How To Play Soft Hands In Blackjack
- How To Play Blackjack
- What Does A Soft Hand Mean In Blackjack
- How To Play Soft Hands In Blackjack Against
by John Grochowski
Not all blackjack 17s are created equal, nor are all 18s or 19s.
There’s a lesson blackjack newcomers and more experienced players just becoming serious about blackjack have to learn: Soft hands and hard hands are different, and when the hand is soft, 17, 18 and even 19 are not automatic standing hands.
Sometimes there’s an opportunity to improve a so-so hand without fear of busting. Sometimes we have an edge and a chance to double down.
Those aren’t options with hard 17s or higher. The chance of busting is too great.
In blackjack, whenever you have an ace in your hand that can be counted as eleven, you have a soft hand. These hands are considered to be very beneficial since you can adjust their total, depending on your. There are a few strategies involved with playing soft hands. Click on the links in the navigation above view all of the correct basic strategy moves for soft hands as well as the other blackjack hands. Here are two rules that you need to memorize so you will always play multi-card soft hands perfectly. 1 Always stand on soft 18 through 21, except hit a multi-card soft 18 against a dealer 9, 10 or Ace. 2 Always hit soft 17 or less. Try these hands.
Let’s break down the differences by the numbers. Assume a six-deck game in which dealers hit soft 17 — the most common set of rules in today’s casinos. When basic blackjack strategy calls for a double down, understand that if you can’t double, you should hit instead with soft 17 and stand on soft 18 or 19. That applies to hands of three cards or more as well as two-card hands where casinos restrict when you can double.
HARD 17 vs. SOFT 17
Imagine you have a hard 17 such as 10-7, 9-8, 4-3-5-5 or some other combination.
When is the right time to hit? Never.
Now imagine you have a soft 17 such as Ace-6, Ace-2-4, Ace-5-Ace or others.
When is the right time to stand? Never.
A basic strategy player will always stand on hard 17, but never stand on soft 17. Sometimes it’s best to hit, and sometimes it’s better to double down.
A hand signal to indicate that you want to don’t want to take any more cards on your blackjack hand.
The key is that 17 is never a winning hand unless the dealer busts. It can push a dealer 17, but loses to all other dealer hands. The worst that can happen if you hit soft 17 is that you get another total that can only win if the dealer busts. You could lose the chance to push a dealer 17, but the chance of improving to a hand that could win without a dealer bust outweighs that risk.
Not so with hard 17, where the chance of busting is too high to take the chance.
Numbers vary slightly depending on the composition of our 17, but to illustrate, let’s assume Ace-6 for soft 17 and 10-7 for hard 17.
**Dealer card is 2. Basic strategy: Hit soft 17, stand on hard 17.
For the reasons mentioned above, 17 is not a winning hand. Stand on hard 17 against a 2, and you’ll average 15.7 cents in losses per dollar wagered. But if you hit, the losses soar to 53.8 cents. The chance of busting is a killer.
But with soft 17, you can’t bust with a one-card hit. Stand on Ace-6 and the average loss is 15.3 cents, but if you hit, those losses drop to 0.03 cents. You don’t gain an advantage so this is not a double down hand, but you drastically reduce losses if you hit.
**Dealer card is 3, 4, 5 or 6. Basic strategy: Double down on a two-card soft 17, hit a soft 17 of three or more cards, stand on hard 17.
On these soft hands, taking an extra card turns a house edge into a player edge. When we have the edge, we want to maximize profits, so we press home that edge and double down.
With hard 17, of course, we stand.
Some numbers:
Ace-6 vs. 6: Stand, lose 0.5 cents per dollar. Hit, win 12.6. Double, win 25.2.
Ace-6 vs. 5: Stand, lose 3.8 cents. Hit, win 9.9. Double, win 19.7.
Ace-6 vs. 4: Stand, lose 7.6 cents. Hit, win 6.2. Double, win 12.4.
Ace-6 vs. 3: Stand, lose 11.6 cents. Hit, win 2.9. Double, win 5.7.
On hard 17, hitting increases losses no matter what the up card, from 0.9 to 51.5 cents vs. 6; 4.6 to 51.9 vs. 5; 8.1 to 53.0 vs. 4; and 12.0 to 53.4 vs. 3.
**Dealer card is 7 or higher. Basic strategy: Hit on soft 17, stand on hard 17.
With hard 17, you’re stuck. Losses when standing are 10.9 cents vs. 7; 38.4 vs. 8; 42.2 cents vs. 9; 41.8 cents vs. 10; and 51.4 cents vs. Ace. If you hit, you increase losses to 47.8 vs. 7; 50.1 vs. 8; 54.9 vs. 9; 58.0 vs. 10 and 57.9 vs. Ace.
Obviously, you stand.
But with Ace-6. you decrease losses by hitting. Stand, and the average losses are 10.4 cents vs. 7, 38.3 vs. 8, 42.1 vs. 9; 42-0 vs. 10 and 51.4 vs. Ace. Hit, and you actually turn an average profit of 5.5 cents vs. 7, and reduce losses to 7.2 cents vs. 8, 14.2 vs. 9, 19.6 vs. 10 and 22.1 vs. Ace.
Note that even though Ace-6 vs. 7 is profitable, it’s not worth doubling down and giving up multi-card hits. When doubling down, there’s an average loss of 0.9 cents per $1 of your original bet.
HARD 18 vs. SOFT 18
At hard 18, hitting brings even more frequent busts than with hard 17. Don’t even think about hits with 10-8, 9-6-3, 6-7-2-3 or any other hard 18.
With soft 17, it’s best to stand against a dealer’s 7 or 8.If the dealer has 6 or less, we double down. If the dealer has 9 or higher, we hit.
A hand signal to indicate that you want to take another card on your blackjack hand.
Some numbers, with wins and losses per $1 of your original bet: A “+” before the number indicates and average profit and a “-” an average loss.
Ace-7 vs. 2: Stand, +11.3; hit +6.0; double, +11.6.
Ace-7 vs. 3: Stand, +14.1; hit, +8.8; double, +17.5.
Ace-7 vs. 4: Stand, +17.1; hit, +12.2; double, +24.5
Ace-7 vs. 5: Stand, +19.8, hit, +15.1, double, +30.2
Ace-7 vs. 6: Stand, +22.3, hit, +17.8, double, +35.7
Ace-7 vs. 7: Stand, +40.1, hit, + 17.8, double, +22.4
Ace-7 vs. 8: Stand, +10.8, hit, +4.1, double, -2.8
Ace-7 vs. 9: Stand, -18.3, hit, -9.8, double, -24.5
Ace-7 vs. 10: Stand, -17.9, hit, -14.3, double, -34.3
Ace-7 vs. Ace: Stand, -22.5, hit, -16.0, double, -41.8.
When the dealer has an 2 through 6 up, we maximize profits by doubling. Against a 7 or 8, our most profitable play is to stand — we hurt ourselves by hitting or double. And against a 9 or higher, the house has an edge no matter what we do, but we trim losses by hitting.
HARD 19 VS. SOFT 19
This comes down to one hand. What’s the best play when the dealer has a 6 up?
Against all other cards, your best play is to stand regardless of whether your 19 is soft or hard.
You’ll stand on hard 19, of course. With 10-9 vs. 6, an average profit of 45.1 cents per dollar wagered when you stand crashes to a 72.3 cent loss should you be reckless enough to hit.
Being able to double down on your hand is an advantageous rule for the player.
But with Ace-8 vs. 6, the average profit of 45.2 cents when you stand becomes an even bigger profit of 46.2 cents per dollar of your original wager when you double.
As always with blackjack strategies, these won’t work every time. The numbers given are average results. The important thing is to remember that 17, 18 and even 19 aren’t automatic standing hands in all situations. Don’t take a hard approach to soft hands.
John Grochowski has been covering casinos and casino games for nearly 40 years. He is the author of six books
and his work appears in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world.
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Soft 18 is among the most commonly misplayed hands in the game of 21. Being a soft hand, it contains an Ace that can be assigned a value of either 1 or 11 like on the following examples: A-7, A-2-5, and 4-3-A. It is essential to remember the correct playing decisions for soft and hard 18 differ despite the fact the two hands have the same totals.
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Knowing how to approach this hand optimally can spare you lots of headaches not to mention money in the long term. Let’s take a look at the correct plays for soft 18 and the two most common examples of misplaying this hand so that you know which mistakes to avoid.
The Optimal Plays for Soft 18
When dealt a soft 18, blackjack players have a choice from several possible decisions, namely hitting, standing, and doubling down. Which of the three moves is optimal depends, first and foremost, on the dealer’s upcard. However, there are three other variables that also need to be taken into consideration – the number of cards the soft 18 consists of, the number of decks used in the game, and the dealer’s fixed standing rules (H17 or S17).
When Playing Single-Deck Blackjack
There are small discrepancies in the correct basic strategies for single, double, and multiple-deck blackjack. When you get a soft 18 in a single-deck game, the strategy recommends you to stand when the dealer exposes a deuce, a 7, an 8 or an Ace. You hit your soft 18 when the dealer is at their strongest, showing power upcards 9 or 10. The most lucrative scenario for a player with a soft 18 holding is when the dealer is particularly vulnerable to busting with upcards 3, 4, 5 or 6.
In a game where the dealer is obliged to hit soft totals of 17 (known as the H17 rule), there is only one discrepancy in the playing strategy for soft 18. You should always hit your soft 18 against a dealer with an Ace instead of standing as is the case in single-deck games played under the S17 rule (the “S” is short for “standing” and not for “soft”, mind you).
When Playing Double-Deck and Multiple-Deck Blackjack
The optimal plays for soft 18 in double-deck and multiple-deck S17 blackjack largely coincide. Basic strategy advises players to stand whenever the dealer’s upcard is a 2, a 7 or an 8. You hit your two-card soft 18 against a dealer who reveals more powerful cards like a 9, a 10, or an Ace.
Doubling down is considered the optimal decision with this hand when you are facing a dealer in the unenviable position of exposing weak cards 3 through 6. When the dealer starts with one of those cards, they stand a better chance of breaking their hand, which gives you the opportunity to potentially boost your profits through doubling.
All the plays we have listed above are correct for H17 games as well, with a single exception only – players must double down on their soft 18 against a dealer’s deuce instead of standing.
How to Approach a Soft 18 Consisting of Several Cards
You will inevitably find yourself in situations where doubling on soft 18 is recommended by the strategy chart but you are unable to execute this play since your hand contains three cards or more. Such is the case when you start a hand with 5-2, hit, and draw an Ace for a soft total of 18 against the dealer’s 5. How do you approach one such situation? Obviously doubling down is no longer an option here.
The good news is the alternative decision is also listed in the color-coded strategy charts. You will notice a small “s” next to the capital “D” that corresponds to doubling down against dealer upcards 3 through 6. This “s” indicates the alternative play is to stand when doubling is unavailable. This play is also correct when you have a multiple-card soft 18 against dealer upcards 2 through 6 in an H17 game.
The Logic Behind Some Soft 18 Playing Decisions
Players should not forget that sticking to basic strategy always pays off in the long run because the correct plays suggested there were based on computer simulations that involved hundreds of thousands of hands. In the case of soft 18, the decisions recommended by the basic strategy charts are guaranteed to earn you more profits and cause you to lose less money over the long term.
As we told you already, the strategy for a multiple-deck game where the S17 rule applies is to always hit your soft 18 against dealer power cards like 10, King, Jack, and Queen. It is estimated that always hitting against those dealer upcards will cause you to lose 57 hands and win 43 out of every 100 hands on average, excluding the pushes.
In contrast, standing on your soft 18 against a dealer who exposes a strong upcard will cause you to lose 59 out of every 100 times when you execute this play and win on the remaining 41 occasions. This may not seem like that big of a difference but it will inevitably become more pronounced the longer you play.
Soft 18 Playing Decisions Additional TipsHitting your soft 18 against the dealer’s 9, 10 or Ace may seem a little counterintuitive to the inexperienced player. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to deduce there are only three out of thirteen card denominations that can improve their soft 18 to a higher total – the Ace, the 2, and the 3.
Cards 4 through 8 will convert your soft 18 into one of the hard totals 12 through 16 where your Ace counts as 1 which reduces you to a busting position. Drawing a 9 takes away your flexibility and gives you a hard 17 while pulling a ten-value card brings you to your starting total of 18 but hard this time.
Then why is hitting soft 18 against the dealer’s power cards preferable over standing when your chances of improving are as slim? The bottom line is you still have room for improvement with this hand. The fact basic strategy recommends a hit in this case only goes to show how weak a total of 18 is when the dealer exposes a powerful card. The average winning total in blackjack is 18.5. Because of this, players must take advantage of the Ace’s flexibility and hit their soft 18 in an attempt to improve their hand to a total of 19 or higher.
Misplaying Soft 18 – A Couple of Common Mistakes
Along with its neighbor soft 17, soft 18 is one of the most frequently misplayed hands in blackjack. In some cases, the mistakes result from lack of proper understanding of the dealer’s standing rules and how they impact the correct plays for certain hands.
Such is the case with soft 18 against a dealer showing a deuce. Many people end up misplaying this hand because they confuse the correct plays for S17 and H17 games. The optimal strategy requires you to hit your soft 17 against the deuce when facing a dealer who abides by the H17 rule and stand when you are playing under the S17 rule.
This is why it is of utmost importance for you to check the dealer’s drawing and standing rules before you sit down at a table to play. Having a soft 18 against a dealer’s deuce gives you a negative expectation even if you make the correct playing decision each time. Misplaying this hand increases your negative expectation to a little over 13% causing you to lose $0.13 out of every dollar you wager on a soft 18 against a deuce in the long run.
How To Play Blackjack
The second most common mistake with this soft hand occurs when the player has a soft 18 against a dealer exposing a 7. Those who have read carefully probably remember us mentioning the optimal play for a soft 17 against a 7 is to stand. This pertains to both H17 and S17 blackjack tables regardless of whether they use single, double or multiple decks.
Soft 18 Additional TipsUnfortunately, some clueless players prefer to adopt a more aggressive approach in this situation. They believe the 7 puts the dealer at big enough disadvantage to justify doubling down on their soft 18. This approach is incorrect for a couple of reasons, starting with the fact ten-value cards outnumber all other card denominations in the deck or shoe. There are 16 ten-value cards per deck, which increases the likelihood of the dealer having a Jack, a King, a Queen or a 10 in the hole.
What Does A Soft Hand Mean In Blackjack
The second reason why doubling down on this soft total against a 7 is a bad move has to do with expected value. Playing the hand optimally, i.e. standing, comes with a positive expectation of nearly 40%, which means you will win around $0.40 per every dollar wagered in the long run. Misplaying your soft 18 decreases your expectation roughly to 35%, causing you to win only $0.35 per dollar wagered.
How To Play Soft Hands In Blackjack Against
Some may argue several cents are not that big of a loss but they should not forget all savvy blackjack players share the common purpose of maximizing their profits and reducing their losses. By doubling on soft 18 against a dealer’s 7, you are doing just the opposite. Doubling on this soft total is justifiable against this upcard only if you are an astute card counter and know when to deviate from basic strategy.