The Ace is considered the most powerful card and the pillar of blackjack. It contains the potential to draw to blackjack because it reaches the highest level in the game — 11 points. Also, it can easily turn into 1 point if there is a threat to collect more than 21 points. Every player dreams of getting an Ace. But the opposite is also true — if the Ace ends up in the hands of the dealer, this is an alarm signal for the players sitting at the gambling table. They can even take insurance by splitting their bet into two parts to avoid losing their money. Find out how an Ace improves your chances of winning at blackjack and what wise decisions you can make when you have one or two among your cards.
Ace as the Highest-Ranking Card in Blackjack
The ace is the most valued card in many card games, including blackjack. Here, it possesses a particular value for several reasons:
- Only the presence of an Ace can guarantee the player a natural blackjack, for which they will receive a win at a ratio of 3/2 to their original bet. To get it, one of two cards must be an Ace, and the second must be Ten, Jack, Queen, or King.
- The Ace has flexibility, which allows it to instantly change its value and turn into 1. This situation is relevant if you received an Ace and a card with a small value, chose Hit, but the third card has a high numerical value. In this case, it would be in your best interest to turn the 11 into a 1 to stay within 21 points.
- The dealer’s Ace as an up-card warns you of the danger of losing your bet. Therefore, you can take proactive measures and reduce it by half to minimize losses.
What Is a Soft Blackjack Hand?
One of the dangers of blackjack is getting more than 21 points. It is carefully avoided because as soon as it happens, the player or dealer loses their bet. This situation has received the special name “busting,” and only the presence of an Ace allows it to be avoided. Therefore, in blackjack, it is customary to distinguish risky and safe situations in terms of “busting:”
- Your risk of scoring more than 21 points tends to zero if you have an Ace in your hand. Therefore, such a hand will be called “soft.”
- If two or more cards give you the risk of busting, the hand is called a “hard.” It may be in a situation where you are dealt two cards that add up to a high value. This means that by choosing a hit as your next move, you risk going over more than 21 points. A hard hand can also contain an Ace if it counts as one point. For example, this could be a situation where on the first hand, you received a 5 and a 6, and the third card contained an Ace. In this case, you have 12 points, which means there is a risk of “busting” if you decide to hit.
- There is also a hand that is neither soft nor hard. This happens when the dealer has dealt you cards with a low value, and therefore, by choosing a hit, you do not risk going beyond 21 points.
When Is It Necessary to Split Cards?
An Ace is too precious a card to hold 2 Aces together if the dealer made such a hand. Therefore, experienced players always split them into 2 bets, which allows them to get one more card for each Ace. This move increases your chances of winning, so it’s worth taking advantage of this opportunity.
If you do not split two Aces, this will give you only 12 or 2 points:
- If the next card is between 2 and 9 points, you can equate two aces to 12 points.
- If it is a Ten or face card, two Aces will give you only 2 points so as not to end up in a busting situation.
Therefore, you are better off splitting them up from the very beginning and playing each Ace separately. In this case, each of the Aces will contain the potential for a natural blackjack. And your chances of winning 3/2 of your bet will double. However, this situation also contains certain risks since the player doubles their bet. This means that if none of the Aces help you win, you will lose twice as much money as if you had not split these two cards.
Rules You Have to Follow
When applying a particular strategy with one or two Aces, you must remember the limitations as well. Their activation by casinos is not accidental. The reason is that a player with an Ace in their hands has a much greater chance of winning! Therefore, they must be balanced by certain rules that slightly level out this situation:
- Using the strategy of splitting two Aces, you can get the same limitation as using the double-down strategy. It assumes that you can receive only one card after splitting the Aces and doubling your bet. And if the new card drawn is low, you run the risk of losing to the dealer.
- Also, when choosing a strategy for splitting Aces, you must realize that this strategy can only be used once in the game. This is explained by the fact that such a happy coincidence puts the casino at risk of losing significant funds. And since blackjack is already considered a low-risk game for players, which has the lowest house edges, the casino will not reduce its chances of making a profit ever more.
- The casino may set a rule that blackjack, as a result of using the Aces splitting strategy, will not be natural. This means that the player will not be able to get the highest win of 3/2 of their bet. Of course, they will receive a win if they collect 21 points on any of the Aces, but it will be 1:1.
Aces as a Hint for Next Move
Professional card players always keep track of how many Aces are already on the table. This tells them which strategy is best for their next move. Since there are only 4 Aces in any deck, you can estimate how many Aces are left in the deck. Even if you’re not playing with just one deck of cards but choose 2, 4, or even 8, simple math will tell you whether the deck remaining in the shoe is an Ace-rich deck. If there are more aces left in the deck than in a typical situation, the chances of winning increase. Therefore, you can safely choose the strategy of doubling your starting bet in the hope of getting a bigger win.
Conclusion
Knowing all these features of unlocking the power of Aces in blackjack, you will be able to overcome the dealer and collect 21 points. Learn the ins and outs of this popular card game to understand which move is most likely to lead you to the maximum win. Aces are your main ticket to success in blackjack and the most crucial card in the game. Use their full potential and enjoy wise moves and growing winnings.
