When using the Wong Halves counting method, the 3, 4, and 6 cards are valued at +1, the 2 and 7 cards are valued as +0.5, and the 5 is worth +1.5. All 8s are 0, 9 is valued at -0.5, and all Ace and face cards are valued as -1. If you're having a hard time counting with fractions, double each value for a simplified strategy. Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is the most popular casino card game as it's fun and easy to win. Knowledge of Blackjack basic strategy is essential.
One of the things that you really must know in order to play online blackjack properly is the blackjack card values, as these will tell you what your hand is worth in total and therefore whether or not you have a good chance of winning, as well as then telling you who has won after the dealer takes their turn. Thankfully it is very easy to learn these values as they are very straightforward, and once you have played a couple of times you should have no problems at all with remembering them in the future.
It is easy to keep the lower blackjack card values in your head because all you have to do in order to be reminded of them is to look down at the cards themselves, and you will see what they are worth. A 2 is worth two points no matter what suit it is in, just as a 3 is worth three points, a 4 is worth four points, and so forth. This is very easy, and it only gets a tiny bit complicated when you are dealing with the picture cards, which are represented by letters rather than by numbers. The King, Queen, and Jack of every suit all have the same value: each of them is worth ten points, so you can just lump them in with the 10 cards and leave it at that. The ace is the only card that may present you with a little difficulty, because of the fact that it is used as both a high card and a low card in this game: it can be worth either one point or eleven points, depending on which would benefit your hand the most and give you the best chance of getting a win. This certainly adds a whole new dimension to the game, because you will be able to turn a card into a no risk hand: for example, if you have an ace and a six, then you could have a hand value of seventeen, and this is always a grey area for whether you should take the risk of getting another card or not. However, if you do take another card and it is worth more than four points, there is no problem, because your hand is now worth just six points plus whatever card came out of the pack for you.
This is one of the ways in which it is very important to know the blackjack card values; because once you do you can really start to use them to your advantage to work out the best ways to set your hand up and the best decisions to make in every round. You are likely to be told your hand value anyway, but that does not mean that you should not be able to work it out for yourself, as this will allow you to play the game to a higher level and maybe even work in some strategy ideas; a decent blackjack guide will do wonders.
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
Blackjack Chip Values
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.
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!
Queen In Blackjack
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.
Alice and the mad tea party slot machine. 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.
