(The face-down card is known as the 'hole card'. One of the dealer's two cards is face-up so all the players can see it, and the other is face down. The dealer gives two cards to each player, including himself.

After initial bets are placed, the dealer deals the cards, either from one or two handheld decks of cards, known as a 'pitch' game, or more commonly from a shoe containing four or more decks. The minimum bet is printed on a sign on the table and varies from casino to casino and even table to table. Each player has an independent game with the dealer, so it is possible for the dealer to lose to one player, but still beat the other players in the same round. If both the player and the dealer have the same point value, it is called a 'push', and neither player nor dealer wins the hand. Note that if the player busts he loses, even if the dealer also busts (therefore Blackjack favors the dealer). The goal of each player is to beat the dealer by having the higher, unbusted hand. A hand in which an ace's value is counted as 11 is called a soft hand, because it cannot be busted if the player draws another card. An ace's value is 11 unless this would cause the player to bust, in which case it is worth 1. Cards 2 through 10 are worth their face value, and face cards (jack, queen, king) are also worth 10. The hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn't exceed 21 a hand with a higher total than 21 is said to bust or have too many.

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