The card table · 18+
Copper Still Blackjack
A six-deck shoe, juniper-green baize and a dealer who draws on soft 17. Get closer to 21 than the house without going over, double down on your first two cards if you fancy it, and play every hand with free Juniper Berries.
How to play
Choose your stake for the hand, then press Deal. You receive two cards face up; the dealer takes one face up and one face down. Number cards count their face value, picture cards count ten and an ace counts as one or eleven, whichever helps you more.
Now it’s your call. Hit takes another card and you can keep hitting until you’re happy or go past 21. Stand keeps what you have and hands play to the dealer. Double, offered only on your first two cards, doubles your stake and gives you exactly one more card before the dealer plays.
The dealer then turns over the hidden card and must draw while the total is 16 or less, and also on a soft 17 (one that counts an ace as eleven). On a hard 17 or more the dealer stops. There’s no choice in it for the house: the rules decide.
What the table pays
A blackjack (an ace and a ten-value card as your first two) pays three to two. Stake 50 JB, and you collect 125 JB back: your 50 plus 75. If the dealer has blackjack as well, it’s a stand-off and your stake simply comes home.
Any other hand that beats the dealer, or survives while the dealer goes bust, pays one to one: stake 50, collect 100. Equal totals are a push and return your stake. Go over 21 yourself and the hand is lost straight away, even if the dealer busts afterwards.
There’s no insurance and no splitting at this table. We kept the rules short so a hand takes seconds, not minutes.
Hands and berries
Your stake is taken from your Juniper Berries when the cards are dealt, and doubling takes the same amount again. Anything you collect is added the moment the hand is settled. The shoe is shuffled automatically when it runs low, so there’s no point keeping count, and the cards are always dealt at random on your own device.
Short of berries? The refill button above the table puts you back on 5,000 JB, free, whenever you’re below that. Berries have no cash value, can’t be transferred, and there are no prizes at this or any other Reel Juniper table.
Why a copper still
Every distillery has one warm corner, and it’s nearly always beside the still. The copper holds the heat long after a run, and people drift towards it with a stool and a deck of cards while the spirit rests. We painted our table in that light: baize the colour of juniper needles, a copper rule round the edge, and card backs printed with a pattern of tiny berries.
A word at the table
Card games feel like skill, and blackjack does reward sensible decisions, but each hand is still decided by the shuffle. If you find yourself raising stakes to “win it back”, that’s a good moment to stand up and stretch. Our responsible play tools can lock the games for an hour, a day or a week.
Three questions
Does the dealer hit a soft 17?
Yes. A soft 17 is a 17 that counts an ace as eleven, such as an ace and a six, and the dealer always takes another card on it. On a hard 17 or more, the dealer stands.
Why can’t I split pairs?
We chose a simpler table with hit, stand and double only. It keeps every hand quick and easy to follow on a phone.
Is the deck fair?
Six standard decks are shuffled with your browser’s random number generator and reshuffled when the shoe runs low. Nobody, including us, can see or steer the order.