Why hit on a soft 17?

Firstly, what is a soft seventeen in blackjack? Its cards dealt to the player which contain an ace so to get a soft seventeen you could have an ace+3+3 or an ace+6 for example.

Basic blackjack strategy insists when dealt a soft seventeen to hit and not stand. This basic rule however isn’t always followed with some blackjack players preferring to stand assuming their cards are good enough to beat the dealer. In this article we look at why this basic rule exists and why it should always be followed.

Seventeen is a very weak hand to start off with a player standing on seventeen only has a 33.15% chance of winning against the dealer since the dealer must go bust in order for the player standing on seventeen to win. The chances of the dealer pulling seventeen which would finish the hand with a push is 14.61% leaving 52.24% chance the player will lose.

Hitting on a hard seventeen makes no sense. A soft 17 always has an ace which based on the card value received from the dealer can always revert back to the value of one. So the chances of pulling a stronger or the same hand when hitting on a soft seventeen are 61.53%

Understanding basic blackjack strategy is as important as understanding the rules of blackjack, players of online blackjack might get lucky and pull a few winning hands however overall the house will always win if they player doesn’t understand the basic fundamentals of the strategy behind blackjack from a players perspective and how to get more of an edge over the dealer. Reminding ourselves that it’s all well and good getting blackjack hand but the aim of the game is to beat the dealer and do this consistently of the course of the shoe.

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