The terms ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ in blackjack refer to whether or not a hand features a flexible Ace. If it doesn’t, the hand is hard; if it does, the hand is soft. New players might not see the significance of such a distinction. An 18 is an 18 and should be played the same way regardless of the specific cards involved, right?

Wrong. Whether a total is soft or hard can have a big impact on correct blackjack strategy, especially when playing with liberal rules for doubling down. Furthermore, the dealer’s treatment of flexible scores is pivotal when it comes to calculating the house edge.

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.
Blackjack Rule 5 – Hitting on Soft 17: When a player wants another card, it is called “hitting”. Dealers hit, too, and one of the most important rules is whether the dealer hits on a soft 17. Note: “Soft” is a hand with an Ace, meaning it can’t bust.

Hard totals in Australian blackjack

What Does Soft Hand Mean In Blackjack Game

A hard total is one with no Ace, or where the Ace can only count as one point without busting (e.g. A 6 8 = hard 15). There are 18 possible hard values in a standard blackjack game, starting at four points and finishing at 21.

With the exception of splittable pairs, the basic strategy for hard hands in Australian casino blackjack is rather straightforward:

Dealer card
Player hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
5-8	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
9	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
10	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
11	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
12	H	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
13-16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
17-21	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

A soft 16 is ANY hand where you hold an Ace and the Ace can be counted as a 1 or an 11. It is called a 'soft' hand because you can't break (aka 'bust') if you hit the hand. An example of a soft 16 is an Ace and a 5. Soft Blackjack Hands. A soft blackjack hand is any hand of two cards which contains an ace. The following would be examples of soft hands: A-2 = Soft 13; A-3 = Soft 14; A-4 = Soft 15; A-5 = Soft 16; A-6 = Soft 17; A soft hand is one that cannot be busted by taking one hit. In other words, if you are dealt a soft hand you cannot bust the hand.

Green (H) = Hit
Red (S) = Stand
Orange (D) = Double down (if not allowed, hit)

How to play soft hands in 21

A soft total features an Ace (or Aces) that can count as either one point or 11. For example: an Ace and an Eight is called a soft 19 because it can be either 19 points or nine. There are nine valid soft scores in blackjack, the lowest of which is 13 (A 2).

The proper play for soft hands can vary significantly depending on certain rules. Most Australian blackjack games don’t allow players to double down on soft totals, for instance, while US casinos tend to allow doubling on any two cards. As shown below, according to an eight-deck game where the dealer always stands on 17, the Aussie restrictions make for a much simpler strategy while Vegas rules allow players to be quite aggressive with a soft 17 or lower.

Double down on hard nine, 10, or 11 only:

Dealer card
Player hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
13-17	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
18	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H
19-21	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Double down on any two cards:

Dealer card
Player hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
13-14	H	H	H	Dh	Dh	H	H	H	H	H
15-16	H	H	Dh	Dh	Dh	H	H	H	H	H
17	H	Dh	Dh	Dh	Dh	H	H	H	H	H
18	S	Ds	Ds	Ds	Ds	S	S	H	H	H
19-21	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Green (H) = Hit
Red (S) = Stand
Orange (Dh) = Double down (if not allowed, hit)
Pink (Ds) = Double down (if not allowed, stand)

Dealer hits soft 17 rule

What does soft hand mean in blackjack machines

There once was a time when the house always stood pat with 17, regardless of whether or not the hand featured a two-way Ace. Nowadays, however, many land-based casinos instruct their blackjack dealers to hit on soft 17, which has a considerable impact on the odds.

In a regular shoe game with six to eight decks in play, the dealer hitting on 17 adds about 0.22% to the house edge. That’s greater than the overall margin on some online blackjack games, such as Microgaming’s Classic Blackjack Gold Series (0.13% with basic strategy).

In Vegas-style 21, this rule also affects the ideal strategy for doubling down. For example: when the dealer stands on soft 17, most experts would advise against doubling on 11 when the house shows an Ace; but when the dealer hits on soft 17, such a move would be encouraged.

When playing blackjack at a physical or land-based casino, the most frequent decision you’ll have to make is whether to hit or stand. While you can gain a feel for this over time simply through experience, you can expedite the process by studying up on the best moves to make in any given situation. If you’re ready to win more cash during blackjack games, read our handy guide to learn when to hit and when to stand.

Master the Basics

Before we delve into strategies, we want to make sure that you have a firm grasp on the basics of hitting and standing. The main premise of blackjack is to get a hand whose total exceeds the dealer’s hand, but without going over 21. When you hit, this means that you want to draw another card to try to improve your hand’s total. Conversely, when you stand, you are satisfied with your hand’s total and don’t want to draw any more cards. If you signal to the dealer that you want to stand, your hand for the round is completed. If you hit and your hand exceeds 21, you’ve busted.

We have two important gambling terms for you to memorize before learning strategies: hard hand and soft hand. A hard hand is any hand that doesn’t contain an ace, or in which an ace’s value is only 1. A 10-8 and a 7-A-10 hand are both hard 18s. A soft hand contains an ace that’s counted as an 11. For instance, an A-7 hand is a soft 18. If one of the first two cards you are dealt is an ace, you have a soft hand. This gives you an advantage. The ace has a value of 11, but if you take a hit and go over 21, its value reverts to 1. This eliminates the risk of busting after that hit, thus giving you the freedom to make moves that would normally be risky.

Now that you know the basic definitions, we’ll go through the circumstances in which you should hit or stand. We’ll provide you with the best strategies, as well as blackjack hit/stand tables that you can save for future reference.

Hitting and Standing with a Hard Hand

When playing blackjack with a hard hand, we would recommend the following: