Aces in Blackjack
In black jack, the main card is the Ace, and it is valued because it retains the ability to adapt to different situations by changing its value. You can use the ace to change your hand from hard to soft and vice versa. To understand this, you must be familiar with card values in blackjack. These are
- Cards 2 – 10 are counted according to their face value.
- Face cards are counted with a value of 10 each. This refers to the King, Queen and Jack cards.
- The Ace card can be valued as 1 or 11
The ace in relation to a soft or hard hand in Black Jack
You use an Ace to change a hand from hard to soft, by choosing the value you assign to it between either1 or 11. For example, if you are dealt a 9 and an Ace and you count the Ace as 1 you have a card value of 10. If you count it as 11, you have a value of 20, which will push you to be a winner. This is because to win in black jack, you have to attain a total card count of 21 without going beyond this.
In blackjack, a hand is considered to be soft if you can count the ace as either a 1 or an 11 and come up with a total less than 21 or equal to 21. The assumption is that the player can draw an additional card and have a total that is either below or equal to 21 and no more. If the count goes past 21, the player goes bust and is out of the game. So, if you have an ace and a 7 you are considered to have a soft hand of 18.
On the other hand, if you have an ace and an additional card, when you draw a third card, you can only value the Ace as 1 to avoid tipping past 21. This is described as a hard hand. If you get a hand with no aces, it is also referred to as a hard hand.
How to win at blackjack
To win a game of blackjack, the dealer must go bust or have a better hand than the dealer in terms of card value. The dealer wins if you both have a total under 21, but the dealer has cards of a better value than your cards. The other possibility is a “push”, and it occurs when the dealer and you have the same value of cards at hand. In this case, it’s a draw, and your bet is refunded to you.
Based on this outline, the value of Aces in black jack cannot be denied. In this game you do not play against other players, you play against the dealer. The fact that you can use the Ace to help you win at the game proves it is a powerful card. While getting a soft hand is good the Black Jack is the one to look out for. This occurs when you are dealt the first two cards, if they turn out to be an ace and a face card, you have a Black Jack!
