Anywhoo, I've been cracking my head open with this BlackJack game in java I've sort of haphazardly put together over the last few days. Basically, I am having an issue with the creating of my deck. I am using an ArrayList to hold the cards, but I cant figure out a way to correctly add a value to each card. If the combination of cards remaining in the deck contains high-value cards, it is a positive factor and is favorable for the player. When the deck contains a large number of tens and aces, it increases the players' chances of drawing a pat hand (17 or higher) or getting a natural blackjack. B lackjack Card Values. Each playing card used in blackjack is assigned a specific numeric value. Cards numbered from 2-9 are assigned face value. All 10's and face cards—jack, queen, king—have a value of 10. An ace is the only card in blackjack which has two possible values. Blackjack Points: Card and Hand Values. Blackjack uses standard playing cards which value from the numbers 2 thru 10 and have the royal cards such as jacks, queens, kings and aces. The red and black suits include diamond, hearts, clubs and spades. In most cases, the suit doesn't matter unless you are playing a special variation of blackjack.
Learn how to play blackjack, as well as the rules and strategies for winning at the card game. In this article, you'll learn
- The origins and history of blackjack.
- The rules and strategies of blackjack
- When to hit, stay, split and double down in blackjack
History of Blackjack
It's believed that the game of blackjack has its roots in France. It was originally known as 21. The goal of the game is to beat the dealer's hand by scoring 21 or as close to 21 as you can get without going over. If the dealer scores closest to 21, you lose.
Although blackjack was played even in early American gambling houses, it was never as popular a game as poker, so gaming houses had to spice it up a bit in order to give it a little more mass appeal. Some gambling houses offered bigger payouts for blackjack hands, while others gave bonuses for certain card combinations—namely an ace of spades with a jack of clubs.
That's how 21 was renamed blackjack—from the combination of those two cards.
In modern versions of the game, any 10-value card with any ace is considered blackjack, but wouldn't it be fun to mix it up a bit when playing at home and give an extra chip or two to the player who gets the jack of clubs/ace of spades combination?
Let's Play
When you request a hit in blackjack, you're asking the dealer to give you another card.
Blackjack is played with a standard 52-card deck and is a very simple game that requires a certain amount of skill based on a certain amount of luck. The luck part has to do with the cards you are dealt and the skill has to do with learning some basic strategies—mainly knowing when to hit, stand, split or double-down.
The goal is not to beat the other players at the table—whether that's the casino table or the kitchen table—the goal is to beat the dealer's hand.
The dealer begins by shuffling the cards. Some casinos play with up to as many as six decks, but at home one deck will do just fine. The dealer will then deal the cards to each player and to him- or herself. The dealer should be standing or sitting across from the other players and always starts the deal with the person on his or her left.
The hole card is the dealer's face-down card.
On the first deal, each player is dealt two cards, face-down. The dealer deals him- or herself one card face-down (the hole card) and the other card face-up. Each player is basically playing a separate game based on the cards he or she is dealt and in relation to what the player thinks the dealer has.
The dealer begins with the first player on his or her left. That player looks at his or her cards and determines if he or she can take another card without going over 21. It's important to get a good look at the dealer's face-up card because that could determine what strategy you decide to use in playing your own hand.
The cards are valued as follows:
- Ace = Either 1 point or 11 points
- Face cards = 10 points
- Number cards = Face value of card
- Blackjack: One Ace and any card with a 10-point value
You can keep score according to wins, and determine the winning player by the number of games won. If you don't want to play for money, play for chips or for chores around the house.
Technically, scoring 21 with more than two cards is not considered blackjack, but you can still win this way. If you total 21 before the dealer or any other player, you win the pot.
When your cards are dealt, add them up and figure out whether you want to stand with what you have or take another card. In home games, you will say to the dealer, 'hit me' or 'stay,' while at the casino you will use hand motions to tell the dealer what you want to do.
There are many strategies for standing or hitting, but basically, you just have to figure out your odds. If your cards total nine, chances are pretty good that you'll be able to take another card without going over 21. If your cards total 18, your chances of going over 21 are much greater, and you will likely want to stay.
Remember that you are not only trying to score as close to 21 as possible, but you are trying to beat the dealer—so you have to check out the dealer's cards, too. The problem is, you can only see one of his or her cards at this time and you have to do some guessing to figure out if you can beat him or her.
Hitting and Standing
When you have your cards, you have to decide whether to hit or stand. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes your choice will be obvious. The tricky cards are the ones that add up to between 12 and 16.
The dealer works with one player at a time, starting with the first player on his or her left. The dealer stays with that player until he or she stands or busts (goes over 21). When that first player is finished with his or her turn, the dealer moves on to the next player and continues around the table until each person has played his or her hand.
If you decide to take the hit, the dealer will toss down a card face-up in front of you. You can either indicate that you want another hit or that you want to stand. If your hand is blackjack, turn your cards face-up to show the dealer what you have. If you're playing for chips, you will immediately receive a payout at this point and the game continues with the other players. If the dealer also has a blackjack, the play is called a push. You keep your original bet, but you don't win anything more.
The Dealer's Hand
After the deal, the dealer will have one face-up and one face-down card in front of him or her. If the face-up card has a value of 10, the dealer will look at the face-down card to check for a blackjack. If he or she has blackjack, he or she will turn over the cards and take your bet and your hand away.
If you have blackjack, the dealer will take your cards, but you keep your bet. If you are not playing for money, you and the dealer are considered tied if you both have blackjack.
If the dealer does not have blackjack, he or she will continue the play around the table. If the dealer's face-up card is an ace, he or she will go around the table and ask the players if they want 'insurance.'
Insurance
If you're playing for money, or in the casino, the dealer will ask you if you want insurance if his or her face-up card is an ace. The ace is, of course, the card that determines a blackjack. If the dealer's face-down card is a 10-value card (and there are 16 of these cards) he or she has blackjack.
If you decide to take insurance, you can bet up to half of your original bet by placing your chips below your original bet. If the dealer has a 10-value card, then he will pay off the insurance bets at two to one, but you lose your original bet. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the players lose their insurance bets and play continues with the original bets. This is why you're no better off taking insurance.
Three Strikes
Casinos will use the insurance rules, but don't be fooled—it's just a sneaky way for casinos to try and make some extra cash. The odds are against you in taking insurance, so beware.
Let's say you bet $10 and you decide to take insurance because the dealer's face-up card is an Ace. You place another $5 under your original bid. If the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose your $5, but keep your original bet of $10. You're out $5. If the dealer does have blackjack, you lose your original bet of $10, but the dealer pays out two to one, thus giving you back $10. You haven't made a penny.
/winning-blackjack-hand-on-casino-table-520257696-58979c263df78caebc19a6e7.jpg "Value Of Cards In Blackjack")
Why is insurance even an option then? Beats me. You neither gain nor lose from it—only the casino turns a profit from insurance.
Splitting and Doubling-Down
When you split your hand in blackjack, what you do is turn your two cards face-up side-by-side, and if you're betting, place another bet of identical value to your original bet. You are now playing two hands. The dealer will deal to the hand on your right first—until you stand or bust—and then the dealer will play to your other hand.
The abilities to split or double-down are the strategies that make the game interesting. If you are dealt two cards of the same value—let's say two 8s—you can split the hand.
If you are dealt another 8, you can re-split and play three hands by moving that 8 alongside the other two cards, or just place another bet on the table, equal to your two previous bets.
Casino rules will vary, but some have strict rules about re-splitting. If you are unsure of the rules, just ask the dealer. Also, some casinos will not allow you to touch your cards, so in this case, just place another bet over your cards and the dealer will know that you are splitting.
At home, make sure you establish the rules before you start the game. It might be fun to adopt some of the strict casino rules just to liven things up a little.
Experts advise that you should always split aces, and it is highly recommended to split 8s. https://dicekouvigamesbonusplannereasygambling.peatix.com.
Doubling-down refers to doubling your bet, so if you're playing for money or chips at home, you can certainly employ this strategy. It is a strategy that is definitely used in the casinos—so you should know about it if you're heading to a blackjack table near you.
The best time to double-down is when the two cards in your hand total 11. That means you are banking that the next card you are dealt will be a 10-value card. It's a real gamble, but the odds are pretty good that you will get a 10-value card because there are so many of them in a deck.
Doubling-down means that you can double the size of your original bet. You do this by turning your cards face up and placing another bet on the table that is equal to your original bet. When you double-down, you are dealt one more card—meaning you do not have the option to stand on your original hand or take any more hits after you are dealt the one extra card.
Basic Strategy
Why is insurance even an option then? Beats me. You neither gain nor lose from it—only the casino turns a profit from insurance.
Splitting and Doubling-Down
When you split your hand in blackjack, what you do is turn your two cards face-up side-by-side, and if you're betting, place another bet of identical value to your original bet. You are now playing two hands. The dealer will deal to the hand on your right first—until you stand or bust—and then the dealer will play to your other hand.
The abilities to split or double-down are the strategies that make the game interesting. If you are dealt two cards of the same value—let's say two 8s—you can split the hand.
If you are dealt another 8, you can re-split and play three hands by moving that 8 alongside the other two cards, or just place another bet on the table, equal to your two previous bets.
Casino rules will vary, but some have strict rules about re-splitting. If you are unsure of the rules, just ask the dealer. Also, some casinos will not allow you to touch your cards, so in this case, just place another bet over your cards and the dealer will know that you are splitting.
At home, make sure you establish the rules before you start the game. It might be fun to adopt some of the strict casino rules just to liven things up a little.
Experts advise that you should always split aces, and it is highly recommended to split 8s. https://dicekouvigamesbonusplannereasygambling.peatix.com.
Doubling-down refers to doubling your bet, so if you're playing for money or chips at home, you can certainly employ this strategy. It is a strategy that is definitely used in the casinos—so you should know about it if you're heading to a blackjack table near you.
The best time to double-down is when the two cards in your hand total 11. That means you are banking that the next card you are dealt will be a 10-value card. It's a real gamble, but the odds are pretty good that you will get a 10-value card because there are so many of them in a deck.
Doubling-down means that you can double the size of your original bet. You do this by turning your cards face up and placing another bet on the table that is equal to your original bet. When you double-down, you are dealt one more card—meaning you do not have the option to stand on your original hand or take any more hits after you are dealt the one extra card.
Basic StrategyBlackjack is not just a game of chance. While a lot depends on the luck of the draw, there are many strategies to better your odds of winning. Here are some basic strategies to help you play a better hand:
- Always hit any hand that totals 11 or under.
- Stand on 17 and over. (The only exception to this rule is when you have a soft 17—meaning the hand contains an ace. And even here, be careful of the dealer hand—check out his or her cards before asking for a hit.)
- For cards totaling 12 to 16, whether to hit or stand depends on the dealer's face-up cards: Hit if the dealer has a 7 or higher; stand if the dealer has 2 or 3 points.
- Never take insurance.
- Always split aces and 8s.
- Never split 4s, 5s, and 10-value cards. The odds will be against you.
- Never double-down below 8 points.
- Always double-down on 11 points.
- When you have 10 points, double-down when the dealer shows 2 and 9.
Looking for more family-friendly card games? Check out how to play Hearts.
In the game of 21, a player's probability of winning depends on the cards still in the shoe. It didn't take players long to figure out that if they could keep track of which had already been played and which were still in the shoe to be dealt, they could gain an advantage against the casino.
[showSites]
The idea behind counting cards is to figure out whether the shoe (a nickname for the collection of decks used in a blackjack game) contains more cards that give you an advantage or more cards that favor the dealer. Card counters are simply watching the cards disappearing from the game so they can place larger bets at less risk, if the shoe favors them. Gaining an edge by varying your bets depending on the cards remaining to be dealt requires a card counting system of some sort. Is it legal to own a slot machine.
Card Values in Counting Systems: How to Count Cards in Blackjack Royal ruby casino.
Examples of Blackjack Card-Counting Techniques
Card counting methods all assign positive, negative, or neutral values to every card in the game. Counters adjust the value of a hand based on the value of every card that gets played. In other words – what is the effect of removing the card from the game?
Statistically, speaking, a deck loaded with high-value cards benefits the player more than the dealer – in casino blackjack; the dealer has to hit hands in the 12-16 range while a player can take the option of standing. If a player knows that a deck contains a large number of ten point cards, he can bet more conservatively than the dealer. A shoe made up of more high-value cards also increases the chance of landing a natural blackjack (an ace paired with any ten-value card, a hand that pays out at 3:2). Low cards increase the count – by being removed from the game, as they increase the ratio of high cards to low cards in the game.
Hi-Lo Card Counting
A perfect example of this most basic counting formula is the High Low or Hi-Lo method, designed by a man named Harvey Dubner. In this system, one point is subtracted from your basic running count for every ten, Jack, Queen, King or Ace that is dealt, while a point is added for any card with a face value of 2-6. In this system, cards 7-9 are neutral and don't affect the count at all. Count all the way through a standard 52-card deck and you'll see that the overall point value of the deck is zero, according to Dubner's system.
The High-Low system is considered a single-level or level-one count, because a running tally of the cards will never get bigger or smaller by more than one unit. First, figure out how many decks are in the shoe – let's use a four-deck game for simplicity's sake. Regardless of the size of the deck, the value starts at zero at the beginning of the game. Based on the point system described above, a series of ten cards out of this shoe that looks like this – 4, 6, 10, 7, Q, A, 8, 4, 2, and 2 – would equal a running count that looks like this – 1 +1 -1 +0 -1 -1 +0 +1 +1 +1, leaving you with a final total of +2.
Now to get the real value of the shoe after these first ten cards, you need to divide that number by the number of decks still in the shoe – this is what counters call the True Count. No need for any complex math here; if our running count is +2 and there are nearly 4 decks left, then we simply divide 2 by 4 for a total of 0.5. To keep it simple, many High Low counters round all half-point values up, so that our final count in this example is +1.
So what do you do with that information? You should place more bets the higher your true count gets. Of course, over time new systems have been developed to help players figure out the ratio of high-value to lower value cards in the shoe. Edward O. Thorp, a fascinating character that's also famous for building the world's first wearable computer, published a book called Beat the Dealer in 1962 that was the first to show that players could gain an advantage in blackjack by keeping a count. A math professor at MIT, Thorp wrote the book as an academic essay, the first use of computer simulations applied to games of chance. The book hit the New York Times bestseller list, and modern card counting was born.
The Hi Lo method described above is just one of many different point systems used in blackjack strategy. If you want to learn to track the point values in a game, dozens of methods exist that assign different values for different cards, with the purpose being to keep track of the ratio of high cards to low cards still in the game.
Methods for Counting in Blackjack
Finding a system that is simple enough to use is more important than finding the statistically best method – whatever point value system makes sense to you is the one you should use.
Hi Opt
Sometimes called the Einstein (though the inventor is Charles Einstein, not the world-famous physicist Albert), this is a variation on Hi Lo that is really easy to learn once you wrap your head around that basic method. In fact, values of points are almost identical. The big difference in Hi Opt is that aces and twos are neutral cards.
The name of the system should be a big clue to what it is – an optimized version of Hi Lo. How do slot machines payout. Developed to give a more accurate count than the point values assigned in the original system, Hi Opt proponents say that keeping track of aces separately (by wiggling or tapping your toes, for example) makes this point tracking system even more accurate. For example, knowing the number of aces still in the shoe (along with your Hi Opt point count) would affect your strategy in terms of taking insurance or doubling down.
KO
Sometimes called the Knockout method, this is another counting system based on Hi Lo point values with a slight twist. Cards are worth the same in the KO method as they are in Hi Lo, except that sevens add a point, instead of being of neutral value. That makes KO an unbalanced system – if you add up all the point values in the deck, the total does not equal zero.
The point of unbalanced systems, and the thinking behind the KO system is to make it easier to count multiple decks. Without the need to turn your running total into the true count described above, keeping track of the deck is easier.
Red 7
A system that combines both the Hi Lo and KO's take on sevens is known as Red7. When counting using this system, the seven of diamonds and the seven of hearts add one to the count, as though they were another low-value card. In this system, the seven of clubs and the seven of spades are neutral cards. The imbalance created in the total count of a single deck allows blackjack players to avoid having to compute a true count.
In Red7, all counts of 0 or better indicate that the shoe favors the player. In order to keep this standard across all numbers of decks, your starting point total changes. Multiply the total number of decks in the shoe by -2 to get your starting point; for example, a four-deck game requires a starting total of -8.
Revere Count
Face Value Of Cards In Blackjack
Invented by pro blackjack player Lawrence Revere, this is a more complex way to keep track of the point total than the ones we've looked at above. In Revere's system, the deck is broken up into groups, with each group worth a set point amount.
With Revere, all twos and sevens are worth +2. All threes, fours, and sixes are worth +3. All fives are worth +4, and only the eight is neutral. This system removes one point for nines, takes away three points for 10s and any face card, and all Aces are worth -4.
Blackjack Card Numbers
With these point values, any count on the high side means it's a good time to start increasing your bet, since a high ratio of high-value cards are left. The problem with advanced systems like Revere's is that you may as well memorize the entire deck and forget about the count altogether – the wide range of point values make keeping track of cards in blackjack significantly more difficult. Revere's method uses four different values for cards in the game, and requires a lot more practice to use in a live game.
Value Of Cards In Blackjack
These are just a few of the various ways of keeping track of cards in blackjack. The point value assigned to a card in the game of 21 depends both on its face value and the method you're using for keeping a running count.
