The ace is the special card in blackjack. This card can be used as either 1 or 11, depending on which of these makes the best hand. If an ace is used as 11, this means the hand you have is soft, whereas the hand is hard if you use the ace as 1. At casinos, the dealer will call out the value of the hand before you play your cards, and if you have an ace, they’ll call out both the hard and the soft values.