Blackjack Hands

Card Values

The standard deck used at blackjack game contains the cards of four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Usually the suits do not matter at blackjack otherwise stated by the specific rules at the casino you gamble at.

There are 13 cards of every suit: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are valued as indicated.

10, Jack, Queen, King are valued as 10.

Ace is valued both as 1 and 10.

Thus, the most common card in the deck has the value of 10. Ace is probably the most powerful card in the deck not only because it can vary its value but also because it is used to create “blackjack” (consisting of an Ace and any card with the value of 10).

Soft and Hard Hands

As an Ace in blackjack game can be valued as 1 or 11 it can influence the hand count. Soft hand is the blackjack hand that contains Aces valued as 11. Hard hand is the blackjack hand that contains no Aces or Aces valued as 1. If the player is dealt an Ace it is initially counted as 11s. If in such case the hand goes over 21 the Aces are counted as 1s.

For example, is the player is dealt an Ace and a 5 the hand count is 16 as an Ace is initially valued as 11. Then the player chooses to hit and gets an 8 on the draw, thus the hand count is 24 now. In such case an Ace must be counted as 1 bringing the hands value to 14. If the player holds several Aces he is allowed to count one Ace as 11 and the other Aces as 1 depending on the hand count.