Blackjack Strategy Chart: Dealer Hits on Soft 17

Your	Dealer's Card
Hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
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	D	D
12	H	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
13	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
14	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
15	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	X/H	X/H
16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	X/H	X/H	X/H
17	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	X/S
A,2	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,3	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,4	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,5	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,6	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,7	S	DS	DS	DS	DS	S	S	H	H	H
A,8	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A,9	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
2,2	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	H	H	H	H
3,3	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	H	H	H	H
4,4	H	H	H	SP	SP	H	H	H	H	H
5,5	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
6,6	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	H	H	H	H	H
7,7	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	H	H	H	H
8,8	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	X/P
9,9	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	S	SP	SP	S	S
10,10	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A,A	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP	SP

Chart Legend

Our default chart is built around the conditions we see most often on the Las Vegas strip:

Multiple decks.
Double down allowed on any 2 cards.
Double after splits allowed.
Dealer hits soft 17.

H	Hit
S	Stand
D	Double if allowed, otherwise Hit
DS	Double if allowed, otherwise Stand
SP	Split
X/H	Surrender if allowed, otherwise Hit
X/P	Surrender if allowed, otherwise Split
X/S	Surrender if allowed, otherwise Stand

Blackjack Rules

The player has an edge if the casino dealer has to stand on soft 17. If the casino dealer gets to hit a soft 17 then we have some different decisions from most charts out there and they all involve the ace:

Double 11 versus ace.
15 versus ace is surrender instead of hit.
17 versus ace is surrender instead of stand.
A,7 (soft 18) versus 2 is double down instead of stand.
A,8 (soft 19) versus 6 is double down instead of stand.
8,8 versus ace is surrender if allowed, otherwise split.

It is important to know which rules are more important than others. The World’s Greatest Blackjack book talks about this on page 55. Here are the key rules that are favorable to the player in order of importance:

Early surrender
Doubling on any 2 cards
Drawing any number of cards to split Aces
Doubling allowed after pair splitting
Surrender

Here are the key rules that are unfavorable to the player in order of importance:

Two or more decks
Dealer hits soft 17
No soft doubling
No re-splitting of Aces

Blackjack Tips

You can vastly improve your odds of winning by following a few basic tips:

Always follow a chart based off the games rules you are playing.
Memorizing the actions is one way to get better, but you can improve even faster by practicing on a blackjack simulator.
Never take insurance.
Never put money on any side bets as these are hugely -EV.
Always make sure you have enough chips for double downs and splits.
Don’t sit at third base (the last seat on the left) if you’re playing with drunks because they’ll blame their “bad luck” on your decisions.
Learn how to keep a basic Hi-Lo count.

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