What is a soft 17 in blackjack? A soft 17 not only affects the dealer, but it also effects the player. A soft hand occurs with an Ace, while a hard hand can occur with an Ace but it has to equal one, not 11. A soft hand is when the Ace exists as 11. So when we are talking about whether a 17 is hard or soft, the Ace is integral to the hand.

• Hard 17 In Blackjack
• Blackjack Hard 17 Vs Soft 17

In the game of Blackjack, the term 'hard 17' usually refers to what the dealer must do on every hand. Dealers within casinos, unlike the players, must follow certain rules. And of course it is good to know the rules they follow. In this case the number 17 refers. First of all you have the free money bonuses which means that you get an amount in cash to play for. There is then also the free spins which often is limited to a specific type of game. We always recommend the free cash since then you Soft And Hard 17 Blackjack often have more freedom to select whatever slot Soft And Hard 17 Blackjack you want to play. Therefore, you need to hit your hard blackjack hands until you either beat that total or reach 17. You cannot reasonably hit a hard 17 at the blackjack table. Nor can you hit a hard 18 or 19 or 20. These hard totals give you the best chance of winning the hand and you must stand on them in all circumstances. When determining the blackjack rules, pay close attention to the term Soft and Hard 17. This means that the value of an Ace will be 11 and will help dealers create better hands. With Hard 17, the cards used will not contain an Ace, such as hands that have 10 and 7, 9 and 8.

Here's the situation:

You are playing in a multiple deck game, where the dealer is required to stand on soft 17. You are dealt an eight and a nine for a two card total of 17, and the dealer draws an Ace as his hole card. The dealer checks for blackjack and does not have it. What should you wind up doing in this situation?

Well, the correct play is to STAND on this hand.

You know, some players actually think real hard about this decision, because of the fact that they fear the dealer is going to be unbeatable with the Ace showing; that is unless they take a chance and hit the hand. And you will indeed win about 20% of the hands if you wind up hitting here, compared with about 17% winning hands if you stand.

The key here, though, is the appreciable difference between your rate of losing with regard to the two different options.

• If you decide to hit the hand, you're going to wind up a loser 75% of the time. Of course, that's because there are only a few cards that can help you in the first place, namely the Ace, deuce, three and four.
• By contrast, when you stand on the hand, you're going to lose about 64.5% of the time. That's a savings of over ten losing hands per hundred!

Always remember the cardinal rule - when you have a hard, pat hand, make sure you stand on it!!

US vs. THEM Blackjack Strategy Series
An Analysis
By Charles Jay

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More on How to play Blackjack

Blackjack odds are percentage figures which represent your probability of losing or winning a hand. They can also represent the house edge or their profit margins as well. Usually probability odds don't mean much on the short term, but they clearly average out in the long term and this is why the casinos always win over the long term.

We decided to make a few tables and charts of the most common blackjack probability odds for various scenarios and situations found while playing blackjack. The most important odds percentage represents the dealer's edge in the game. This is the long term advantage that they have which will eventually take your money away. Blackjack is actually one of the most popular games in the casino and also has some of the lowest odds of all the casino games, except casino craps of course. Generally their edge ranges from 1% to 15% depending on what variation of blackjack you are playing.

How to Beat the Casino House Odds

There is one feature that makes blackjack more desirable than any other casino game. There is actually a way to beat the house edge by increasing your odds. In fact, your probability odds in blackjack can be increase to the point where you would actually be making the profit in the long term, essentially turning the casino into a personal ATM. This practice is known as card counting and casinos don't like this because they know they will be losing money.

Before you start card counting, you should learn 'blackjack basic strategy', which is the mathematically correct way to play every move in blackjack to get the best odds. This can lower the house edge to less than 1 percent. When that percentage goes to a negative number such as -1%, then it is you who has the edge over the casino. This is when you complement basic strategy with card counting to get the highest efficiencies.

Odds vs. Dealer Up Card

The first odds chart shows what kind of advantage the player has vs. the dealer based on what his up card is showing. The first column in the chart is what card the dealer has showing after the cards have been dealt. The second column of the table shows the dealer's probability of going bust based on each card. The last column shows the advantage the player has and the probability of winning based on the basic strategy theory. As you can see, the dealer has about a 43% chance of going bust when he has a 5 showing as an up card. At the same time, the player has about 23% advantage as well. Notice that the player advantage goes negative when the 10 cards and ace start showing up. This means the player is more likely to lose.

Blackjack odds of Busting While Taking a Hit

This chart shows the probabilities of going bust after taking a hit. Busting means that your card total would go over 21 points and would be a hard total as well. The highest score you can get when being initially dealt two cards is 21 points so you can never go bust. This means if you took a hit on a hard 21, you would have a 100% probablity of going bust, which is common sense. Also, if you have 11 points or less, it is impossible to go over 21 points on the next hit and your odds of going bust would be 0 percent.

House Advantage with Multiple Number of Decks

The number of 52 card decks in a game of blackjack influences the house edge. In some cases, the odds increase in favor of the casino when more decks are used. The advantage edge can be as much as 1% towards the casino and this is a big number in terms of odds over the long term. As you can see here, a single deck of card gives the lowest edge for the casino and gives the player better odds. Multiple decks such as eight decks increases the house edge almost 18 times more than it would for the single deck!

Two Card Frequency Odds

The next odds table deals with the first two cards being dealt or the 2 card frequency odds. Every player is dealt two cards at the beginning of a round of blackjack so this chart tells you the percentage of getting different categories of hands. A natural blackjack is only 4.8%, which essentially is an ace dealt with a ten card straight off the initial deal. Normally the odds are 3 to 2 and you would win $3 for every $2 wagered. It's a small percentage but it's the most desirable hand to get. The lowest hand you can get is two points (two aces). This is part of the decision hands group where players are usually dealt soft hands and can make decisions without going bust. This group is the most common.

The other category is the hard standing hands. These hands are somewhat desirable because of the high scores likely to beat the dealer. These are the second most frequent two card blackjack hands. Finally there is a no bust two card hand. No bust means any two card hand that won't bust on the next hit, such as any soft hand or hard hand that is 11 points or less.

Probability Edge for Each Card Removed from Deck

The next table shows how much your odds improve after when certain cards have been dealt and removed from the deck. Certain cards taken out of the deck and increase or decrease your blackjack odds percentage and the house edge.

This is very important for card counting. If you want the absolute perfect odds in card counting, you have to acount for each small change in the odds whenever a card is dealt. As you can see from the table, when small cards are taken out of play, the odds increase in your favor overall. This is a paramount property of card counting. The opposite happens when large cards are dealt. Your odds begin to decrease. When you are counting cards, you will notice your count decreasing when large cards are dealt.

You can imagine how complicated it would be to be adding these numbers in your head while card counting at the same time. If your mind was a computer, it would be easier to keep track of the percentage. Some people can do this, and this is the way to become a perfect card counter! It is easier to keep track of the odds when playing with a single blackjack deck. For example, when five cards are seen on the table, they offer a 0.67% increase in your advantage. In fact, when a lot of fives are used up, your odds will be much higher than if any of the other low cards were used up, even the six point cards. Also, these effects are cumulative so you always need to keep track of the odds after every card is dealt. This data is actually quite amazing!

Dealer Final Hand Probability Odds

This next table shows the odds of what the dealer's final hand will be. Usually in blackjack, the dealer must hit on 16 and stand on 17. These rules are slightly different for other variations of twenty-one. So generally, the odds of the dealer's final score being 16 are 0% because he must hit. This table will show the probability of the dealer busting or getting a non-bust hand as well as natural blackjacks.

Hard 17 In Blackjack

Blackjack Hard 17 Vs Soft 17