Black Jack Basics

What is the object of the game? What is a Black Jack?

Let's start with Black Jack Basics for the simplicity of the game.

The object of the game is for you to get a total of twenty-one (21) in the first two cards and not the dealer. This is called a Black Jack.

Said in a broader way: The object of the game is for you to get closer to the total of twenty-one (21) than the dealer, without going over. If you are able to this, you win. If you are not, you lose.

Black Jack, the total of twenty-one in the first two cards, is also called a Natural. It pays 3 to 2 or one and a half. Black Jack is 21 in the total value of the first two cards only.

Note:

Black Jack pays 3 to 2 in two, four, five, six or eight deck games.
Black Jack pays 6 to 5 in a single deck game. This has been the rule in most casinos in Las Vegas since 2001.

You cannot get a Black Jack with three or four cards and so on. That's just a regular twenty-one and it pays even money.

If you and the dealer have the same total, it is a tie also called a push or a standoff. You break even.

The game is played with one, two, four, five, six or eight decks of cards. In a single or double deck game, the dealer holds the cards and deals them out. That's called pitching.

With four, six or eight decks, the dealer deals the cards out of a shoe.

Note:

A shoe is the plastic container or apparatus on the Black Jack table, that holds all the cards.

With 5 decks, a machine does the shuffling and holds the decks of cards at the same time. The dealer deals the cards out of the shuffling machine.