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A soft 17 is any hand totalling 17 in which an ace is being counted as eleven, such as ace–six or ace–two–four. It is "soft" because drawing a card cannot bust it: if the next card would take the total past 21, the ace simply counts as one instead. A hand such as ten–seven, or ace–six–ten, is a hard 17. The distinction matters for the dealer's rule (S17 or H17) and for your own play, because soft 17 is usually a hand to hit or double rather than stand on.Read the guide →

It means the dealer keeps drawing when their hand is a 17 that includes an ace counted as eleven, for example ace–six, and only stops on a hard 17 or any total of 18 or more. Casinos abbreviate this rule to H17. The alternative, S17, has the dealer stand on every 17. Hitting soft 17 helps the house: the dealer can improve the hand more often than it busts, which adds roughly 0.2 percentage points to the house edge compared with the same game under S17.Read the guide →

The dealer has no choices. Under the common rule printed on the table felt, the dealer draws on any total of 16 or less and stands on any 17 or more. The only variation concerns soft 17: at an S17 table the dealer stands on ace–six, and at an H17 table the dealer hits it. The dealer never doubles, splits, surrenders or takes your cards into account; they follow the fixed rule regardless of what the players hold.Read the guide →

An ace counts as either one or eleven, whichever helps the hand without busting. Ace–seven is 18 (soft), because the ace is counted as eleven; draw a ten and the same ace becomes one, giving hard 18. You never choose the value out loud; it is applied automatically. Only one ace in a hand can count as eleven at a time, since two elevens would already total 22. Tens, jacks, queens and kings all count ten, and every other card counts its face value.Read the guide →

A natural, also simply called a blackjack, is an ace plus a ten-value card (ten, jack, queen or king) as your first two cards. It is paid at a premium, 3:2 at a full-payout table, so a £10 bet wins £15 plus the stake back. A 21 made with three or more cards, or an ace–ten made after splitting, is only an ordinary 21: it beats a dealer 20 but loses to a dealer natural and is paid at 1:1.Read the guide →

A push is a tie between your final total and the dealer's. Your bet is returned and you neither win nor lose. Two naturals push, two 19s push, and so on. A push does not occur when you bust, because a bust loses immediately even if the dealer later busts too. Note that at most tables a player's three-card 21 does not push a dealer natural: the natural outranks it and the player loses.Read the guide →