Blackjack at Home

[adt_33]

Does anyone play BJ with friends for money (a la poker)?

Are there common rule variations? Is it best for one person to be the dealer (ie, play by the established rules)? Are turns taken to be dealer? What size deck should be used?

As you probably see, I just want the general rundown for a friendly small-bet game. Danke Schon.

[ZMan]

We have BJ night with friends and family.
We have minimum bet $1 per hand. Some bet the $1, but most players bet $5. We don't really have a maximum bet, but nobody really bets more than $10, except for splits and double-downs.

We use 6 decks and dealer stands on soft 17, DAS, double any 2 cards, and BJ pays 3:2.
I usually deal and anyone who gets a BJ can deal, if they want to. Most everyone in our group doesn't want to deal. I don't mind dealing so it works for us. Of course the dealer has to cover all bets, but with the dealer (house) having an advantage, I usually win more by dealing. Not always though -- a few weeks back we had 5 players and the dealer. We all played for about 3 hours. At the end, every player was up, so the dealer lost. Mind you though, some only won a buck or a few. It is a lot of fun.
We don't really like playing poker or Texas hold-em, but we love our blackjack nites.

Variation - if you want a couple variations that would not give the house as much advantage, you could make a 6-7-8 hand, or 7-7-7 hand pay 3:2 or double. Also, you could make a '5-card charlie' (5 cards and under 21) an automatic win. You can be creative as you want, as long as everyone agrees to the rules.

Enjoy!