Familiar cards bring a new player a feeling of comfort, maybe even of belonging. Read on to learn what you need to know about how these old friends of yours – the cards – are used in Blackjack.
Oh, remember that this glorious game can be played using more than one deck. (We wrote of the "shoe" game in our article about the table.) Onward ho!
Clubs? Diamonds? Spades? Hearts? Who cares? (Yes, this is our way of saying that suits do not matter in Blackjack.
It is all about four sets of numbers
Learning what you have to know about numbers in Blackjack is as easy as...something stunningly easy. Like making ice.
- The cards between, and including, 2 and 9. These cards hold no secrets. They are worth exactly what it looks like they should be worth. A "3" is worth 3 points. A "7" is worth 7 points. You get the idea.
- The powerful 10s. A 10 is worth 10 points. A face card – King, Queen, or Jack – is also worth 10 points.
- The soft Ace. You will be relieved that this ace is not so named because it is made from a less rocklike material than a hard Ace. An Ace becomes "soft" when to add 11 points to your hand would send you bust - or over 21. An example perhaps. You have a Jack and a 2 in your hand, totaling 12 points. You are now dealt an Ace– if the Ace were counted as 11 points, you would go bust with 23 points. Thus it is counted as 1 point to bring you to 13 points and you are still in the game. (The soft Ace rocks.)
- The Ace. (Ace the Unsoft.) An Ace that, when counted as 11 points, will not send you into the land of being busted is simply called an Ace. (We sometimes call it Ace the Unsoft but that is in the name of foolish fun.)
Does the number of decks matter?
Well, not in the greater scheme of life on this planet. But, yes, the number of decks does matter when playing Blackjack. If you choose a cleanly felted table offering a one-deck game, you have a .05 or .06 advantage over a similarly svelte table offering a multi-deck game. This is according to clever people who spend their lives calculating odds. By the way.
Newbie Hint: If you are unused to adding up even small series of numbers in your brain; if your calculator has completely taken over all mathematical functions from your physical self, practice before you head out to a casino. It can be embarrassing to count on your fingers in front of your peers. Besides, if you are using your brain power to add you have less of it to apply to making a clever call that will see you flush with coins.