How to Play 21 with Cards at Home

What you need

The rules are exactly the rules of casino blackjack — if you have never played at all, skim how to play 21 first. This page is about running the game yourself: the parts a casino dealer normally handles for you.

Setting up

1. Pick the first dealer. Everyone cuts the deck; highest card deals. Aces count high for this.
2. Hand out the same stake to everyone. Twenty chips each is plenty for an evening.
3. Agree a minimum and maximum bet. One to five chips keeps anyone from going broke in a single hand.
4. Agree the house rules listed at the bottom of this page — before the first card, not in the middle of an argument.
5. Shuffle well and cut. The player to the dealer's right cuts. The dealer then burns the top card, placing it face down in a discard pile.

Dealing a round

1. Everyone bets by pushing chips in front of them.
2. Deal one card face up to each player, going clockwise from the dealer's left, then one to the dealer face up.
3. Deal a second card face up to each player, and the dealer's second card face down. Face-up player cards let everyone check the totals.
4. Settle blackjacks. If the dealer shows an Ace or ten-card, they look at the hole card. Dealer blackjack wins every bet except a player blackjack, which pushes.
5. Each player takes a turn — hit, stand, double or split — while the dealer hands out cards.
6. The dealer reveals and plays, hitting on 16 or less and standing on 17 or more, with no choices.
7. Pay and collect. Winners get even money, a blackjack gets 3 to 2, ties push. Used cards go to the discard pile.

A full example round

Three people: Sam deals, Alex and Jordan each bet 2 chips. Sam deals:

Alex has 15 against a dealer 6. A dealer showing 6 busts about 42% of the time, so Alex stands and lets the dealer take the risk. Jordan has soft 18 against a 6 and doubles down, adding 2 more chips and taking one card: a 3, for 21.

Sam busts with 26. Alex wins 2 chips, Jordan wins 4 on the doubled bet. Had Sam drawn a 5 instead for 21, both players would have lost — which is why you check the dealer's up-card before every decision.

Taking turns as the dealer

The dealer has a real advantage: players act first, and a player who busts has lost even if the dealer busts later. In a casino that edge pays for the building. At home it should be shared, so pass the deal around. Common ways to do it:

• Blackjack takes the deal. The first player dealt a natural becomes the dealer at the next shuffle. Traditional, and slightly random.
• Fixed rotation. The deal moves one seat to the left after every shuffle or every five rounds. The fairest option.
• Banker buys in. The dealer covers every bet from their own chips. Exciting, but a bad run can end someone's night early.

House rules to agree on

Home games vary. Settle these before you start:

Prefer a traditional game? Britain's version of 21 is Pontoon, with twist, stick and the five card trick, and Southeast Asia plays Chinese Blackjack, where a pair of Aces pays 3 to 1.

Want to sharpen your play before game night? The same decisions apply at the kitchen table as at the casino, so the basic strategy chart works for both. And if the stakes ever get serious, a single deck is the easiest game there is to count cards in.

Frequently asked questions