Midnight Blackjack

The Objective of the Game

The objective of Blackjack is to assemble a hand with a Blackjack (i.e. an Ace and a 10 or face card) or any other point total closer to 21 than the dealer, without going over 21. The point total of each hand is the sum of all the cards it consists of. The values of the individual cards are: cards from 2 to 10 are worth their indicated value, all face cards are worth 10, and Ace is worth 1 or 11, whichever leads to higher total score without going over 21.

Midnight Blackjack specific rules

The following specific rules apply to the Midnight Blackjack game:

• the game uses a stack of eight decks of cards

• cards are always re-shuffled fully between each game round

• blackjack pays 3:2

  • other winning hands pay 1:1

  • insurance pays 2:1

• the dealer must draw to 16 and stand on all 17s

• double after split is allowed

• re-splitting is not allowed

• doubling is allowed on 9-11

• no hole card

• no surrender

• all bets (except insurance and push) lose to a dealer Blackjack

How to play

Start the game by placing bets on 1-3 hands as indicated by circular positions on the table. Bets are placed by selecting a chip value from the lower right area, and then clicking on one of the table positions. The game starts by pressing the "DEAL" button.

Once the initial cards are dealt (two per player position and one common for the dealer), the player must decide, for each hand, how to proceed. The options are:

• "STAND", meaning the hand is done and the game moves to the following hand

• "HIT", meaning a new card will be added to the hand in question. If the new total value is below 21, the player can continue drawing new cards until the hand either goes over 21 (i.e. busts) or the player selects "STAND". If a hand busts, the bet for that hand is immediately lost and removed from the table.

• [OPTIONAL] "DOUBLE DOWN", meaning exactly one more card is added to the hand, after which the hand is done and the game moves on to the following hand. The player's bet on this hand is automatically doubled, as are all potential wins. Doubling is allowed if the original hand value was 9 - 11.

• [OPTIONAL] "SPLIT", meaning the hand is divided into two separate hands, and a new card is drawn to each of the split hands. Each hand requires its own bet, which doubles the player's bet. The player will then continue playing the two hands independently. Splitting is allowed if the original hand consists of two cards of the same value, e.g. a 5 and a 5 or a Jack and a King. A split hand does never constitute a Blackjack: an Ace and a 10 is simply 21, not Blackjack.

• [OPTIONAL] "INSURANCE", a special bet available to the player prior to any other actions, if the dealer's card is an Ace. Insurance is offered separately for each player hand. Accepting the insurance bet costs half of the hand bet. After the insurance bets, the game is played normally until all player actions are done.

After the player has made all choices, if there are any player hands left in the game, the dealer receives cards. The dealer will draw until a total value of 17 or more reached. If the dealer busts, all remaining player hands win. If the dealer does not bust, each player hand is evaluated against the dealer hand. Any hand with a greater value wins, and lower values lose. A tie means the bet remains on the table for the next round, i.e. nothing won and nothing lost.

If there was an insurance bet in the game, that bet is resolved immediately after drawing the second dealer card. If the dealer gets a Blackjack, the insurance bet pays a 2:1 win. If the dealer does not get a Blackjack, the insurance bets are lost. After this, the game round continues normally.

After the game is over, the player has the following options:

• "CLEAR TABLE" to clear the table of all bets and start fresh

• "REBET" to clear the table and reapply the bets from the last deal

• "REBET + DEAL" to clear the table, reapply the bets from the last deal, and start the next game round