Blackjack What Does Soft Mean

1. Blackjack What Does Hard And Soft Mean
2. What Does Soft 16 Mean In Blackjack
3. What Does Soft Mean In Blackjack
4. What Does Soft 17 Blackjack Mean

– You can also surrender at any time, and the dealer must stand on a soft-17. European blackjack has the following rules: – When offered the chance to double, you may only do so if your hand totals nine, 10 or 11. – The dealer must hit on soft-17, and you cannot surrender. The following blackjack abbreviations and acronyms are used throughout this book and are typical of those used in the literature. When evaluating a game, you should assume Las Vegas Strip rules which include double on any first 2 cards, re-splits to 4 hands, dealer stands on soft-17, insurance allowed and, of course, a natural blackjack pays 3. A 'soft 17' is a total of 17 where an ace is currently being counted as 11. Any hand that does not have an ace currently being counted as 11 is called a 'hard hand' its soft because you cannot.

Blackjack card game is highly popular around the world. Players have to be very skilled to learn how to play blackjack, as it is very complicated game. Blackjack odds of winning can be high only if players fully understand the rules of the game and basic blackjack strategy, which means that players should understand the difference between playing soft hand and hard hand. The matter is that most of the beginners play using so called “basic blackjack chart”. In order to play as successfully as possible, the blackjack strategy chart was created to make it easy to make each decision, depending on player's and dealer's cards. The matter is that there is no one common for all game variants and game peculiarities chart – there are several of them even within one and the same game variant. During the game Online Casinos you may have two principal types of hand – hand and soft on, which differ only in count of Ace (or its presence at the hand you have).

Hard hand is the one, where Ace is not presented or where the Ace is counted as 1 point (in soft hand it is values in 11 points). Follow the below described recommendations to boost your chances of winning.

Blackjack What Does Hard And Soft Mean

Hard player's hand (No Ace or Ace is counted as 1)	Dealer's hand (face up card)	Basic rules
8	Hit Having hard 8, a player is not bust anyway. So it is advised to hit.
9	3, 4, 5 or 6	Double It is advised to double as having small cards, a dealer can easily bust, so it is nice to double the money.
10	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9	Double or Hit A hard 10 means that a player will not bust anyway, as no matter what the third card is, so it is advised to double or to hit.
11	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10	Double or Hit The same as with hard hand 10, a player can easily double as dealer probably goes busted, and this way the winning are doubled. If a player does not want to risk, he/she can simply hit.
12	4, 5 or 6	Stand or Hit A player can hit only if a dealer's card is less than 4 or bigger than 6, as the chances of going bust are high.
13 - 16	2, 3, 4, 5 or 6	Stand or Hit It is advised to stand when having hard 13 -16, as the probability of going bust is really high when taking cards. However, a player may hit when the dealer's card is higher than 6.
17 - 21	Stand The risk of busting is the highest when having hard 17 and more. Players are never advised to hit, unless they counting cards.

This table could help when making decisions about the nest moves but it definitely does not guarantee the winning. The results depend on the general player's knowledge and skills.

• Appendices
• Miscellaneous
• External Links

On This Page

Introduction

What is surrender in blackjack? This is a strategy in which the player may fold the hand risking only half of the bet rather than the entire amount. There are two options in terms of surrendering your hand. Late Surrender may be done after the dealer checks for blackjack and Early Surrender is possible before the dealer check. This page takes an in-depth look at the choice to surrender in blackjack. It depends on lots of things, whether the dealer takes a hole card, the number of decks, whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, and sometimes the composition of the player's hand.

The purpose of this page is to give exact advice to the basic-strategy player on when to surrender. When the tales show a total of 16, this refers to either a 10+6 or 9+7 total. The situation of two eights has a separate row when surrender is appropriate.

Late Surrender

Late surrender means that the player may surrender his hand and lose half his bet only after the dealer checks for blackjack. The following basic strategy tables show when to surrender (Y=yes, N=no) depending on the player's total, dealer's up card, and the number of decks. The right two columns represent a dealer ace according to whether the dealer stands (S17) or hits (H17) a soft 17.

What Does Soft 16 Mean In Blackjack

Late Surrender — One Deck — Total Dependent

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	__9__	__10__	A (S17)	A (H17)
15	N	N	N	Y
16	N	Y	Y	Y
17	N	N	N	Y

Late Surrender — Two Decks — Total Dependent

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	__9__	__10__	A (S17)	A (H17)
15	N	Y	N	Y
16	N	Y	Y	Y
17	N	N	N	Y

Late Surrender — Four or More Decks — Total Dependent

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	__9__	__10__	A (S17)	A (H17)
15	N	Y	N	Y
16	Y	Y	Y	Y
17	N	N	N	Y

The exact card composition of the player's hand can sometimes make it advantageous to deviate from the basic strategy tables above. The following tables show when exactly to surrender given the player's total, dealer's up card, and number of decks. If the dealer has an ace up then the strategy often depends on whether the dealer hits (H17) or stands (S17) on a soft 17.

One Deck — Late Surrender — Composition Dependent

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	9	10	A (S17)	A (H17)
14	Never	7+7	Never	7+7
15	Never	9+6,10+5	Never	9+6,10+5
16	Never	Always	10+6	9+7,10+6
17	Never	Never	Never	10+7

Two Decks — Composition Dependent — Late Surrender

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	9	10	A (S17)	A (H17)
15	Never	9+6, 10+5	Never	9+6, 10+5
16	Never	Always	Always	9+7,10+6
8+8	Never	Never	Never	*
17	Never	Never	Never	Always

*: In a double-deck game, when the dealer hits a soft 17, surrender 8+8 vs. A only if double after a split is not allowed.

Four or Six Decks — Composition Dependent — Late Surrender

Player's Hand	Dealer's Card
	9	10	A (S17)	A (H17)
15	Never	9+6, 10+5	Never	Always
16	Always	Always	Always	Always
8+8	No	No	No	Yes
17	Never	Never	Never	Always

The composition-dependent eight-deck strategy is the same as the total-dependent strategy. In other words, the composition of the hand never matters, for purposes of surrender.

Early Surrender

Early surrender is a seldom found rule in which the player may forfeit his hand and half his bet before the dealer checks for blackjack. The strategy is different from late surrender only when the dealer has a ten or ace showing. Following is a list for when to take early surrender against a dealer 10 or ace, regardless of the rules, except as noted.

• Dealer ace Vs. hard 5-7
• Dealer ace Vs. hard 12-17
• Dealer ace Vs. pair of 3's, 6's, 7's, or 8's.
• Dealer 10 Vs. hard 14-16
• Dealer 10 Vs. pair of 7's or 8's.

• Do not surrender 10 Vs. 4+10 or 5+9 in single deck
• Do not surrender 10 Vs. 4+10 in double deck
• Surrender dealer ace against pair of 2's if dealer hits soft 17.
• Do not surrender 8,8 vs 10 in single deck when double after split is allowed.

Internal Links

What Does Soft Mean In Blackjack

What Does Soft 17 Blackjack Mean

Written by: Michael Shackleford