Soft And Hard In Blackjack
Below, you will find the correct hitting and standing plays for soft-totals in standard six-deck blackjack. Note that if a soft hand transitions into a hard one on the next hit, you should treat it as such. Blackjack Game Hard Hands. Now you are fully aware of what a Soft Hand is, let us tell you about Hard Hands, a Hard Hand is simply any two card hand that does not contain an Ace, and therefore only have one possible value as opposed to two values which Soft Hands. This bonus only Soft And Hard Totals Blackjack applies for deposits Soft And Hard Totals Blackjack of £10 or higher! All you need Soft And Hard Totals Blackjack to do is just deposit the money in your. Always stand on hard 17 and up; Stand on soft 18 (hit when the dealer has 10, 9 or A) Always stand on soft 19 and up; Blackjack chart for when the dealer hits on soft 17 (4 to 8 decks) What's the best mathematical approach to the game when your dealer hits on soft 17? Here's another chart showing how to achieve perfect play.
The terms ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ in blackjack refer to whether or not a hand features a flexible Ace. If it doesn’t, the hand is hard; if it does, the hand is soft. New players might not see the significance of such a distinction. An 18 is an 18 and should be played the same way regardless of the specific cards involved, right?
Wrong. Whether a total is soft or hard can have a big impact on correct blackjack strategy, especially when playing with liberal rules for doubling down. Furthermore, the dealer’s treatment of flexible scores is pivotal when it comes to calculating the house edge.
Hard totals in Australian blackjack
A hard total is one with no Ace, or where the Ace can only count as one point without busting (e.g. A 6 8 = hard 15). There are 18 possible hard values in a standard blackjack game, starting at four points and finishing at 21.
With the exception of splittable pairs, the basic strategy for hard hands in Australian casino blackjack is rather straightforward:
Dealer card | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
5-8 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H |
9 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H |
10 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H |
11 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H |
12 | H | H | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H |
13-16 | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H |
17-21 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
Green (H) = Hit
Red (S) = Stand
Orange (D) = Double down (if not allowed, hit)
How to play soft hands in 21
A soft total features an Ace (or Aces) that can count as either one point or 11. For example: an Ace and an Eight is called a soft 19 because it can be either 19 points or nine. There are nine valid soft scores in blackjack, the lowest of which is 13 (A 2).
The proper play for soft hands can vary significantly depending on certain rules. Most Australian blackjack games don’t allow players to double down on soft totals, for instance, while US casinos tend to allow doubling on any two cards. As shown below, according to an eight-deck game where the dealer always stands on 17, the Aussie restrictions make for a much simpler strategy while Vegas rules allow players to be quite aggressive with a soft 17 or lower.
Double down on hard nine, 10, or 11 only:
Dealer card | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
13-17 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H |
18 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H |
19-21 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
Double down on any two cards:
Dealer card | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
13-14 | H | H | H | Dh | Dh | H | H | H | H | H |
15-16 | H | H | Dh | Dh | Dh | H | H | H | H | H |
17 | H | Dh | Dh | Dh | Dh | H | H | H | H | H |
18 | S | Ds | Ds | Ds | Ds | S | S | H | H | H |
19-21 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
Green (H) = Hit
Red (S) = Stand
Orange (Dh) = Double down (if not allowed, hit)
Pink (Ds) = Double down (if not allowed, stand)
Blackjack Soft 16
Dealer hits soft 17 rule
There once was a time when the house always stood pat with 17, regardless of whether or not the hand featured a two-way Ace. Nowadays, however, many land-based casinos instruct their blackjack dealers to hit on soft 17, which has a considerable impact on the odds.
In a regular shoe game with six to eight decks in play, the dealer hitting on 17 adds about 0.22% to the house edge. That’s greater than the overall margin on some online blackjack games, such as Microgaming’s Classic Blackjack Gold Series (0.13% with basic strategy).
Difference Between Soft And Hard In Blackjack
In Vegas-style 21, this rule also affects the ideal strategy for doubling down. For example: when the dealer stands on soft 17, most experts would advise against doubling on 11 when the house shows an Ace; but when the dealer hits on soft 17, such a move would be encouraged.
For those who are just starting out to learn to play and love blackjack, some of the slang used through the game might sound weird or even funny at times, like for instance “soft and hard hands”. These are the types of hands you could get from the dealer in any given play, let’s understand how they behave in the game:
The difference between a “hard” and “soft” hand in blackjack is one single card. The Ace. If one of the two cards you’re dealt is an Ace, you have a “soft” hand. Why? An Ace card can either be a 1 or an 11 which means that you have quite a bit of liquidity as far as what you can play based on the card the dealer holds.
If you have an Ace and an 8, your hand could either be 9 or 19. If you have an Ace and a 4, your hand could either be a 5 or a 15. With an Ace the risk is less which is why it’s considered “soft.” A “hard” hand in blackjack means that you don’t have an Ace. With a “hard” hand you are stuck with a rigid hand that cannot be changed. If you are dealt two 5s you have 10. If you’re dealt a 10 and a Queen you have 20. So on and so forth…
Blackjack Hand Guide
It really is interesting to see how one single card can make such a big difference. Want to try your hand at blackjack? Check out the great table games available on Palace of Chance.