Blackjack
Overview
A casino table for 1–6 players against an automated house dealer. Everyone
shares a five-deck (260-card) shoe that visibly shuffles, places their own bet
each hand, and plays hit, stand, double or split against the house — no other
players to negotiate with, no ante to a shared pot. A single player at the
table is a complete game.
Objective
Beat the dealer's hand without going over 21. Across the session, the goal is
to break the house's bank; the house's goal is to bust every seat at the table
down below the table minimum.
Setup
•
1–6 players, each starting with 500 chips.
•
The house bank starts at 1,000 chips per seated player and is shared by the
whole table for the length of the session — twice the table's own chips, so
breaking it means tripling your stack before you run out.
•
A shared five-deck shoe (260 cards). When it runs low, the discard pile is
reshuffled back in before the next round's betting opens — never mid-hand.
•
The betting minimum is 50 chips. Available bets are 50, 100, 250 and 500
chips, limited to what a seat can afford.
Card Values
1 or 11 — whichever is best without busting
Round Structure
1.
Bet — Every seated player places a bet from the chip ladder.
2.
Deal — Cards are dealt one at a time, in casino order: a card to each
seat, then the dealer's upcard, a second card to each seat, then the
dealer's hole card face down.
3.
Naturals — A two-card 21 (an Ace with a 10-value card) on the opening
deal is a natural and needs no further action from that seat.
4.
The dealer's check — Before anyone acts, the dealer checks the hole
card. If the dealer has a natural it is turned face up and the hand ends
immediately: every seat loses its bet, except a seat holding its own
natural, which pushes. Nobody plays a hand that is already decided, so you
can never hit — or double, or split — into a dealer blackjack.
5.
Play — Seats take their turns in order, each choosing:
•
Hit — take another card. Going over 21 is a bust; that hand is lost.
•
Stand — keep the current total and end the turn on that hand.
•
Double — double the bet, take exactly one more card, and stand.
•
Split — split a pair into two hands, each getting its own bet and its
own additional card, then play them one after the other.
6.
Dealer's turn — The hole card is revealed and the house draws to a
total of 17 or higher, standing on every 17 including a soft 17 (an Ace
counted as 11). The dealer draws nothing if every seat has already bust.
7.
Settlement — Each hand is compared against the dealer's final total.
A natural pays 3:2 (rounded down); an ordinary win pays 1:1; a push
returns the bet; a loss forfeits it. Play pauses on the result until
someone at the table clicks Next hand.
House Rules
•
S17 — the dealer stands on all 17s, including a soft 17.
•
One split per hand — a hand may be split only once; the resulting hands
cannot be split again.
•
Split aces — splitting a pair of Aces deals exactly one further card to
each hand, which must then stand. Doubling is never offered on a split ace.
•
Double after split — doubling is allowed on any two-card hand,
including a hand created by a split (split aces excepted).
•
No naturals after a split — a 21 on a hand created by splitting counts
as an ordinary 21, not a natural, and pays 1:1 rather than 3:2.
•
3:2 naturals, rounded down — a two-card 21 pays one and a half times
the bet, rounded down to the nearest chip.
Not in Version 1
This table does not yet offer insurance, surrender, re-splitting a hand more
than once, side bets, even money, or any card-counting aid. These may arrive
in a later version.
The Hole Card
The dealer's hole card is dealt face down and revealed either at the dealer's
check (when it completes a natural) or once every seat has finished acting,
exactly like at a physical table. Its identity, however,
is present in the client's own game state the whole time it is face down —
the same as any local game, where the full position is always known to the
software running it. Against an automated house with no human opponent to
read your screen, this is not a meaningful weakness, but it is stated here
plainly rather than implying a stronger secrecy guarantee than the game
actually has.
Ending the Session
•
The house's bank is drained to zero — every seat still holding at least
the table minimum shares a win.
•
Every seat falls under the table minimum — the house wins outright and
the session ends with no player winner.
The shoe reshuffles automatically before betting opens whenever it runs low,
with a short pause and an on-screen announcement — betting is disabled while
the reshuffle plays out.