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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Dear Valerie and List,<br>
<br>
I'm not sure of all the rules of the game as the professionals play,
but here is how we used to play it in the service:<br>
<br>
The game is normally played with a deck of cards that are configured as
a "POKER" deck, in other words, there is one of each number, 1-10 in
each of four suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades), with each suit
having three face cards called, "King", "Queen", and "Jack". No
"JOKER" cards are used in this game, although sometimes two are
included with a pack, or "deck" of cards.<br>
<br>
This game is also called "21", as that is the winning score. The
object is to collect the appropriate number of cards to add up to 21.
If your numbers add up to over 21, you lose that hand. The ACE of any
suit is the wild card, worth either one or eleven points, you get to
choose!<br>
<br>
The cards are dealt to as many players as are included in your game,
just one card at a time, for two times around the group. Now each
person should have two cards in their hand. If anyone receives a
combination of a face card and an ace in this first round, they are to
cry out "BLACKJACK", or "21", to declare they have won. <br>
<br>
The "deal" now continues one person at a time in the same direction of
rotation as the first two times around. The dealer asks, "do you want
a card", if you ;do, you say, "yes", and may ask for another card also
if your total is still under 21, or if not, answer no and the deal
proceeds to the next player. This continues until all players are
satisfied that they have a competing number (totalling 21 or less) in
their hand, or their total goes over 21, which eliminates that person
from that "hand". until a new "deal" is performed. Sometimes you can
win with only a 13, because everyone else "went bust", as we would say,
or went over 21 points. If you get an ace and a three, for example,
that is worth four or fourteen points. If you got a six next, that
would be a hand to hold to the end because if you took another card,
unless it was an ace, you would be over 21! However, if you wanted to
add the ace as a four, you could take the six card to make ten, and you
could ask the dealer for another card, perhaps you would get a nine,
for a total of 19, a pretty good number to win with (unless someone
else gets 20 or 21). Once the hand is concluded, only the person with
the highest score gets their score written down (everybody else loses
that hand). Then the deck is shuffled and given to the next person,
who becomes the dealer for the next "hand".<br>
<br>
A face card (King, Queen, Jack) is worth 10 points.<br>
<br>
Each number card is worth it's face value (the color is not even a
factor) number, as in 1 of any suit =1 point, a 5 of any suit= 5
points, etc.<br>
<br>
Aces of any suit are worth either 1 or 11 points, as you choose.<br>
<br>
A "BLACKJACK" is when you receive a face card and an ACE at the same
time, that is = 21 points, and is considered a winning hand. It
outranks a hand with several cards equalling 21.<br>
<br>
There may be more finer points to the game; I just don't remember. It
will play for sure the way I have outlined it, however.<br>
<br>
Jerry.<br>
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