For example, look at the following two hands that total 16.Įven though the totals of the hands are the same, the blackjack basic playing strategy for the 10 + 6 is different than that of an A + 5.Ī hard hand is any hand that either does not contain an ace or, if it does, counts the ace as 1. In the game of blackjack, it’s not only the total of the hand that determines how you should play it but also the composition of the cards in the hand, especially when an ace is present. Therefore, you would count the ace as 1 and the hands would total 16 and 14 respectively. In both cases, the total point value of your hand would exceed 21 if you counted the ace as 11. Suppose in each of the above hands you drew another card and it was a picture card, giving you the following three-card hands. When your initial two-card hand contains an ace, you should always count the ace as 11. (That’s because the initial two cards in the hand were a pair of aces.)

If you split a pair of aces and receive, say, a queen to one ace, and a jack to the other ace, both hands total 21, not blackjack. For example,Ī + K (blackjack) beats a 9 + 2 + Q (21).

The latter occurs when a player is dealt a card with a point value of 10 (e.g., 10, Jack, Queen, or King) and an ace.Ī player blackjack will beat a dealer hand that totals 21 in three or more cards. When the point value of the initial two cards that are dealt to a player totals 21, this is known as a blackjack hand.

King in blackjack is worth