In Blackjack What Is An Ace Worth
Blackjack, also popular as Twenty-one, is one of the most famous casinogames worldwide. Blackjack is played against the Dealer only, not against other players.This is not a poker game – points are important, not the poker hands.
An Ace has a value of 11, unless it would bust your hand, at which point it becomes 1 Quoting from Wikipedia (due to lack of an official online source for blackjack rules). The only thing that matters at the blackjack table is the point value of each card and of each hand. The goal of the game is to get a point total that is higher than the dealer's without going bust, or getting a hand value of over 21. The ace is worth 1 point or 11 points, whichever is. Once all the cards are dealt in blackjack, and if the dealer’s face-up card is an ace, players at the table are offered blackjack insurance. The insurance is effectively another wager, usually half the value of your initial bet, and it pays out 2:1 if the dealer reveals his second card is a ten or picture card, making blackjack.
Objectives
The Blackjack goal is to beat the Dealer by gathering the more points possible, withoutexceeding 21. If your hand gains more points than the Dealer’s does or the Dealer’s handhas more than 21 points, you win. If your hand counts more than 21 points, you go bankruptand lose your bet.
Cards
Blackjack is played with a standard 52-card deck, mixed after each game. The suitdoes not count, only the card points. Different cards gain different number of points.
- Cards with numbers – from 2 to 10 – gain respective points (have their face value).
- Jack (J), Queen (Q) and King (K) gain 10 points.
- Ace (A) might be counted as 11 or 1 point, depending on the value needed for a best hand.
If you have 7 and Ace (A) – this makes the sum of 7 + 11 = 18 points. But, if you get 9afterwards, this will make the sum of 26 points, meaning higher than 21. In this second case,the Ace (A) would be counted as 1 point and the sum would become 7 + 1 + 9 = 17 points.When you have 7 and Ace (A) you have 18 soft points, because the points may vary.If you have 8 and 10 you have regular points.
Blackjack is a combination of two cards with 21 points value that consists of an Ace anda 10-point card (10, Jack, Queen, and King). You might have a Blackjack only in the beginningof the game, when you receive your first two cards. If you reach 21 points on a later stage,it would not be counted as Blackjack.
Game
Blackjack starts with a bet. You enter the game with this bet. After determining your bet,push the Deal button to deal cards. Two face-up cards are dealt to you and two cards – to the Dealer.One of the Dealer’s cards is faced-up and one is hidden.
- Hit – click the Hit button to receive a next card and add its points to your score.
- Stand – click the Stand button to show that you need no extra cards and stop playing.It is next player’s or Dealer’s turn.
- Double – click the Double button to double the bet; you receive only one more card andfinish the game. It is next player’s or Dealer’s turn.
Dealer checking for Blackjack
If the Dealer’s faced-up card is Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K) or Ace (A), he/she might check for Blackjackby viewing his/hers second card. In case of a Blackjack the second Dealer’s card is turned over and his/herhand is compared to yours.
If Dealer’s faced-up card is Ace (A), you have the right to secure yourself in case of a second 10-point card.This happens by clicking Yes or No buttons, related to the question Insurance?The insurance costs money and is equal to half of your entrance bet. If you choose to insure yourself and theDealer has a Blackjack (the second card is a 10-point card), your insurance returns 2 to 1.
Dealer’s game
The Dealer starts his/her game after all players have completed their hands. He/she gets additional cards untilreaching 17 points. At 17 or more points the Dealer stops, no matter if the points are soft or regular, andthe hand comparison begins.
Hands comparison
- If your hand holds more than 21 points (bankruptcy), you lose your bet, no matter of Dealer’s hand.
- If Dealer is bankrupt, but you are not, you win the bet.
- Blackjack is paid off 3 to 2 – if you have betted 10 points and you have a Blackjack, your bet is returnedand you win extra 15 points or the sum of 10 + 15 = 25 points in total.
- Regular hand is paid off 1 to 1.
- In case of equal hands only the bet is returned.
- Insurance is paid off 2 to 1 – if you have betted 10 points and you need insurance, you have to betadditional 5 points. If the Dealer has a Blackjack, the 5-point insurance would be returned and 10 more pointswould be won or the total sum would be 5 + 10 = 15 points. If you don’t have a Blackjack, and the Dealer has,you are going to lose your primary bet, but the insurance will return money to you. This way you neither win,nor lose.
In Blackjack What Is An Ace Worth Aj
In order to understand how the best strategy is computed, lets have a look at the Blackjack rules. Blackjack is played with 1 to 9 decks of 52 cards each. The values of the cards correspond to their numerical value from 2-10. All face cards (Jack, Queen, King) count 10 and the Ace either 1 or 11, as the holders desires. A score with an ace valued as 11 is named soft-hand. A soft-hand score of 17 is denoted as 7/17.
The color of the cards does not have any effect.
The goal of the game is to reach a score (=sum of the cards) as high as possible but not more than 21. A Blackjack (Ace and a card whose value is 10) beats all other combination of cards. If the final sum is higher than the sum of the dealer, the player gets a play-off of 1:1 of his initial stake. If the players combination is Blackjack, the play-off is 3:2 of the initial stake. If the sum of the dealer is higher, the player loses his bet. If the sum is equal, then nobody wins. If the player holds a score of 22 or more, he busted and thus he loses his bet immediately. If the dealer busts, the players wins independently of his final score.
Blackjack can be played from one to seven players against one dealer. The dealer shuffles the cards. Now all the players must place their bets. Then each player and the dealer receives one card. The cards all lie face up. Thereafter the player receive a second card. The player now can continue to buy further cards, one by one, until he believes that he is near enough to 21. If the player believes to have reached a score high enough he must signalize the dealer to stay, which means not to ask for any further card.
Doubling down
The player has some more possibility's other than buy and stay. If he reached a score of nine, ten or eleven with his first two cards, he can double his bet. However if he does so, he will be dealt only one more card.
Blackjack Ace Rules
Splitting
If the first two cards are of the same value, the player has the possibility to split his hand, which means that each of the cards are used to start with a separate bet. For each split hand, an additional bet equal to the first is required. There is one exception: If the player splits two Aces, he receives only one more card and in such a case a score of 21 is not considered as Blackjack.
Dealers turn
Once the last player has decided to stay with his score, the dealer starts to draw a second card. If his result is reaching a score of 17 or more, he will deal himself no further cards. If the dealer has a score of 16 or less, he must draw until he has reached 17 or more. If the dealer exceeds 21, he busts. This is the basic knowledge You have: The dealer can not split nor double; he must play according to strict rules: Dealer must stand on all 17. That's the players advantage! On the other side, if both the player and the dealer busts, these scores are not considered as equal and the player looses his stake. That's the dealers advantage!
How to compute the correct strategy
The analyst sees the shoe as black box which computes him a probability for drawing a card of a certain value. Say we have 6 decks of 52 cards, so the probability of drawing an Ace is 6*4/6*52 = 24/312 = 7.7%. The probability of drawing a second Ace without reshuffle is 23/311 = 7.4% and so on. As the game goes on without reshuffle, the probabilities to draw certain cards will raise or decline, depending on which cards have gone in the past. From our point of view the shoe behaves like a wheel of fortune with varying distances between the nails.
The first thing to do, is to calculate the probabilities of the dealers last hand. This computation is straight forward as the dealer has no way of doing any decision. So it is quit easy to find out the probabilities of his final score.
The next thing is to find out the probabilities of what would be if ... . If the players score is 16, what's the probability of achieving 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or busting. Probabilities also have to be calculated for splitting and doubling.
Because the player knows the dealers first hand before deciding what to do, he can compare the probabilities of the dealers last hand against the probabilities of possible final scores for each intermediate score he has. With this comparison, winning expectations can be calculated, gaining information about the best playing strategy.
Knowing the best playing strategy and knowing the probabilities for each final score, the dealer and the player will reach, the total expectation can be calculated. The total expectation is the magic number playing Blackjack. If it is below zero the player has to place minimum bets as with this card distribution he will lose on the long term. If however the total expectation is above zero (unfortunately thats quite rare) the player has to place high bets.
Interpret the strategy tables
For each decision a player can do the best strategy can be computed. There are 20 possible conditions where the player has to take decisions. These are:
- Buy or stay if the score is 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 7/17 or 8/18.
- Double or buy, if the sum of the first two cards is 9, 10 or 11.
- Split, buy or stay, if the first two cards have the same value.
All these decisions depend upon the dealers first card, making a total of 200. There are some fundamental rules, which never change and must always be obeyed:
- Alway buy if the score is below 12.
- Always buy if the score is below or equal to 7/17. With a soft hand You can't bust, so there is no reason to stay if the score is 17 or less.
- Never buy if the score is 17 or higher.
- Never split 5-5. A score of 10 is a good point to start with, so use it.
- Never split X-X. A score of 20 is too good, to take any further risks.
- Never ever double a Blackjack.
For other decisions consult the expectation and probability tables computed on the Blackjack strategy pages.
Stakes height
The stake has to be placed before the player can see the dealers first card. So during that decision, very little information is available. The only information the player here, is the total expectation for the current card distribution in the shoe. If this is above zero, he shall place high bets.