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One of the most confusing aspects blackjack novices tend to struggle with is the quirky lingo at the tables. Inexperienced players often get perplexed when they hear others talking about “breaking hands”, “bust cards”, “five-card Charlies”, “soft hands”, “stiffies”, and such. And indeed, many players who are just wading into the vast universe of 21 struggle to understand the difference between soft hands and hard hands (i.e. the above-mentioned “stiffies”).

• Soft 16 Blackjack
• Blackjack Soft 18
• Blackjack Soft 17
• Blackjack Soft Hand

A hard hand in Blackjack is different from a soft one. Primarily, a hard hand might not have an Ace always. In case there is an Ace in the hard hand, its value is 1 and this value can differ unlike in the soft hand. The soft hand is relatively more flexible than the hard hand offering an edge. Soft 15 (A,4) doubles against dealer 4 through 6, otherwise hit. Soft 14 (A,3) doubles against dealer 5 through 6, otherwise hit. Soft 13 (A,2) doubles against dealer 5 through 6, otherwise hit. Hard totals: A hard total is any hand that does not start with an ace in it, or it has been dealt an ace that can only be counted as 1 instead of 11.

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You will encounter these two terms across a vast range of books and strategy articles but reading all the blackjack literature in the world amounts to nothing if you fail to make a proper distinction between the two main types of hands in this beautiful game of probabilities.

The thing is optimal playing decisions vary vastly for soft and hard hands even if their total is identical. In the following article, we shall be looking at the key differences between soft and hard hands in blackjack, explain which of the two are more valuable to players, and expound the logic behind several important playing decisions.

Soft Hands vs. Hard Hands – What’s the Difference?

So what is the distinction between soft and hard hands? Hard hands in blackjack either do not contain an Ace or when they do, the Ace is assigned a value of 1 and cannot be counted as 11. An example of an Aceless hard hand is K-6 which makes for a hard total of 16. A hand like A-4-10-3 with a total of 18 is also hard despite the presence of the Ace because here, it counts as 1. Otherwise, the player would exceed 21 and lose the round.

In contrast, soft hands are those that contain an Ace that counts as 1 or 11 depending on the player’s preferences. While at the blackjack table, you will face multiple situations where you start with a soft hand which transforms into a hard one after you take one or more hits. Suppose, for instance, you start with a two-card hand consisting of A-2 whose total is either 3 or 13, it is up to you to decide.

You follow basic strategy and hit your soft 13 but draw a Jack. Your hand is now hard 13 and the Ace is counted as 1 because otherwise, you will bust. Basic strategy tells you to take another hit and you end up drawing a second Ace which also counts as 1 for a total of hard 14. You hit again, draw a 3, and what started as a soft 13 is now A-2-J-A-3 for a hard total of 17. Here are a few more examples of soft hands turning into stiffs after one or more hits:

• A-3-8 equals hard 12
• A-5-6 is again hard 12
• A-4-K-A-3 is a hard 19

Soft Hands vs. Hard Hands Additional TipsIt is worth noting that A-A also counts as a soft hand whose value can be either 2 or 12. However, soft 12 is a special case and as such, is not treated like the other soft totals. The only right decision you can make in this scenario is to split the pair of Aces, in which case you normally get only one extra card per Ace.

It is of utmost importance for a blackjack player to be able to make a distinction between soft and hard totals because the optimal playing decisions for the two types of hands are often different, regardless of the fact the two hands may have the same sum total. For instance, you will approach A-6 differently than 8-9 or Q-7, right? Indeed you will, provided that you stick to basic strategy, which is something all blackjack players, professional or not, should do.

Which Hand Type is Better?

It makes sense that soft hands are good for the players because they give them more flexibility, enabling them to change the total of their cards back and forth until they obtain a strong enough hand against the dealer’s upcard. These valuable hands give you a chance to improve your total without risking a bust on the very next hit.

In fact, it is impossible for a player to bust with a soft hand by drawing a third card from the shoe or deck as becomes obvious from the following example. You start the round with A-3 but count the Ace as 11 because a value of 1 will be no good in this case. No third card can bust you because you can easily revert the value of your Ace back to 1 if you catch anything higher than a 7, in which case, your soft hand will turn into a hard one and you continue playing in accordance with basic strategy.

Suppose you hit and pull a 7 indeed – this gives you the highest possible total of 21, which is unbeatable. Here you can only lose if the dealer has a blackjack. In the worst-case scenario, the two of you will push.

What if your third card is something else, though? If you catch a 5, for example, your A-4 becomes A-4-5 for a soft 20. This hand remains susceptible to hitting as the Ace can still be counted as 1 or 11 but you refrain from further hits. You are already in the safe zone with a total of 20 and there is no point in risking ruining your hand by drawing more cards. Do not forget the average winning total in the game of blackjack is 18.5!

Soft hands are better than hard ones for yet another reason. They give you the opportunity to execute some very useful doubling down decisions and increase your betting action during a round, particularly when your dealer is in a disadvantageous position with upcards 3 through 6. This enables you to increase your value by playing more aggressively when the dealer is weak.

The H17 Rule for Dealers

Let us not forget dealers can also end up with soft totals. Casinos have found a way to exploit these advantageous hands by tweaking the dealer’s drawing and standing rules for one specific soft total. Sooner or later, blackjack players are bound to come across tables where the H17 rule applies, which means the dealer is required to draw more cards with a holding of soft 17.

This is generally considered bad for the player because it gives the dealer a chance to improve their soft 17 to a higher total, which, in turn, increases the house edge by 0.22% even if all other rules remain unchanged.

Another key thing to consider before taking a seat at the H17 table are the differences in the correct plays for certain hands. In one such game, you should always double on hard totals of 11 against all possible dealer upcards, including the Ace, which is not the case when you play S17 blackjack where you hit your 11 against an Ace.

The same goes for some soft doubling decisions, particularly the soft 18 (A-7) and soft 19 (A-8). You should double on soft 18 when playing against an H17 dealer with small upcards 2 through 6. Soft 19 calls for doubling in H17 games only when the dealer is at their most vulnerable with a 6. Without these strategy adjustments, you will fail to reduce the house edge.

Soft 16 Blackjack

The Frequency of Occurrence of Hard and Soft Hands

Gambling expert Henry Tamburin tells us there are 34 hands you can receive at the start of a betting round. As many as 14 of those will be hard totals (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19). Respectively, 8 of those will be soft totals A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-7, A-8, and A-9 and the remaining 10 hands will consist of paired cards (A-A, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10). We treat blackjacks consisting of an Ace and ten-value cards as special cases since the Aces in them always count as 11.

But what is the frequency of occurrence of those hands after a reshuffle? Since ten-value cards outnumber all other card denominations, it is only natural for paired tens, Kings, Queens, and Jacks to occur the most frequently. These appear a little over 9% of the time and are followed by stiff hands 12 through 16. The reason why hard hands have such high occurrence frequency is similar – there are more card denominations that can combine to form these stiff totals.

Next in line are naturals. They also have a relatively high frequency of occurrence (4.7%) because of the large number of cards that give you this combination. Paired cards (with the exception of paired ten-value cards) and soft hands tend to occur the least frequently, under 1% and 1.1%, respectively.

The Frequency of Occurrence of Hard and Soft Hands Additional TipsWhat about the advantage each of these hands can give the players? Not surprisingly, the most advantageous hand is the blackjack itself, followed by paired ten-value cards and soft 20 (these yield around 60% advantage), with hard 19 and 11 in tow (with an advantage of around 23%). Hard hands 12 through 17 are last in line since they hold you at a massive disadvantage that ranges between 30% and 40%. These are considered breaking hands because the player can easily bust with them on the next hit.

The starting hands that hold you at the biggest disadvantage logically yield the biggest loss rates in the long run. So it turns out the biggest “losers” in blackjack are hard 12 through hard 16, small hard totals 5 through 7, pairs of 2s through 8s, and soft totals 13 through 17.

Despite the assumptions of some less experienced players, pat 17 and pat 18 are not very good hands in blackjack, the reason being the average winning total in the game is 18.5. It follows that blackjack’s biggest moneymakers are the starting hands with the highest occurrence frequency and the biggest win rates, namely the naturals, the pairs of ten-value cards, 11, hard 19, soft 19 and soft 20.

The Reasoning Behind Some Soft Doubling Decisions

You are probably wondering why soft hands are considered so important when they rank among the most frequently losing hands in the game. This is a very good question to ask, indeed. Moreover, why would you double on them when most soft totals have low win rates? Another good question. Let’s consider several soft doubling moves to try and provide an answer.

Suppose you are dealt a soft 13 against a dealer exposing a 4 and intend to double on it. There are 5 cards out of 13 denominations that can help you improve your total to at least 17 or higher. These are the 4, the 5, the 6, the 7, and the 8. The remaining 8 cards out of the 13 denominations will convert your soft 13 into bad hard totals.

Therefore, the odds of improving the hand are not in your favor since there are 8 cards that leave you with a hard total as opposed to 5 cards that help you. The same goes for soft 16 where you are again facing odds of 8 to 5 against you, with 5 helpful cards (2 through 5 plus the Ace) and 8 cards that transform your soft hand into a stiff.

Things are a bit different when your starting hand is soft 18 where there are 8 cards that can help you get into the safe zone against the dealer’s weak card, namely the Ace, the 2, the 3, the 9, the 10, and the three face cards). The odds of 5 to 8 are in your favor this time around.

With soft doubling decisions, there are several things you need to take into consideration. The 5 and the 6 are the worst for the dealer which is why you should always double against those with soft 13 through soft 18.

Soft Doubling Decisions Additional TipsCards with pip value 3 and 4 are also bad for the dealer but not as bad as the 5 and the 6. Finally, we have the dealer’s 2 which is not as weak and does not call for doubling on any totals but 10 and 11 in S17 games and soft 18 in H17 games.

You may have noticed basic strategy recommends you to double on soft 16 against a dealer 4 but tells you to hit a soft 13 instead of doubling despite the fact that in both cases, you are facing the same odds (8 to 5) against the same dealer upcard. Why is that?

It depends on the number of hit cards that would leave you wishing you can draw again. When you double on soft 16, the only card that would leave you wanting to take another hit is the Ace. In the case of soft 13, you are facing four hit cards that would cause you to want to hit again, the 2, the 3, the 4, and the Ace but you will not be allowed to draw because you receive only one additional card after you double down. In conclusion, the lower the value of the soft total, the bigger your disadvantage when you restrict yourself to a single hit.

Each decision you make while playing blackjack has a positive or negative
impact on your potential profit or loss. Every situation you have while playing
has a single best way to play.

If you make the correct play it either makes you the most money in the long
run or loses the least amount of money in the long run. This is called basic
strategy.

Some hands lose money in the long run and some win in the long run, so your
job is to make the best possible play to maximize the wins and minimize the
losses.

When you read about the expected house edge in blackjack games based on the
rules the percentages are based on perfect basic strategy. If you don’t use the
proper strategy you give the house a higher edge against you. This can add an
extra one or two percent to the house edge, depending on how far from the proper
strategy you stray.

You can usually find blackjack games with rules that offer a house edge of
less than 1%, and can often find games with a house edge under a half percent.
If you don’t use basic strategy you can be playing with a house edge of 1.5% to
3% instead of a half percent.

This quickly adds up.

If your average bet is $100 and you play 100 hands per hour and you give the
casino and extra 1% you lose an extra $100 per hour. By giving them an extra 2%
it’s $200 per hour.

If you want to play blackjack the first thing you need to do is decide to
always make the best possible play.

You probably realize that there are hundreds of hands when you combine all of
the possible hands you can have with the different up cards the dealer can have.

The good news is that by using a simple chart you can quickly find the best
play. And you can use a strategy chart or card at the table while playing in a
live casino or when playing online.

If you play in a live casino some of the other players may try to pressure
you if you take too long to make a decision. But it’s none of their business and
you can play any way you want as long as you don’t hold up the game too long.

If you’re worried about holding up the game sit in the middle of the table or
to the dealer’s right hand side so you have longer before you have to act. This
gives you more time to consult your strategy chart before being force to make a
decision.

You don’t even need to memorize the best plays.

But with a little effort and time you can quickly memorize the most common
plays and in time memorize all of the best plays.

The next section has a chart and the following section has the hand by hand
explanations. Then you’ll find a section explaining a few ways to start
memorizing all of the plays.

Basic Strategy Chart

This is the most universal basic strategy chart and can be used in all
blackjack games with any rule combinations. A few small adjustments can be made
against certain rules combinations, but it becomes complicated to memorize
multiple charts. We’ve included a short section later explaining these
adjustments for the dedicated player.

The dealer’s up card is listed across the top. Your cards are listed down the
first column to the left. Simply go down the left column until you find your
cards and then go across to the column with the dealer’s card to find the best
play.

The key for each play is as follows:

• Hit – Hit
• Stand – Stand
• DblH – Double
• DblS – Double if permitted, otherwise stand
• Split – Split
• SplitD – Split if double after split is permitted, otherwise hit
• SUR – Surrender if permitted, otherwise hit

Expand Shrink

Text Version and Vision Impaired

Many players use the chart listed above but a few players prefer to read the
correct plays. Having the correct plays written out also is valuable to people
who have vision problems and use software to hear what’s on the page.

We’ve listed the proper plays for each situation below in four sections.
Simply find the section that describes your hand and follow the instructions.

Hands with an Ace or Soft Hands

Any starting hand you hold with an ace is called a soft hand. A soft hand is
when you have an ace that can be used as a one or 11. In the following
combinations, if you have more than two cards, simply add the cards that aren’t
an ace.

This can happen when you start with an ace and a different side card and hit.
Starting with an ace two and receiving a four after hitting leaves you with ace
two four. Looking at the chart you look at the line for a soft 17. Using the
list below you look at the one for ace six because the two and four add up to
six.

• Ace ace – Always split a pair of aces. Split aces as many times as allowed.
• Ace two or soft 13 – You always hit with a soft 13 and double if allowed
  against a dealer five or six.
• Ace three or soft 14 – Always hit and double against a five or six if
  allowed.
• Ace four or soft 15 – You always hit with a soft 15 and double if allowed
  against a dealer four, five, or six.
• Ace five or soft 16 – Always hit and double against a four, five, and six if
  allowed.
• Ace six or soft 17 – Double against a three, four, five, and six if allowed
  and otherwise hit.
• Ace seven or soft 18 – Stand against a dealer two, seven, and eight, hit
  against a nine, 10, or ace, and double if allowed against three, four, five, or
  six.
• Ace eight or soft 19 – Stand at all times.
• Ace nine or soft 20 – Always stand.
• Ace 10 – Blackjack! Always stand.

Pairs

Whenever you have a pair for your first two cards you need to decide if you
should split.

• Two two – Split against a dealer four, five, six, and seven, hit against a
  dealer eight, nine, 10, and ace, and against a dealer two or three split if you
  can double after split and hit if double after split isn’t allowed.
• Three three – Play your hand exactly the same as two two. If double after
  split is allowed split against a dealer two or three, otherwise hit against
  these two cards. Hit against a dealer eight, nine, 10, and ace, and split
  against a dealer four, five, sis, and seven.
• Four four – When double after split is allowed split against a dealer five
  and six, otherwise hit. Hit against all other dealer cards.
• Five five – Never split fives. Hit against a dealer 10 or ace and double
  against all other dealer cards if allowed.
• Six six – Hit against a dealer seven, eight, nine, 10, and ace. Split against
  a dealer three, four, five, and six. Split against a dealer two if double after
  split is allowed, otherwise hit.
• Seven seven – Split against a dealer two, three, four, five, six, and seven.
  Hit against a dealer eight, nine, 10, and ace.
• Eight eight – Always split eights.
• Nine nine – Split against a dealer two, three, four, five, six, eight, and
  nine. Stand against a dealer seven, 10, and ace.
• Ten ten – Always stand with a total of 20.
• Ace ace – Aces should always be split. If you receive another ace on one of
  your split aces you should split again. Do this as many times as possible.

Hard Totals

A hard total is any hand that doesn’t have an ace where you can use it as a
one or 11. In any two card starting hand you can use an ace as either one or 11,
but after you hit one or more times you can reach a total where the ace can’t be
used as an 11 without busting. When this happens you hold a hard hand.

• Hard four – The only hard four is a pair of twos. This is covered in the two
  two line under pairs. If splitting isn’t allowed then always hit with a hard
  four.
• Hard five – Always hit with hard five.
• Hard six – Hit against all dealer cards with a hard six.
• Hard seven – Always hit with a hard seven.
• Hard eight – Hit against all dealer totals with hard eight.
• Hard nine – If double is allowed, double against a dealer three, four, five,
  or six, otherwise hit. Hit against all other dealer cards.
• Hard 10 – When double is allowed, double against a dealer two, three, four,
  five, six, seven, eight, and nine, otherwise hit. Hit against a dealer 10 and
  ace.
• Hard 11 – Double against any dealer car except an ace if doubling is
  permitted, otherwise hit. Hit against a dealer ace.
• Hard 12 – Stand against a dealer four, five, and six. Hit against all other
  dealer cards.
• Hard 13 – Stand against a dealer two, three, four, five, and six. Hit against
  a dealer seven, eight, nine, 10, and ace.
• Hard 14 – Stand against a dealer two, three, four, five, or six and hit
  against seven or higher.
• Hard 15 – Against a dealer two, three, four, five, and six you should stand.
  Against a dealer seven, eight, nine, 10, and ace you should hit.
• Hard 16 – Stand against a dealer total of two, three, four, five, and six.
  Hit against all other dealer totals.
• Hard 17 – Stand against all dealer hands.
• Hard 18 – Always stand with a hard 18.
• Hard 19 – Stand against all dealer hands.
• Hard 20 – Always stand with a hard 20.
• Hard 21 – Stand against all dealer totals.

Surrender

If surrender is allowed you should surrender with a hard 15 against a dealer
10 and with a hard 16 against a dealer nine, 10, or ace. If surrender isn’t
allowed then hit in these four situations.

Adjustments for Different Rules

The chart and instructions above are designed for a game where the dealer
stands on a soft 17. If you play in a game where the dealer hits on a soft 17
you can make the following adjustments.

As we mentioned above, it can be complicated to keep two different charts
straight in your mind so learning the first chart is best. However, there are
only six hands that change so it’s possible to learn and use the differences.

Split hands

Instead of splitting eight eight against a dealer ace,
surrender if allowed, otherwise split.

Soft hands

With a soft 18 against a dealer two and with a soft 19 against a
dealer six double if allowed, otherwise stand.

Hard hands

With a hard 11 against a dealer ace double if allowed, hit
otherwise. With a hard 15 against a dealer ace surrender if permitted, otherwise
hit. With a hard 17 against a dealer ace, surrender if permitted and otherwise
stand.

Insurance or Even Money

Blackjack Soft 18

Notice that there’s not a single hand that recommends taking insurance or
even money. This is because taking insurance is always a losing proposition.

When the dealer has an ace showing you have the option of making another bet
equal to the size of your first bet that pays two to one if the dealer has a 10
hole card. If you take insurance and the dealer has a 21 you lose your first bet
but get double on your second so you break even.

But when the dealer doesn’t have 21 you lose the insurance bet and your first
bet plays out as normal.

On the surface this may seem like a good bet, but a simple look at the math
behind the bet shows why you should never take insurance.

When the dealer has an ace showing she has a blackjack any time a 10, jack,
queen, or king is her down card. This means four of the 13 possible cards pay
off on the insurance bet.

But this also means that the other nine cards, two through nine and ace, make
you lose the insurance bet. This is a ratio of nine to four, with nine losing
cards and four winning cards. But the bet only pays two to one.

The odds of nine to four is worse than two to one, so it’s a losing bet.

Forget your normal hand because it doesn’t have anything to do with the
insurance offer. Insurance is just a bet on what the dealer has as a down card.
And since it’s offered at bad odds you can now see that it should be avoided.

This is just another way the casinos try to be sneaky and build a bigger long
term edge against you.

How to Memorize Basic Strategy

The easiest way to start memorizing basic strategy is to use the chart
provided above to make every playing decision. As you play you’ll start
recognizing the correct play for most hands before checking your chart.

Sign up for a free account at one of our recommended online casinos and start
playing the free blackjack games. You can play over 100 hands per hour in most
cases so you can get a great deal of practice in a short amount of time.

Eventually you’ll only need to check your chart on the most difficult plays
and if you play long enough all of the plays will come from memory.

The other way is more difficult for most players, but if you have a strong
mind for memory you can simply start memorizing the chart.

A quick tip is to group similar hands together.

All of the hard hands totaling four, five, six, seven, and eight are played
the same way. On all of these hands you always hit. If you’re playing a game
where doubling isn’t allowed, you can add all of the hard totals of nine, 10 and
11 to this. As a side note, you should avoid games where doubling isn’t allowed
as they have a higher house edge.

Other easy to learn hands include:

• Always split aces and eights.
• Soft 13 and 14 are played the same.
• Soft 15 and 16 are played the same.
• Soft 17 only has one dealer card played differently than soft 15 and 16.
• Hard 13, 14, 15, and 16 are played the same unless surrender is allowed.
• Hard 10 and 11 are the same except for one dealer card.
• Two two and three three are played the same.
• All of the hard totals 17 and above are played the same.
• All of the soft totals of 19 and above are played the same.

The majority of hands are hard hands and the complete hard hand strategy is
fairly simple. Memorize it first and you’ll find that you won’t need to refer to
the chart often.

The next chart to memorize after you’ve mastered the hard hands is the soft
hands. Most of them are straightforward as well, with the main changes of
knowing when to double down.

Blackjack Soft 17

Once you have the hard and soft hands memorized the splits will come easy to
finish out your mental chart. You only need to learn the split rules for twos,
threes, fours, sixes, sevens, and nines.

The main thing is to not be afraid that you can’t learn the chart and to get
started right away. Almost anyone can improve their results and reduce the house
edge with a small amount of effort and time.

Card Counting

Blackjack Soft Hand

If you learn how to count cards you can play with a small edge against the
house while playing blackjack. This page is about basic strategy so we aren’t
going to dig into the realm of card counting, but it does have quite a bit to do
with basic strategy.

Card counters learn perfect basic strategy before they start trying to learn
about counting. If you can’t put in the work to learn perfect strategy you have
no hope of being a successful card counter.

Once you master basic blackjack strategy then you should investigate card
counting to see if it’s something you might want to learn. Counting cards online
won’t get you an edge because the software shuffles the cards after each deal,
but if you play live it might be able to help you win or at least play a break
even game.

Conclusion

Learning and using blackjack basic strategy gives you the best chance to win.
It reduces the house edge as much as possible and helps you have more winning
playing sessions.

Most players don’t take the time to learn basic strategy, but if you use the
information above you can quickly start using the best play for every situation.
Use the tips in the how to memorize basic strategy section and you’ll be a
master in no time.

And don’t forget to use the chart provided as you’re learning. Once you get
used to it you can find the proper play in a second or two.