Lesson 2 of 10 · 4 min
Lesson 2: card values and soft hands
Key takeaway: Face cards are worth 10, aces 1 or 11. A hand with an ace counted as 11 is “soft”: one card can’t bust it.
| Card | Value |
|---|---|
| 2 to 9 | Face value |
| 10, J, Q, K | 10 |
| Ace | 1 or 11, whichever helps you |
Suits don’t matter. With four ten-value ranks, almost a third of the deck is worth 10 (16 out of 52). Remember that: it explains a lot of plays.
The ace and soft hands
A hand with an ace counted as 11 is called soft. Ace-6 is soft 17: it can be 7 or 17. The key point is that you can’t bust by taking one card: if a ten comes, the ace drops to 1 and you have 17.
Any other hand is hard. 10-7 is hard 17: hit it and almost anything busts you.
A soft hand can turn hard: ace-6 (soft 17) plus a 9 is hard 16, because the ace now has to count as 1.
Blackjack
An ace plus a ten-value card as your first two cards is a blackjack. It’s the best hand and beats any other 21, including a three-card 21. It normally pays 3 to 2.