Blackjack Card Values – Everything You Need to Know

Whether you’re playing Blackjack online or in a land-based casino, knowing how to calculate the value of your Blackjack hand is the key to having an enjoyable Blackjack experience. While determining the worth of your Blackjack hand may seem like a daunting task for beginners, let us assure you that it’s quite easy to do so.

Unlike other card-based casino games, the suit of your cards doesn’t matter in Blackjack. Instead, the game focuses on the numeric values of the cards in your hand. That way, it becomes easier for novice players to understand how each card is scored in Blackjack.

In Blackjack, numeric cards carry the same value that’s printed on them. For example, the number five card is counted as five, and the number eight card gives a score of eight in the game. As the standard card deck comes with 4 suits and has numbered cards between 2 and 10, there are a total of 36 numbered cards in the Blackjack deck.

Now let’s move on to the face cards. As you’d be knowing, there are three face cards in any standard card deck – the King, the Queen and the Jack. And given the fact there are four suits in a deck, you’ll find 12 face cards in each Blackjack deck. Speaking about their worth, each face card carries a value of 10 in Blackjack.

And that leaves us with the Ace card. Unlike other cards in Blackjack, the Ace card is unique as it can have two possible values – either 1 or 11. While players usually get to choose whether their Ace counts as either 1 or 11, it depends on the exact rules of the game.

Classic Blackjack, Blackjack Switch and all other Blackjack games are played against the house. So, it’s no wonder your main aim in Blackjack is to beat the dealer.

There are several ways to beat the dealer in Blackjack. The first way to do that is to get the final score of 21 by having a natural. For players who don’t know, the term natural means having an Ace and a 10-value card as your first two cards.

Another way to get an edge in the game is by the dealer having a card value that’s more than 21. This condition of going over 21 is referred to as bust in Blackjack, and it applies to both the dealer and the player. So, you’ll also lose if your hand value exceeds 21 in the game.

If the value of your first two cards doesn’t form a Blackjack, you’ll find yourself competing against the dealer to get close to the final score of 21. In such instances, you can request an extra card from the dealer to improve the value of your hand. This process is referred to as hitting in Blackjack.

When playing the Blackjack card game, drawing each new card adds to the final score. So, players need to pay proper attention to their hand value and request cards such that they get closer to 21 and don’t go bust.