Blackjack rules VI
Blackjack is a gambling game of cards and value of the cards is an important aspect of the game and it helps determine the strength of the hand and the outcome of play.
The suits of the cards are not relevant to the game and the value of a hand is determined entirely according to the point system of the cards which are added to arrive at the strength of the player’s hand. So, if someone has the 5, 7 and 9 cards in his hand his hand strength is valued at 21.
Two things are to be remembered in connection with assigning value to blackjack cards. While the cards from 2 to 9 assume face value, the 10 card and all the subsequent face cards, that is, the king, queen and jack cards have been given the value of 10 in a blackjack game.
The ace card in this game can have either of the two values – 1 or 11. Interestingly a player is not required to make his ace card value known beforehand. In course of the game whatever value of the ace card makes the player’s hand best possible without exceeding 21 is taken into account. The situation of what an ace card’s value would be taken can be illustrated by an example of a player’s hand. If a player has initially the ace and the 9 card in his hand, his point value may either be 10 or 20. If the player does not draw any other card, his hand would be regarded as value 20; however if he draws another card, say, 5, then his point value becomes either 15 or 25. Now when the player had only two cards, his best possible hand was made by taking the ace as 11. But with three cards, if ace value is taken as 11, the hand strength exceeds 21; so in this case the ace is valued as 1 and the player’s hand strength becomes 15.
