If you have never played Blackjack before, here is an outline of how it works.
If you know the game well, click here to find out how to play Blackjack profitably.
Soft and Hard Hands in Blackjack
There are a number of variants of the game of Blackjack, but this is how it is normally played.
The dealer will deal two cards to the house and two to you.
Normally one of the house cards will be face down and the other face up. You will therefore only know what one card is, and the other will be hidden from your view.
Both your cards are dealt face down, but you will look at them to see what cards you have.
The aim of the game is to get as close to a count of 21 as you can, but without going over 21. If you go over 21 you are “bust” and have lost. Whoever gets closest to 21 without going bust wins.
If you both end up with exactly the same count there is a draw, and nobody wins.
Very simply, that is all there is to it. A very simple game. Although there are a few tweaks you also need to learn.
If the house has a “hard” count of 17 or more (I will explain “hard” in a moment) it has to stop drawing cards. It has no choice in the matter, even if it knows you have it beaten unless it can draw more.
Until the house has a "hard" 17 it must keep drawing. Again, it has no choice in the matter, even if it knows it has already beaten you if it "stays" rather than draws. It simply has to keep drawing until it reaches 17 - or goes bust.
So the dealer might see that you have only got 15 and the house has 16, but he must still draw another card for the house. And if that card is, for example, a 7, the house now has a total of 23 and is bust. If the house had the choice of stopping at 16 it would have won. But it doesn't have that choice.
You, on the other hand, can continue drawing for as long as you like. You can draw another card even if you have 20. You would be a bit of an idiot to draw to 20, as there are only 4 cards in the whole deck of 52 that won’t bust you if you do – the 4 aces. But you can if you wish.
I am sure you realise the house always has an edge, in every game. If it didn't, it couldn't make an overall profit in the long term. Which means it couldn't survive.
So, where does the house get its edge in Blackjack?
From two key factors.
Firstly, you do not know what the second house card is. If you can see the house has a 10, for all you know that second card could be an ace (which can either be 1 or 11, and here would be taken as 11 so the house had 21). Which means the house has you beaten unless you too have blackjack (an ace, and either a 10 or a court card – King, Queen or Jack – which is always counted as 10). Or that hidden card could just be a 5 or 6 or something, putting the house at a very big disadvantage (it will have to draw until it gets 17 or bust – and there are a lot of cards that will bust the house if it draws to 16!).
Secondly, you have to keep drawing first. Only when you have finished drawing does the house expose its second card and, if necessary start drawing its own cards.
Let’s assume the house has a 10 and a 6. You can see the 10, but don’t know the other card is a 6. It could be anything. In fact, because all the court cards as well as 10 have a value of 10 it is most likely to be 10 – which means you would have to beat 20.
So you start to draw.
Now let’s say you reach 16. Should you stop drawing?
No! As it is quite likely the house has 20, you cannot stop there. But if you draw a 10 now you will bust.
The house knows it only has a 6 hidden, and if you stop at your 13 you will probably win. The house will have to draw until it reaches at least 17, and will probably go bust instead.
But as you don’t know what the house has, you have to keep drawing. You Could stand, and you most certainly would if you knew what that second card was. But you don't know. The optimum strategy for you at this point, as you don't know what the house has, is to draw another card.
And so it is probably you that will go bust. If the next card is 7 or greater, you will go bust. But you still draw, if you are a good player and know the best strategy.
In the hand combinations I have just outlined, you have a negative expectation whether you stand (i.e. take no more cards) or draw. But that negative is greater if you stand, so you are better off drawing. Hence the best strategy is to draw, even though you will probably lose.
That is where the house gets its edge. From the fact that you have to draw without knowing what that second house card is.
An Ace can be either 1 or 11. If you have an Ace in your hand you will have two possible totals.
Let’s say you have an Ace and a 9. What is the total of your hand.
Well it is either 10 (1 plus 9) or 20 (11 plus 9). The 20 is called “soft 20”, which means that it is not fixed at 20. You can still consider it 10, and draw another card if you are foolish enough to chance that it will be another Ace (which is the only way you could better the soft 20, and get a 21).
Going back to that “hard 17” I mentioned earlier, let’s first consider what is meant by a soft 17.
An Ace and a 6 gives a soft 17. You can continue drawing to this. You will be hoping you either get a 4 or less – giving you up to a soft 21 (you would certainly stop there!) – or a combination of higher cards that will give you a hard count (one where the Ace now counts as 1 rather than 11) of more than 17. As your hand has two playable values - 7 or 17 - it is known as soft 17. It is 17, but can also change into 7.
If you have an Ace and a 6, and then draw a 10, you now have only one playable value. 17. So this is a hard 17. It is 17 and only 17.
All hands without Aces are hard hands, not soft hands. They only have one possible value. It is only hands with an Ace that can be a soft hand - i.e. have two possible values.
If the house had a soft 17 it would have to continue drawing. Once it reaches hard 17 it must stop.
If you had soft 17 you could stop if you wished.
If you have two cards of exactly the same denomination, most casinos will let you split them.
When you split your hand, this means you now create two hands, and play with each. It is as though you have now become two players, both playing against the casino, instead of one.
If you split your hand you will now have to double up your bet. Whatever you bet with the original hand you must now bet with each hand.
Each hand will now only have one card, so immediately you draw an extra card for each.
You then keep drawing, playing each hand just as if it were the only hand.
If you are lucky you might end up winning with both hands, giving you double the winnings. Or you might win with one hand and draw with the other, meaning you still win overall. Or you could win with one hand and lose with the other, which is the same as a draw – but perhaps in circumstances where you had calculated you were quite likely to lose if you did not split.
Take a look at double 8 as an example. This adds up to 16. A dangerous count. If you draw and the next card is 6 or more (which is well over half the cards in the deck) you will bust. But if you stay put, the house may well have a good chance of beating you. So 16 is not a particularly nice count to have.
However, with two 8s you can now split. There is quite a good chance each hand will now get a 10 or a court card – as there are more of them than any other card. If you are lucky, that means you now have two hands of 18 – which is a jolly sight better than one of 16!
Of course, you COULD lose both hands to the house, which then means you have lost twice as much money as you would have if you had not split your hand in the first place.
As you can see, the decision whether or not to split, where it is possible to do so, is quite key and also quite complex.
Most casinos allow you to double up.
If you think you are likely to get a really great hand if you draw one, and only one, more card, you can double your bet.
But once you do this, you can only draw one more card and you are stuck with it, no matter what it is.
Let’s say you have two card that add up to 11. There is a good chance the next card will be a 10 or court card, which will give you the best possible count of 21. You see that the house has a 6 exposed. You don’t know what the hidden card is, but again it is quite likely to be a 10 or court card, giving the house 16. You already know 16 is a bad hand to have, and I have just shown you that 11 is a good one. So the odds favour you.
This would be a very good time to double your bet. And most casinos will let you do this.
Finally, Blackjack itself. The hand that gives its name to the game.
Blackjack is simply an Ace and a 10 or court card, giving you 21 for the two cards.
Most casinos will pay you one and a half times your bet if you get Blackjack. Unless the house also has Blackjack – in which case most casino rules will say there is a draw.
If the house gets Blackjack and you don't, the house wins, of course. Even if you have 21. But the house only gets the original bet, not one and a half times the bet.
The optimum strategy in Blackjack is to know when to stay, when to draw, when to split, and when to double up. This will depend on what cards you hold, and what the face up card for the house is.
Good Blackjack players learn a set if rules so they know which decision to take with any given card combination.
If you order a copy of my book "How to beat the Casino at its own Game", I will give you an outline of those rules in a simple set of tables. Not only that, but I will also give you a step by step guide to a foolproof system to make guaranteed ongoing profits from playing at online casinos.
And that is the game of Blackjack in a not so small nutshell!
Most online casinos will let you sign up to play with "play money". This means you can play the game, but not lose any real money. As you know the house always has an edge (unless you use my system), this is the best way to play. Otherwise you will eventually inevitably lose money to the house.
Of course, this also means you cannot win any real money!