The most important card, sometimes the most thrilling and a bit disappointing at others, is none other the Ace. In the World of Blackjack there is nothing more sweeter than being dealt an Ace with a Picture, completing a Blackjack or a Natural. Everytime a Blackjack is dealt, you are assured of getting paid out instantly, one and a half times of your bet, without having to worry about the Dealer’s cards.
But, as good an Ace can be to you in a game, at times it can be quite frustrating to be dealt an Ace with a non-picture card or if the Dealer deals one to himself. How to deal with an Ace in these situations can be really tricky at times and you have to be really careful with your decisions. Here are a few useful tips that you may use to your advantage, while dealing with the Ace:
- You are Dealt a pair of Aces: Once you are dealt a pair of Aces, you should not think twice before splitting them. Although you will be investing twice the amount of money in that hand, you have a fairly high chance to score a full double up. This is owing to the majority of picture cards in the deck and other cards with high value.
- Dealer’s face up card is an Ace: This is the most difficult bullet to dodge, specially if you have been dealt a weak hand. Although there is Insurance offered by almost all the online and live casinos, but that too, may present you with more trouble and you may end up losing more than your initial bet in that hand. We would recommend you not to go for the Insurance and try and get your hand’s total to atleast seventeen and then hope that the dealer does not pull an Ace for himself.
- You are dealt an Ace with a non-picture card: Once you are dealt an Ace with a non-picture card, you have a soft hand. The good thing about the Ace is that, you can assume its value to be 11 or 1, while making a hit or stay decision. We would recommend you to stick to the basic strategy and try and get the total to 18, which is a decent total to sit on. So if you are dealt an Ace and a 9, that will total 20, even though you can draw more cards as you can assume the total to be 10 or 20, but it would not make any sense. Similarly if you are dealt, an Ace with a 4 and the next card is a 3, this will total 8 or 18. You should ideally stop taking any more cards, as mentioned before, it is a good total to sit on.
These are a few basic strategies to deal with an Ace in different situations. Although you still need some luck to go your way, but in the long run, these will help you to sustain against the dealer, whenever an Ace poses a challenge for you in any hand.