Blackjack is a game of chance, but if you know the right strategy you can significantly reduce the house edge and increase your chances of winning. Learn how to play the game by following the basic rules, which can be easily memorized. Understand when to hit, stand, double down, or split, and always keep in mind the dealer’s upcard. You can also make secondary bets to boost your payouts and odds of winning.

Before the cards are dealt, players must place a bet. The minimum and maximum bets are usually posted on the table. Once the bets are placed, the dealer will deal two cards to each player, face up. The players can then decide to ask for another card (hit) or stick with their current hand (stand). If a player’s total is higher than the dealer’s without going over 21, they win. If the dealer busts, all players that haven’t also had a busted hand win.

A common misconception about blackjack is that the objective is to beat the dealer, but in reality, beating the dealer isn’t even the goal of the game. The objective is to win more money than you lose to the casino. There are a few ways to do this, including obtaining a blackjack and making fewer mistakes than the dealer.

In a normal game of blackjack with a single deck, the house edge is virtually nil, meaning that if you follow perfect strategy and memorize it, you will break even in the long run. However, perfect strategy is very difficult to learn and remember, so start by learning basic blackjack. These charts will tell you what to do in almost every situation, and the few mistakes you’ll make won’t cost you much money.

Once you’ve mastered basic strategy, you can move on to more advanced strategies. The best one is card counting, which can improve your winning percentage by up to 4%. However, you must be careful not to get carried away. Using the Martingale system, for example, will cause you to lose more hands than you win.

It’s also a good idea to have a “win limit” – a point at which you will stop playing. This will help you avoid losing more than you can afford to lose, and prevent compulsive gambling.

Lastly, you should always look for a table that offers the option to surrender. Many players don’t even realize that this is an option, but it can be a very valuable tool. A dealer can offer early or late surrender, which means that the player can forfeit their hand and cut their bet in half before the dealer checks for blackjack. This can be very profitable for a player with a hand of 16 against the dealer’s 10. Check your local laws and ask the dealers at your favorite casino whether they allow it. This is especially important if you’re in a high-stakes game.