Blackjack Card Values — A Complete Reference
Every card value in blackjack explained: number cards, face cards, and the ace's dual role as 1 or 11. Understand hard and soft hands, busting, and how to count your hand total.
Understanding card values is the first step in blackjack. Once you know how each card contributes to a hand total, the rest of the game follows naturally.
Card Values at a Glance
| Card | Value |
|---|---|
| 2 – 9 | Face value (2 = 2, 7 = 7, etc.) |
| 10, J, Q, K | 10 |
| Ace | 1 or 11 (your choice) |
Number Cards (2–9)
Number cards are the simplest. Each card is worth exactly its printed value. A 3 is worth 3, a 7 is worth 7, and so on. There are no special rules — what you see is what you get.
Face Cards: 10, Jack, Queen, King
The 10 and all three face cards (J, Q, K) are worth exactly 10 points. Every suit therefore has four 10-value cards: the 10, jack, queen and king.
The Ace: 1 or 11
The ace is blackjack’s defining card. It can count as either 1 or 11, whichever benefits your hand at any given moment. This flexibility is automatic — you never have to announce which value you intend; the count simply adjusts to avoid busting.
Soft Hands
When your hand includes an ace counting as 11, it is called a soft hand. The ace “softens” the hand because even if you draw a high card, the ace simply reverts to 1.
- Ace + 6 = soft 17 (the ace counts as 11; 11 + 6 = 17)
- If you then hit and draw a 9: 1 + 6 + 9 = hard 16 (the ace must now count as 1 to avoid busting)
Hard Hands
A hard hand is any hand with no ace, or a hand where the ace must count as 1 because counting it as 11 would cause a bust.
- 9 + 7 = hard 16 (no ace)
- Ace + 7 + 9 = hard 17 (the ace must count as 1)
A Natural (Blackjack)
An ace paired with any 10-value card (10, J, Q, K) is called a natural or simply blackjack. A natural beats any non-natural 21. Under the standard payout, a winning natural returns 3:2: a stake of 10 credits produces 15 credits in winnings. A 6:5 payout produces 12 credits instead and adds about 1.39 percentage points to the house edge compared with 3:2, according to the Wizard of Odds blackjack rule analysis.
Counting Your Total
Your hand total is the sum of all card values. Blackjack allows you to have at most one flexible ace (once the ace must fall to 1, the hand is hard). Here are a few examples:
| Cards | Total | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 7 + 8 | 15 | Hard 15 |
| A + 6 | 17 | Soft 17 |
| A + 6 + 10 | 17 | Hard 17 (ace reverts to 1) |
| A + A | 12 or soft 12 | Soft 12 (usually treated as one ace = 11, other = 1) |
| K + Q | 20 | Hard 20 |
| A + K | 21 | Natural blackjack |
Busting
If your hand total exceeds 21, you bust and the hand ends immediately, regardless of what the dealer subsequently does. With hard 16, drawing any 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10-value card causes a bust.
Why the Ace Makes Blackjack Strategic
The ace’s dual value, combined with the large proportion of 10-value cards in the deck, creates situations where different decisions have different expected outcomes.
A soft 18 (A-7) can accept another card without busting immediately because the ace can change from 11 to 1. Strategy tables treat this hand differently depending on the dealer’s upcard and the rules in use.
The basic strategy chart shows how hard hands, soft hands and pairs are classified under a defined ruleset. The blackjack overview explains how those hand types fit into a complete round.