Card Value

The card values of 2 to 10 are worth their actual face value. The face cards of Jacks to Kings are worth ten. The Aces are worth 1 or 11. The hand value would be all of the values of the cards added together. There are also hard hands and soft hands. The latter has an Ace worth 11 in it. However, if an Ace is worth 1, the hand will become hard.

Rules

The rule of Blackjack came about in the early 20th century and refers to a certain blackjack bonus. If a player gets two cards right from the beginning that add up to 21 (a 10-value card and an Ace), that would be a blackjack. Provided the dealer doesn't have the same value, the player gets a guaranteed win, with a payoff of 3:2 as opposed to the regular 1:1. This bonus happens to be very valuable, but the chance of it coming up is 1 out of 20. If there is a blackjack with the dealer, though, it would be considered a push or a tie, where the chips of the player just stay in his betting box.

Other Actions

Hitting means getting more cards. You are allowed to keep getting more cards until you exceed 21. By standing, on the other hand, you can keep your available cards.

If you get two cards with the exact same value from the start, you can split them to get two hands and play them separately. You will need to add an extra bet for hand number two, though. If you get another same-value card, several casinos will let you split again or re-split. The majority of casinos do have limitations about splitting certain cards, like Aces, too, though, so make sure you follow the rules correctly.

Another option would be to double down, wherein you double your first bet and draw just one more card. This is commonly done with great hands that won't bust and if the dealer's hand is bad. Keep in mind that all face cards are worth 10, so more cards will be worth 10 more than anything else. Basically, this option will let you double the bet whenever you have great chances of winning.