Blackjack Strategy: Hard and Soft Hands

In Blackjack, when you receive a hand, it is often classified as a soft or hard hand. A soft hand contains an Ace that is counted as 11. For example, if you receive an Ace and a 6, your soft hand total is 17. (It is also called Soft 17.)

A hard hand contains no Ace, or Ace valued at 1. For example, a card total of 6 and 9 will be 16. Or, a card total of Ace, 9, and 7 is 17.

How to play soft hands

If you receive an Ace and 2, you should hit if the Dealer’s up card is 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, or A.
In case you are dealt an Ace and 3, 4, or 5, you should hit, regardless of the Dealer’s up card.
If you have an Ace and 6, double if the Dealer has 3, 4, 5, or 6; otherwise hit.
If you receive an Ace and 7 and the Dealer is showing 2, 7, or 8, stand.
If you receive an Ace and 8 or 9, stand.
If you receive an Ace and a card valued at 10, you will get a Blackjack. In that case you win. Rarely, the Dealer would come up with a Blackjack to end up in a tie.

How to play hard hands? You will find the following table very handy when you play hard hands. The table is easy to follow. For example, if you get a hard total of 9, and the Dealer’s up card is 2, 3, 4, or 5, you should double your bet. And if your hand total is 5, you should hit for another card.

Printing this table would help you memorize it quickly.

Legend	H = Hit D = Double S = Stand
Player’s Hand	Dealer’s Up Card
Player’s Hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
5	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
6	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
7	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
8	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
9	D	D	D	D	H	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	H
12	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H	H
13	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H	H
14	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H	H
15	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H	H
16	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H	H
17+	Always Stand