The Black Jack

Have you ever been told that the Black Jack card game cannot possibly employ any strategies? For example, many logical people argue that it is strictly a game of chance which does not offer up any way to implement a sound or workable strategy. This, however, isn’t necessarily accurate.

For one thing, the Black Jack card game is played with a fixed array of cards, and this means that a clever player can make some very reasonable assumptions about any particular hand.

For instance, many experienced players would tell you that the cards with a value of ten can be used to formulate a somewhat “winning” game plan. This is because a game played with a single deck involves sixteen cards valued at ten. The face cards (of which there are twelve) and the actual numeric cards (of which there are four) make it quite likely that a dealer is holding one of the ten cards at any given time. Most experienced players of the Black Jack card game would tell you that this is, in fact, more often true than most would believe.

So, if the dealer is holding such a card in their “hole” (facing downward) how can that be put to use in a strategy? It requires the players to consider the card that is showing to know how to respond. When a dealer is showing a card valued at two to six, they are in a very vulnerable position. This is because they are holding a sixteen at the very most, and will have to continue to “hit” in order to beat the hands of the other players and get closer to twenty-one than anyone else. When they have a seven through ten, or the Ace, however, they are in a very good position because they are extremely close to the optimal score and this forces the players to take all the risks if they want to win.