell them what action they should take depending on the value of their hand and the value of the dealer’s hand.
• Blackjack - In original blackjack rules this referred to an initial hand consisting of the Ace of Spades together with either the Jack of Clubs or Jack of Spades, and entitled the player to receive a 10:1 bonus. As this bonus payout no longer applies, it is sometimes used to refer to an initial hand of two cards which totals 21. This hand is also sometimes referred to as a natural.
• Bust - Having a hand in which the total is over 21.
• Card Counting - Card counting is a strategy used by blackjack professionals and experts. It involves keeping track of the cards that have been played during a game of blackjack and using this information to try and predict which cards are most likely to come up in future hands.
• Double Down - Following the initial deal of two cards, you can choose to double down. This means that you can double your original bet but you can receive only one more card.
• Early Surrender - Surrendering your hand before the dealer checks for blackjack.
• Hard Hand - When an ace may only be valued as 1. For example, if you draw an ace on an initial hand of Jack and 5 – the ace cannot be valued at 11 without busting the hand.
• Hit - If you choose to hit, you choose to accept another card from the dealer. The card you accept is also referred to as a “hit”.
• House edge - The house edge (also known as the casino advantage) is the profit that a casino builds in to each game. It is expressed as the difference between the true odds and the odds that the casino pays out.
• Insurance bet - When the dealer’s first upcard is an ace, you can make a side-bet known as insurance bet that the dealer’s second card will result in his or hand forming a natural. You can bet up to half your initial stake on the insurance bet.
• Natural - If your first two cards have a total value of 21, this is known as a natural. It is also sometimes referred to as blackjack.
• Soft Hand - A hand where an ace can be counted at both values (1 or 11) without busting the hand.
• Split - This refers to a blackjack rule where if your two initial cards are of the same value (e.g. two Aces), you can split the hand and play it as two separate hands.
• Stand - If you choose to stand, this means that you choose not to receive another card.

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