The color of the cards does not have any effect. A soft-hand score of 17 is denoted as 7/17. A score with an ace valued as 11 is named soft-hand.
All face cards (Jack, Queen, King) count 10 and the Ace either 1 or 11, as the holders desires. The values of the cards correspond to their numerical value from 2-10. Blackjack is played with 1 to 9 decks of 52 cards each. In order to understand how the best strategy is computed, lets have a look at the Blackjack rules.