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Thread: Basic Strategy question regarding "soft" and "hard" hands

  1. #1
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    Basic Strategy question regarding "soft" and "hard" hands

    Hello my fellow AP'ers

    I have a quite noobish question yet I can barely find a satisfying answer.

    I am wondering if there is any consideration of "soft" or "hard"hands in basic strategy.

    If I take an exemple, for S17 / DAS / DOA / SOA :

    The basic strategy says that you stand on a 16 vs 6.
    Let's imagine my hand is A / 2 / 3
    I have a H16 or a S6.

    Basic strategy says that you Hit a 6 vs 6, but otherwise says you Stand on a 16 vs 6.

    Hence my question... In that case, what is the player supposed to do ? Consider the hand ALWAYS soft or ALWAYS hard, or does it depend ?

    Sorry if that answer has been given somewhere already (and I'm sure it has been) but I'm slightly confused.

    Thanks a lot for anyone taking time to explain me this little detail.

  2. #2


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    A hand is soft till it crosses to where you have a hard 12 or higher. You would always hit A/2/3/4/5/6.

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    Okay.
    so for my precise exemple, the right decision should be STAND ?

    I might have missed something but I havn’t seen anywhere before (or didn’t notice) that rule of « only consider the hard score after 12 »

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    Quote Originally Posted by Letangs View Post
    Okay.
    so for my precise exemple, the right decision should be STAND ?

    I might have missed something but I havn’t seen anywhere before (or didn’t notice) that rule of « only consider the hard score after 12 »
    No, you never stand on SOFT hands of A,6 or lower. Your mistake is calling A,2,3, anything with the word "sixteen" in it. NEVER do that! It isn't 16; it's "ace-five." You don't stand on A,5 ever. It's a very bad mistake to look at soft hands and call them the same way you call hard hands. DON'T do that! So, look at the BS chart and find the SEPARATE area that treats soft hands and tells you what to do with them. And call every one of those hands, without fail, "ace-something." ALWAYS!

    Don

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    With A23 you do not have a hard sixteen. You have a soft sixteen. It is soft because it can be either 6 or 16. Normally you would double, if you had say A5 v 5, but because usually three card doubling is not permitted you should hit. After all, you cannot bust, so all you can do is improve your hand by hitting or keep it the same. It doesn't matter if you end up with say 12 as opposed to having sixteen because in either case your chances of winning are the same if you stay.

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    What Don said. I don't even think of hands with Ace as a number, in my head it's A7, A4, whatever. You always hit these when not doubling until A7, when you stand vs 7 and 8. Then you always stand once you get to A8, unless H17 game in which you double A8 v 6, if allowed, then stand.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Meistro123 View Post
    With A23 you do not have a hard sixteen. You have a soft sixteen. It is soft because it can be either 6 or 16. Normally you would double, if you had say A5 v 5, but because usually three card doubling is not permitted you should hit. After all, you cannot bust, so all you can do is improve your hand by hitting or keep it the same. It doesn't matter if you end up with say 12 as opposed to having sixteen because in either case your chances of winning are the same if you stay.
    Agree. Good explanation.

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    My mistake is thinking the hand as a number and not as Ace / something.
    i got it now.

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    Maybe this will help until you become more proficient. Many dealers will say 6 or 16 or 5/15 etc. The lower number is the one you play. This may be the first time I ever told anyone to listen to the dealer.

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    Quote Originally Posted by paymypush View Post
    Maybe this will help until you become more proficient. Many dealers will say 6 or 16 or 5/15 etc. The lower number is the one you play. This may be the first time I ever told anyone to listen to the dealer.
    It really depends on how low that low number is. When that low number gets to be around seven or higher you think about staying. You don't want to think you have a nine when you could call it a 19.
    Last edited by Midwest Player; 08-18-2018 at 08:30 PM.

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    So basically when my hand dealt is Ace + something, and I draw a card because BS said to HIT, I just "think it" as Ace + (X+Y) to adapt to the basic strategy on that very next decision right ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Letangs View Post
    So basically when my hand dealt is Ace + something, and I draw a card because BS said to HIT, I just "think it" as Ace + (X+Y) to adapt to the basic strategy on that very next decision right ?
    That will work. If X+Y>10 the ace will count as 1 and it is now a hard hand. It is best to just call hands where the ace can count as one or eleven a soft hand and when ace must be counted as one a hard hand.
    Last edited by Three; 08-19-2018 at 04:22 AM.

  13. #13
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    Yeah I think I got it.

    If I got A / 4 / 4, the correct thing is to look up at what the BS says to do when you got A/8, rather than looking at what you should do when you got 19 (even though the outcome is the same anyway) ?

    This is slightly tricky as I am nowhere near a professional, except I just buy & read books about BJ yet never really had the time nor the chance to "train" the skills.
    Sorry if that sounds pretty noobish as a question in a such forum, I just wanted to make it clear to my mind.

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