The complete guide: betting with chips, dealing the cards, player and dealer turns, scoring, busts and blackjack, plus the controls on muta.pro. Read it — and head straight to the table.
Blackjack is a card duel against the dealer. Your task is to build a hand whose point total is as close to 21 as possible, but no more. You win if you outscore the dealer or if the dealer busts. A total above 21 is a bust and an instant loss of the bet. And 21 from the first two cards is a blackjack, the strongest hand, paying 3:2.
The game is dealt from a «shoe» of 6 decks (312 cards) that are shuffled automatically. You have a starting bank of $1 000. Card values: number cards count at face value, jack, queen and king — 10 each, and the ace is worth 1 or 11 — the system itself picks the favorable option. Before the deal you need to build your bet with chips.
Build your bet by clicking chips of 10, 25, 50, 100 and 250. The amount is deducted from your balance; the «Clear» button returns it.
Press «Deal». You get two face-up cards, the dealer gets one face-up and one face-down. The preliminary point total is shown right away.
«Hit» adds a card, «Stand» ends your turn. «Double» is available on the first two cards: the bet is doubled and you receive exactly one card.
An ace flexibly counts as 11 as long as this does not lead to a bust, otherwise as 1. A hand with an ace-11 is called «soft»: you can take an extra card without the risk of busting at once.
Once you stand, the dealer’s face-down card is revealed. The dealer must draw cards while holding less than 17 and stops at 17 and above.
The totals are compared. Your bust means a loss; the dealer’s bust is your win. Otherwise the hand closer to 21 wins.
Hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs are black. Next to each hand its point total is shown; the dealer’s face-down card is the «back».
On a win the bet is paid 1:1 (you receive it doubled). Blackjack — 21 from two cards — pays 3:2 if the dealer has no blackjack. Equal totals are a tie («push»), the bet is returned with no win. If both bust, the player loses: a bust is recorded immediately, even before the dealer’s turn. When the balance drops to zero, the table hands out a new stack of $1,000 so you can keep playing.
The dealer always draws up to 17. Knowing this, it is easier to decide when it is worth the risk to take another card.
With such a total the chance of busting is high. Look at the dealer’s face-up card before taking one.
With an ace-11 you can draw boldly: an extra card will not cause an instant bust.
Doubling pays off on a strong total of 10–11, when a single big card almost guarantees a good hand.
In blackjack you make your decision knowing only one of the dealer's cards — and that card sets the whole plan. You keep your own total in your head, but you read the up card across the table as a forecast: a dealer bust turns any hand of yours that hasn't busted into a win. That is why a seasoned player looks at the table first, and only then at himself.
The dealer's 2–6 are "weak": he must draw to 17 and often busts. 7, 8, 9, 10 and the ace are "strong": he will most likely make 17–21.
With a total of 12–16 against 2–6, stand. An extra card threatens you with a bust, and the dealer will bust himself anyway.
The same 12–16 against 7 through the ace calls for a hit: a "safe" stand loses here almost every time, because you only beat a dealer bust.
A hand's value is not absolute. 16 against 6 — stand; 16 against 10 — hit. The dealer's card flips the correct play into its opposite.
Your 16 against the dealer's ten — hit: standing loses almost every time.
The same total plays differently depending on whether the hand holds a flexible ace. A soft hand (the ace counts as 11) cannot bust on a single card, so it is played more aggressively; a hard hand (no ace-as-11) calls for caution. Understanding this difference is half of sound tactics.
Any card threatens a bust, and 17 already beats a dealer who busts. Don't touch this hand.
With an ace as 11, hitting is safe: if the card is high, the ace "springs" down to 1. Soft 13–17 almost always hit.
Nearly a third of the deck is ten-value cards, so a single card on 11 often makes 21. Double against any dealer card.
Hard 11 (7 + 4) — double: a ten or a face card makes 21 straight away.
Splitting a pair turns one hand into two — a chance to double your stake from an advantageous position. Two rules from it are worth memorising cold, because they decide the fate of the worst and the best starting hands in the game.
A pair of aces — always split: two aces on their own are two runs at 21.
A pair of eights — always split: two starts on 8 beat a hopeless 16.
Besides the basic table there are common rule variants, and each shifts the balance a little. Knowing them is useful, even if on muta.pro you play the classic six-deck game.
From one to eight. The fewer the decks, the lower the house edge; the classic "shoe" is six decks, as here.
Under some rules the dealer stands on any 17, under others he must hit a "soft" 17 (ace + 6). The latter slightly favours the house.
The classic is 3:2. Tables paying 6:5 are noticeably worse for the player: you get less for the same hand.
Most losses over the long run are not bad luck but repeated deviations from simple logic. Let's go through the slips that didn't make the basic rules yet steadily eat away at the bankroll.
The common denominator is simple: the correct play is dictated by position, not mood. A player who makes the dull but statistically correct choice time after time will, over the long run, always outpace one who plays on feel.