Dealing the deck
The cards in the game are dealt in two ways, either from a box containing 4 to 8 decks called a shoe or from 2 hand held decks. When dealing by hand, the two initial cards of the player are face down, while the dealer has one face up card and one face down card. It does not matter to the player that is cards are face up or down as the rules of the game are predetermined. If the player has a score less than 17, she has to hit. When dealing from the shoe, all player cards are face up, except for some modifications. If she has 17 or more than that, she must stand, that is take no more cards unless it is a soft 17 where the dealer has to follow the casino rules on the table. The highest possible hand is a natural or blackjack, which means that the initial total of the cards is 21(that is an ace and a card of value 10). A player with a black jack is an automatic winner, unless the dealer also has a blackjack, which is a case of a tie or a push. When the upcard of the dealer is an ace, the player is allowed to make a side bet which is called insurance to guard against the risk of the dealer having a blackjack. The payoff is mostly 1:1; this means that the player wins the same amount that he had originally betted. The minimum and the maximum bets are posted on the table itself. There are some single deck games available which pay only a ratio of 6:5 for a blackjack.