{"id":503,"date":"2020-02-12T09:35:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T21:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/?p=503"},"modified":"2023-10-02T21:17:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T09:17:30","slug":"blackjack-card-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/blackjack\/blackjack-card-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackjack card values"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blackjack is all about understanding the values of the cards that you\u2019re dealt (as well as those of the dealer and other players). The actual card suits aren\u2019t important at all. Don\u2019t worry too much about making quick additions in your head, computer software or your dealer will usually tell you what number you\u2019re at.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the card values?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you learn these, you\u2019re unlikely to ever forget them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) are played at face value (i.e. they\u2019re worth exactly what they represent, a 2 means 2 and a 5 means 5).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kings, Queens, and Jacks are worth 10.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aces have a dual purpose and can be used either as 1 or 11.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What value should I assign to the Ace?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will usually be an obvious decision for the player, since the goal is to always get Blackjack or as close as possible to 21 without busting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should always allow your Ace to carry the value of 11 unless it leaves you with a score of more than 21, in which case it will be assigned the value of 1. What this tells you is that the value of the Ace is usually determined by the cards themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One thing to remember is that the first ace in the Dealer&#8217;s hand must count as 11 if this gives the Dealer a total of anything between 17 and 21. If this happens the Dealer must also stand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do I get a Natural Blackjack?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two goals in the game of Blackjack:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get a hand that adds up to as close to 21 as possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get a better hand than the dealer who is also trying to get to 21.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best of all blackjack hand values to have is a \u2018Natural Blackjack\u2019. It will only happen when the first two cards dealt add up to 21. This means an Ace (carrying the value of 11) and a 10 card (any of the face cards or the number 10).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a player is dealt this hand, then the hand is immediately compared with the dealer\u2019s hand. Unless the dealer also has a natural blackjack, the player wins. This is considered the best hand of the game because it pays out one and a half times the amount of the bet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s exceptionally frustrating if the dealer also has natural blackjack because this would result in a tie, also called a \u201cpush\u201d, and the player\u2019s original bet is returned &#8211; but no profit.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are \u2018soft\u2019 and \u2018hard\u2019 hands?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This kind of terminology can seem confusing, but it\u2019s actually quite straightforward. Soft and hard hands are really instrumental in showing you how the Ace card can really make all the difference to your hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Put simply, a soft hand is one that contains an Ace, and a hard hand is one that doesn\u2019t. That\u2019s because an Ace card can either be a 1 or an 11, leaving the player with a fair amount of liquidity based on the card the dealer holds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, an Ace and an 8 card gives you a soft 19. But this hand could also carry a total value of 9. The Ace reduces your risk, and that\u2019s what makes the hand \u2018soft\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a \u2018hard\u2019 hand players have zero flexibility, and must make do with a rigid hand that cannot be changed. Two 5\u2019s give you a 10 and there\u2019s no other way to interpret it. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackjack is all about understanding the values of the cards that you\u2019re dealt (as well as those of the dealer and other players). The actual card suits aren\u2019t important at all. Don\u2019t worry too much about making quick additions in your head, computer software or your dealer will usually tell you what number you\u2019re at. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blackjack"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycitycasino.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}