If you have a soft 19 or 20, you should always stand. You are unlikely to get a stronger hand than this. For a soft 18 against the dealer’s 2 through 8, according to strategy charts, you should stand. If the dealer shows 9, 10, or an ace, hit. If your total is soft 17 or less, you should always hit in compliance with the blackjack strategy chart.
You hit and draw an ace giving you a soft 18. The playing rules in most land-based and online casinos prohibit you from doubling down on a hand once you draw a third card; therefore, if you hold a multi-card soft 18, you should always stand against a dealer’s 3 through 6 upcard. (Ditto against a dealer’s 2 upcard if the rules are h17).
Why to hit on soft 18. You will want to take a hit when the dealer has a 9, 10 or 11 (ace) showing. Since there are more tens in the deck, the dealer will have a very good chance of beating an 18 here. Recall that a soft 18 will not bust so you have more chances to make a better hand because of the ace in play. Why to stand on soft 18
Hit, and your soft 16 is nearly a breakeven hand with an average loss of only eight-tenth s of a percent. By standing on soft 16, the player at my table turned a nearly neutral hand into a just another awful 16. **Ace-5 vs. 10: The average loss is 54.0 cents if you stand, and that’s reduced to 21.0 cents if you hit.
The Soft 17 rule explained. As a player, you can do virtually whatever you like with your hand, but the dealer must act according to a simple rule. In every blackjack game, the dealer either stands on Soft 17 or higher, or hits Soft 17, which means they can only stand on Hard 17, plus any 18 or more. After the number of decks used and the …
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.
You always put the dealer's hole card on a ten, so if she has a 2 or 7 or 8, you assume she has a 12, 17, or 18. If any of those are true, then hitting the soft 18 has a good chance of hurting your hand instead of helping. And a dealer total of 12 is a lot less likely to bust then a 13 -16. And a dealer will stand on the 17 or 18.
A player 18 is a loser against a dealer 10. In an infinite deck your staying return is -17.8%. Staying 19, 20 and 21 have returns of 0.6%, 55.5% and 96.2%. I couldn't tell you the % of the time you would improve your hand while avoiding the math I don't like. However, your staying EV increases by quite a lot if you do improve your hand.
