'I played blackjack in a casino and noticed that whenever the dealer had a soft 17 hand, he would take a card. I thought dealers were supposed to stand on 17.'

1. In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 17 Day
2. In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 16
3. Does The Dealer Have To Hit On 17
4. In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 17 Years
5. In Blackjack Does The Dealer Have To Hit On A Soft 17
6. In Blackjack What Does The Dealer Have To Hit On

As a general rule, casino rules specify that dealers must draw on '16 or less' and stand on '17 and more'. In fact it states that right on the layout. However, when the dealer's 17 contains an ace that is counted as 11, the hand is known as a soft 17 (e.g. Ace, 6 or Ace 2, 4 are soft 17's). And in some casinos, the rules specify that dealers must hit their soft 17 rather than stand and it will state that on the layout (this is known as the soft 17 rule).

Officially, the rules of blackjack are for the dealer to hit until he has 17 or more, regardless what the player (s) have (unless the players have all busted). Furthermore, in some casinos and in some formats of blackjack, a dealer will hit again on a ‘soft 17’ (i.e.

So what's the big deal you say. Does it really make a difference on that one hand whether or not the dealer stands or hits? Well it is a big deal because that one slight rule change increases the casino's edge over players by about 0.2%.

Both land-based casinos and online blackjack casinos that support live dealer blackjack require dealers to take at least one more card with the dealer has a soft 17 showing. The dealer will continue taking more cards—until the house’s hand either becomes a hard 17 or higher,. If your hand is 11, hit only if the dealer shows an ace. For a hand of 12, stand if the dealer shows a 4 through 6. If they show a 2, 3, or a 7 through ace, hit. When you have a hand of 13 through 16, stand if the dealer reveals a hand of 2 through 6. When you are dealt 17 through 21, you should always stand. Reference Chart. The Soft 17 Rule in Blackjack. By Henry Tamburin. The “soft 17 rule” is a rule that requires the dealer to hit on soft 17. For many blackjack players, this rather innocuous rule doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the fact of the matter Henry Tamburin is the editor and publisher of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter and author of the best-selling Blackjack: Take the Money & Run.

The reason that the player's expectation decreases when the dealer must hit soft 17 is that even though the dealer will bust slightly more often when he hits compared to standing on 17, the times he doesn't bust he will more often end up with a hand that totals higher than 17. The net result is the casino's edge increases by 0.2%.

Your best bet is to not play blackjack in casinos that have the soft 17 rule especially when 6 decks of cards are used. But if you have no choice, then you should modify your basic playing strategy on these three hands (for a typical 6-deck game). They are as follows:

Double down on 11 (e.g. 6,5) against dealer's ace upcard (instead of standing)
Double down an soft 19 (Ace, 8) against dealer's 6 upcard (instead of standing)
Double down on soft 18 (Ace, 7) against dealer's 2 upcard (instead of standing).

In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 17 Day

Sometimes new casinos come under a lot of heat from blackjack players when they implement the soft 17 rule at their blackjack tables. This was the case in a new Mississippi casino that opened with this player unfavorable rule. Critics (myself included) and players voiced their discontent loud and clear especially since most of the other near bye casinos did not have this rule. It didn't take long before the casino changed the rule to 'dealer's standing on soft 17' and took out ads in local papers to announce the change.

The soft 17 rule historically has been part of the blackjack games in the downtown Las Vegas and Reno casinos. Here you'll find mostly the more player favorable single deck (vs. 6 deck) blackjack games. The casino's offer the more favorable single deck games but then take some of that player advantage away by implementing the soft 17 rule. But still a single deck game with the soft 17 rule is a better game for most blackjack players than a typical multiple deck game.

The following chart that summarizes the effect of the casino's advantage over the basic strategy player when the soft 17 rule is in effect (i.e. dealer must hit soft 17). H17 =dealer hits soft 17. S=17 means dealer stands on soft 17. DAS=double after pair splitting allowed. NoDAS=doubling after pair splitting is not allowed.

# Decks Rules Casino Edge
1 H17, noDAS 0.18%
1 S17, noDAS -0.01%(Player has the advantage)
1 H17, DAS 0.06%
1 S17, DAS -0.13% (Player has the edge)
2 H17, noDAS 0.40%
2 S17, DAS 0.19%
6 H17, DAS 0.63%
6 S17, DAS 0.41%
You can see why casinos that offer single deck games usually implement the soft 17 rule. If they didn't a typical basic strategy player would have the edge. Notice the casino's edge in 6 deck games with the soft 17 rule. Their edge is 0.63% which is fairly high for most blackjack games.

Fortunately in all of the Gulf Coast casinos, the rules specify that the dealer's must stand on soft 17. In the Tunica based casinos, currently all the casinos hit soft 17 except the Isle of Capri and the Grand (the Grand has a mix of hit and stand soft 17). The casinos in Tunica compensate for the hit soft 17 rule by offering more player favorable single deck games then the casinos along the Gulf Coast.

The bottom line is that the soft 17 rule is palatable in single deck games, but with 2 and 6 deck games you should try to play in casinos where the rules specify that dealers must stand on soft 17. That's the smart way to play blackjack.

In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 16

Dr. Henry Tamburin is one of America's most popular casino gaming writers and the author of 6 best-selling casino books including his Blackjack: Take The Money & Run. For a free copy of Tamburin's Blackjack Insider Newsletter visit his web site at www.smartgaming.com. For a free copy of Tamburin's Casino Gambling Catalog call 1- 888- 353-3234.

Does The Dealer Have To Hit On 17

The entire game of blackjack is based around the two words “Hit me”. All of the strategy and logic in the game comes down to whether or not you want to get another card added on top of your first two cards. Remember, the goal of blackjack is to either make the dealer bust, hit 21 yourself, or have a higher number than the dealer ends up with.

Most of the variance in the game comes from the idea of hitting or standing when you either get another card dealt to you, at risk of busting, or stay where you are, and risk the dealer beating you. This is a complex decision making process, and it’s important to know how to approach it.

This page details all of the methods you can use to understand when to hit or stand, and at the end, you can find a chart explaining why. Let’s jump right into it with a discussion of the dealer’s up card and why that matters.

Knowing When To Hit Or Stand - The Dealer’s Up Card

Understanding the implications of the dealer’s up card is very important. Basically, you get to see one of the dealer’s cards, and that allows you to make some guesses as to what number they are at, and what their decision making process will be. The higher the dealer’s up card, the more likely the player is to want to hit, as a general rule. This is because, once again, the goal is to beat the dealer - to get the closest to 21 without going over. The card you see tells you a lot about the range of possibilities they could have. For example, if you see a 2, you know that their total is relatively low, and if you have a decent total, it could be correct to stand. That’s the basics of understanding a dealer’s up card, but there’s so much more to understand what the process is behind choosing to stand.

When To Stand In Blackjack

The basic idea of when you want to stand in blackjack is when you have a pretty good idea that your total is pretty close to 21, you don’t want to risk going over, and you want to put the onus on the dealer to beat your total. This tends to mean that you want to start seriously considering standing at around 17 total. The idea here is that, unless you can see an ace from the dealer, you’re fairly likely to have more than them at this point, given the amount of times cards that are worth more than 7 appear in the deck. If you have 19, you’re always standing, for example. You’re likely to bust if you hit, and it’s relatively hard to beat. The rules for this are fairly fluid so understand them well.

When To Hit In Blackjack

The basic idea behind when you want to hit in blackjack is twofold. First, you want to hit when you aren’t in much danger of going over or busting. Second, you want to hit when you need to beat a decent dealer total. This means that if you have a middling hand, let’s say 15, you’ll want to stand if the dealer’s face up card is fairly low, but hit if the dealer’s face up card is higher. This is because you can extrapolate the range of possible outcomes from the dealer’s face up card, and understand when you need to hit, and when you need to stand. There’s a lot of math that goes into this, but you can play by intuition as well. Remember, the goal of the game is to beat the dealer without going over - and that’s devilishly simple, but devilishly tricky as well.

When Does The Dealer Have To Hit In Blackjack

The basic rules that most dealers follow, across the board, are determined to their mathematical advantage over years of study and play. The dealer will always hit on anything below a 16 total. This is why, when you have a 17, you tend to consider staying - you have something fairly close to what they tend to stay at. This can get a little more complex when people start considering aces, which allow the concept of hard and soft 17s to enter the equation, but that’s mostly a discussion for a different page. Suffice to say, the basic rule they follow is that they will hit anything that is a 16 total or below.

When Does The Dealer Have To Stay In Blackjack

In Blackjack Does The Dealer Hit On 17 Years

Dealers in blackjack follow strict rules - rules that are designed for them to play as optimally as possible against you. The basic idea behind most of them is to optimize their mathematical odds at victory. For this reason, almost all dealers will stand when their total is 17 or above. As before, aces throw a bit of a wrench into this equation, but there is a lot of grey area in Blackjack. The basic rule they follow is to stand on 17 because that puts the onus on you to beat a 17, which is pretty hard to do without going over.

In Blackjack Does The Dealer Have To Hit On A Soft 17

Hit Or Stand Cheat Sheets

Here is a very basic legal blackjack hit or stand cheat sheet. Remember that the math changes depending on which type of blackjack you’re playing, so make sure you understand what’s going on in each variant you play.

In Blackjack What Does The Dealer Have To Hit On