Blackjack is probably my favorite casino game, and I’ll tell you why: with a bit of practice, and bit of skill, you can get better at it — unlike most casino games, which pretty much put you at the mercy of Lady Luck (who can be a generous goddess or a harsh and cruel harpy who likes nothing more than seeing you suffer slowly and painfully…but I digress).

For those of you unfamiliar with the ‘sport’, I recommend finding one of the casinos accepting us players and starting off with their free software (plenty even have blackjack guides on the site…probably better ones than I could write, anyway).

In the meantime, I’ll sum it up: you’re trying to beat the dealer by getting as close as possible to 21 with your cards without going over.

Simple, right? He deals you a card, he deals himself a card. Both are face-up so that everyone can see them. Then he deals another card, face-down this time, to you and then himself.

If you’re very lucky, he’ll deal you 21 right off. That’s Blackjack! It’s an instant win (unless he happens to do the same thing for himself, in which case it’s a tie…or as the blackjack guys call it, a “push”).

More likely, you’ll have to make a guess about what you want to do next. This is where experience and skill comes in.

If it’s really low, and you can count on needing at least one more card before you get close to 21, you’ll want to “hit” (take another card”). If it’s so close that another card will likely push you over 21 (or “bust”, as they call it), then you’ll want to “stand” (or “stay”) where you are.

The tricky part is figuring out when to hit and when to stand when your cards aren’t really too high or too low. This is why you need to play blackjack for free at US player-accepted casinos, to learn what the smartest moves are.

The best online casinos have built-in ‘trainers’, which can tell you what moves are best in each situation (great for beginners, but don’t start to rely on it!).