The Deal
Each of the players is dealt one card face down, and the dealer, gets his own card face down also. Then he begins a second round of dealing, giving each player another card face down, while his own card is dealt face up. The dealer always gets the last card dealt on each round, and always acts upon his hand last.
If the dealer's up card is a 10-value card, he must peek at his hole card (card dealt face down) to see if he has a blackjack. If he has one, then it's an immediate winner for the house, and the dealer turns over his cards and collects all losing bets. If the up card is an ace, before peeking, he asks the players if they want insurance, in effect allowing them to bet that the dealer has a blackjack. This will be explained in a later section.
At this point, the players are holding two cards apiece all face down while they see one of the dealer's cards. Although the players' cards are not seen by the dealer, it makes no difference at all, since the dealer has no options and is bound to play his own cards by rigid house rules, no matter what cards are held by the players.
Dealing two cards face down slows up the game, but it is a ritual of blackjack, and it makes the players feel as though they're doing something special by playing out their cards in this secretive manner. In reality, it makes no difference at all as far as the game is concerned.
After each player has received two cards, starting with the first player to receive cards, also known as the first baseman, each player can make one of several plays. For the time being we'll forget about the various options and concentrate on whether the player will hit (draw a card) or stand (not draw a card).