Ace-seven is by far the most difficult hand for the professional blackjack player to handle. Depending on what the dealer is showing, you will either hit, stand, or double down.

Blackjack is played with 1 to 9 decks of 52 cards each. The values of the cards correspond to their numerical value from 2-10. All face cards (Jack, Queen, King) count 10 and the Ace either 1 or 11, as. Many blackjack tables offer a side bet on various outcomes including: Player hand and dealer's up card sum to 19, 20, or 21 ('Lucky Lucky') Player initial hand is a pair ('Perfect pairs') Player initial hand is. This is because in blackjack an ace can be counted as one or eleven. When you are dealt a soft hand at the blackjack table, the dealer will speak of your hands as “3 or 13, 4 or 14, 5 or 15,” etc. Just as the ace holds all the cards in poker, so it carries significant weight in blackjack. Most importantly, you need an ace to make blackjack, hitting the magical 21 combining an ace with a ten or picture card. But the ace also benefits from being valued high or low, so one or 11. The Ace is always valued at 11 unless that would result in the hand going over 21, in which case it is valued as 1. Any hand with an Ace valued as 11 is called a ‘soft’ hand. All other hands are ‘hard’ hands. A starting hand of a 10 valued card and an Ace is called a Blackjack or natural and beats all hands other than another Blackjack.

Basic Strategy tells us that we should double if the dealer is showing 3 through 6, stand on 2, 7, and 8, and hit on 9, 10, and A. This may come as a shock to some since common sense tells us to stay with an 18 regardless of what the dealer has. Let's look at the math behind the strategy.

First, we must look at A-7 as a plain old 18. Basic Strategy dictates that we stand on a pat 18 regardless of what the dealer is showing; we want to get to 17 or higher and then let Lady Luck determine the outcome. This isn't necessarily the case for a soft 18.

• If the dealer is showing a 2, the return on an 18 is $.12 for each dollar invested.
• For 3 through 6, this jumps up ranging from $0.40 to $0.50 per dollar.
• 7 is also $0.40.
• At 8, it goes back down to $0.11.
• 9 through A plummets into a negative return of $0.18 to $0.10 loss per dollar.

So is it really worthwhile to go against the common sense factor and hit an 18 if the dealer is showing 9-A?

• Hitting A-7 on a dealers 9 gives us a negative return of $0.10,
• 10 a negative return of $0.14, and
• Ace a negative return of $0.09.

The spread here, while not seeming like much, is less than the -$0.18 to -$0.10 return of staying. To minimize the damage, hitting on these cards is a necessity.

Doubling is the third option with this hand. In this case, you count the hand as an 8 and pray for a 9 or 10, or you count it as an 18 and hope for an Ace through 3.

First of all, doubling when the dealer is showing:

• 9 through A gives us a -$0.29 to -$0.36 return, far greater of a loss than hitting. So doubling on those cards is out of the question.
• Doubling on 8 is also a negative return (-$0.03), whereas it's a positive return to hit. Again, out of the question.
• Doubling on 7 is a positive return of $0.22, which is less than the $0.40 you will get with staying. If the dealer is showing a 7, it makes economic sense to stand.
• Doubling on the dealer's 2 is also $0.12 return, but it is less than a cent less difference of a return than standing. In the long run, this adds up to major dollars, believe me. You will want to stay rather than risking the double in this case.
• That leaves 3 through 6. The math here gets tricky, so pay careful attention. The numbers above regarding standing on 18 don't take into account the power of the Ace. As you know, the Ace can be counted as either a 1 or an 11, and because of this, hitting on A-7 is not nearly as dangerous as hitting a pat 18. In fact, the 23% (3/13) chance of drawing a card to better your 18 makes the diminished return on doubling the right move.

While the return ranges from $0.18 to $0.38 (compared to the $0.40 to $0.50 of staying), the 23% odds of improving plus the doubled amount of money pumped into the hand make doubling the most profitable choice.

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More on How to play Blackjack

Blackjack odds are percentage figures which represent your probability of losing or winning a hand. They can also represent the house edge or their profit margins as well. Usually probability odds don't mean much on the short term, but they clearly average out in the long term and this is why the casinos always win over the long term.

We decided to make a few tables and charts of the most common blackjack probability odds for various scenarios and situations found while playing blackjack. The most important odds percentage represents the dealer's edge in the game. This is the long term advantage that they have which will eventually take your money away. Blackjack is actually one of the most popular games in the casino and also has some of the lowest odds of all the casino games, except casino craps of course. Generally their edge ranges from 1% to 15% depending on what variation of blackjack you are playing.

How to Beat the Casino House Odds

There is one feature that makes blackjack more desirable than any other casino game. There is actually a way to beat the house edge by increasing your odds. In fact, your probability odds in blackjack can be increase to the point where you would actually be making the profit in the long term, essentially turning the casino into a personal ATM. This practice is known as card counting and casinos don't like this because they know they will be losing money.

Before you start card counting, you should learn 'blackjack basic strategy', which is the mathematically correct way to play every move in blackjack to get the best odds. This can lower the house edge to less than 1 percent. When that percentage goes to a negative number such as -1%, then it is you who has the edge over the casino. This is when you complement basic strategy with card counting to get the highest efficiencies.

Odds vs. Dealer Up Card

The first odds chart shows what kind of advantage the player has vs. the dealer based on what his up card is showing. The first column in the chart is what card the dealer has showing after the cards have been dealt. The second column of the table shows the dealer's probability of going bust based on each card. The last column shows the advantage the player has and the probability of winning based on the basic strategy theory. As you can see, the dealer has about a 43% chance of going bust when he has a 5 showing as an up card. At the same time, the player has about 23% advantage as well. Notice that the player advantage goes negative when the 10 cards and ace start showing up. This means the player is more likely to lose.

Blackjack odds of Busting While Taking a Hit

This chart shows the probabilities of going bust after taking a hit. Busting means that your card total would go over 21 points and would be a hard total as well. The highest score you can get when being initially dealt two cards is 21 points so you can never go bust. This means if you took a hit on a hard 21, you would have a 100% probablity of going bust, which is common sense. Also, if you have 11 points or less, it is impossible to go over 21 points on the next hit and your odds of going bust would be 0 percent.

House Advantage with Multiple Number of Decks

The number of 52 card decks in a game of blackjack influences the house edge. In some cases, the odds increase in favor of the casino when more decks are used. The advantage edge can be as much as 1% towards the casino and this is a big number in terms of odds over the long term. As you can see here, a single deck of card gives the lowest edge for the casino and gives the player better odds. Multiple decks such as eight decks increases the house edge almost 18 times more than it would for the single deck!

Two Card Frequency Odds

The next odds table deals with the first two cards being dealt or the 2 card frequency odds. Every player is dealt two cards at the beginning of a round of blackjack so this chart tells you the percentage of getting different categories of hands. A natural blackjack is only 4.8%, which essentially is an ace dealt with a ten card straight off the initial deal. Normally the odds are 3 to 2 and you would win $3 for every $2 wagered. It's a small percentage but it's the most desirable hand to get. The lowest hand you can get is two points (two aces). This is part of the decision hands group where players are usually dealt soft hands and can make decisions without going bust. This group is the most common.

What's An Ace In Blackjack

The other category is the hard standing hands. These hands are somewhat desirable because of the high scores likely to beat the dealer. These are the second most frequent two card blackjack hands. Finally there is a no bust two card hand. No bust means any two card hand that won't bust on the next hit, such as any soft hand or hard hand that is 11 points or less.

Probability Edge for Each Card Removed from Deck

The next table shows how much your odds improve after when certain cards have been dealt and removed from the deck. Certain cards taken out of the deck and increase or decrease your blackjack odds percentage and the house edge.

This is very important for card counting. If you want the absolute perfect odds in card counting, you have to acount for each small change in the odds whenever a card is dealt. As you can see from the table, when small cards are taken out of play, the odds increase in your favor overall. This is a paramount property of card counting. The opposite happens when large cards are dealt. Your odds begin to decrease. When you are counting cards, you will notice your count decreasing when large cards are dealt.

You can imagine how complicated it would be to be adding these numbers in your head while card counting at the same time. If your mind was a computer, it would be easier to keep track of the percentage. Some people can do this, and this is the way to become a perfect card counter! It is easier to keep track of the odds when playing with a single blackjack deck. For example, when five cards are seen on the table, they offer a 0.67% increase in your advantage. In fact, when a lot of fives are used up, your odds will be much higher than if any of the other low cards were used up, even the six point cards. Also, these effects are cumulative so you always need to keep track of the odds after every card is dealt. This data is actually quite amazing!

What Is An Ace In Blackjack

Dealer Final Hand Probability Odds

This next table shows the odds of what the dealer's final hand will be. Usually in blackjack, the dealer must hit on 16 and stand on 17. These rules are slightly different for other variations of twenty-one. So generally, the odds of the dealer's final score being 16 are 0% because he must hit. This table will show the probability of the dealer busting or getting a non-bust hand as well as natural blackjacks.

One Player Blackjack