Blackjack Card Values

Blackjack Card Values

Blackjack is a different kind of card game. The biggest difference between blackjack and a game like poker is that suits in blackjack are meaningless. When you're sitting at the blackjack table or playing online blackjack, a card's point value has nothing at all to do with whether that card is a heart or a spade. Since your goal in a game of blackjack is to put together a hand worth more points than the dealer's hand without going over 21, you need to learn the value of each card before you have a chance to win.

Because cards are valued according to a point system, learning what cards are worth how many points and how many cards in the deck are worth different point levels is critical to learning blackjack strategy.

Card Point Values

The most complicated card in blackjack is the ace--worth either a single point or eleven points, the ace is kind of like a blank tile in Scrabble. If the player earns a better score with one point, the ace is worth one. If the ace is more valuable as an eleven point card, the ace is worth eleven. Any dealt hand in blackjack that contains an ace is referred to as "soft" because it is impossible to bust a two-card hand with an ace in it. Remember--if a player is dealt a hand with an ace and he takes a hit that could bust him, the ace turns into a single point instead of eleven to protect from busting.

A quick example--if you are dealt an ace and a six, this hand is called a "soft 17" because if the player chooses to take another card and that card would normally add up to a total higher than 21, the ace "softens" into a single point, preventing the player from busting.

The "face cards" (jacks, queens, and kings) are worth ten points each. All other cards in the deck take on the numeric value of the card, so that a five is worth five points, a six is worth six points, etc.

Since there are four suits, a standard fifty-two card deck has four aces, four kings, four queens, four jacks, and four of each numbered card. This becomes important in blackjack strategy because there are a total of sixteen cards worth ten points; the face cards of each suit and the four suited tens.

Why Are Face Cards the Most Important Cards in Blackjack?

As we've already said, there are sixteen total cards in a fifty-two card deck worth ten points. All other cards have just four worth their given value--four twos, four threes, four aces, etc. There are four times as many cards worth ten points than there are cards worth nine or eleven.

Since a ten is half of the recipe for putting together a blackjack (one ten and one ace making a total of 21, normally paying out at 3:2 in the casino), figuring out how many ten point cards are still in the deck can increase your edge over the dealer. The ability to earn that 3:2 payout is one of the things that makes blackjack a player's game--take away the 3:2 payout for blackjack, and the house's edge increases by nearly three percent.

Are There Other Important Cards in Blackjack?

Of course every card in blackjack is "important," but besides tens, you should really learn to keep track of the fives.

Fives are hand killers in blackjack because they often lead to what blackjack players call a "stiff hand." Because there are so many ten point value cards in blackjack, and because a total of fifteen is one of the more difficult hands to beat the dealer with, fives tend to be the most troublesome cards for blackjack players. In fact, if you could find a blackjack game that took the fives out of the deck, you'd increase your edge against the house by more than 2.5%.

Other card values that are important to blackjack are every card between two and six. Card counters keep track of these cards as they come out of the deck, because fewer small cards in the shoe means better odds for the player.

Understanding card's values and importance to the game of blackjack is a good first step toward learning basic blackjack strategy. Before you can learn to count cards or to play strategic blackjack, you have to understand the ins and outs of the cards you're playing with.