Introduction

To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. There are two charts depending on whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17.

Other basic strategy rules.

Aug 13, 2019  To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. There are two charts depending on whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17. The basic strategy rules for hitting soft 17 are as follows: For double- and multi-deck games, hit when the dealer‘s upcard is a 2 or 7 through ace. For a single-deck game, hit when the dealer’s upcard is 7 through ace. After you hit a soft 17, what you do next depends upon. Mar 21, 2018  Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart: 4/6/8 Decks, Dealer Hits Soft 17 Kenneth R Smith on Amazon.com.FREE. shipping on qualifying offers. Convenient wallet-sized plastic blackjack basic strategy card. Perfect strategy for the 4, 6, or 8 deck blackjack game where the dealer hits soft 17.

• Never take insurance or 'even money.'
• If there is no row for splitting (fives and tens), then look up your hand as a hard total (10 or 20).
• If you can't split because of a limit on re-splitting, then look up your hand as a hard total.

If you play a mixture of six-deck games, some where the dealer hits a soft 17, and some where he stands, and you only wish to memorize one strategy, I would recommend you memorize the one where the dealer stands on soft 17. The cost in errors due to playing the wrong strategy is 2.3 times higher playing a stand on soft 17 game, with the hit on 17 strategy, than vise versa.

Basic Strategy in Text

For the benefit of my blind readers, here is the above strategy in text form, when the dealer stands on soft 17 and surrender is allowed. To use the strategy, start at the top, and follow the first rule that applies.

Surrender

• Surrender hard 16 (but not a pair of 8s) vs. dealer 9, 10, or A, and hard 15 vs. dealer 10.

Split

• Always split aces and 8s.
• Never split 5s and 10s.
• Split 2s and 3s against a dealer 4-7, and against a 2 or 3 if DAS is allowed.
• Split 4s only if DAS is allowed and the dealer shows a 5 or 6.
• Split 6s against a dealer 3-6, and against a 2 if DAS is allowed.
• Split 7s against a dealer 2-7.
• Split 9s against a dealer 2-6 or 8-9.

Double

• Double hard 9 vs. dealer 3-6.
• Double hard 10 except against a dealer 10 or A.
• Double hard 11 except against a dealer A.
• Double soft 13 or 14 vs. dealer 5-6.
• Double soft 15 or 16 vs. dealer 4-6.
• Double soft 17 or 18 vs. dealer 3-6.

Hit or Stand

• Always hit hard 11 or less.
• Stand on hard 12 against a dealer 4-6, otherwise hit.
• Stand on hard 13-16 against a dealer 2-6, otherwise hit.
• Always stand on hard 17 or more.
• Always hit soft 17 or less.
• Stand on soft 18 except hit against a dealer 9, 10, or A.
• Always stand on soft 19 or more.

As I've said many times, the above strategy will be fine under any set of rules. However, for you perfectionists out there, here are the modifications to make if the dealer hits a soft 17.

• Surrender 15, a pair of 8s, and 17 vs. dealer A.
• Double 11 vs. dealer A.
• Double soft 18 vs. dealer 2.
• Double soft 19 vs. dealer 6.

My thanks to Kelly for putting together the above text strategy.

I know that the math says you should play at a table where the dealer stands on a soft 17, but sometimes those tables are difficult to find in Vegas anymore.
My question is this: If I am playing at a table where the dealer hits a soft 17, but during my play for however long, the situation never arises where the dealer has a soft 17, does that mean the percentages are the same as when a dealer stands on soft 17? So in other words, at a table where the dealer hits on a soft 17 those percentages are actually the same as where the dealer stands on a soft 17, until the situation arises where the dealer actually does hit on a soft 17?
The reason I ask is that many times when I play where the dealer hits a soft 17 the situation never actually arises. Therefore, I was wondering when those percentages and how you are 'suppose' to play the hands may or may not change depending on if the situation actually arises where the dealer does hit the soft 17.
If you have any thoughts or insight please let me know.

The dealer will be dealt a soft 17 in 2 of 169 situations or 1.18% of the time. There will be other situations where the dealer gets to a soft 17 (A-2-4, A-3-3, A-5-A, etc) about another 1.11% of the time. This means that the soft 17 should come into play about 2.3% of the time or once in 43 1/2 hands, or a couple of times per hour.
The fact that you don't see it often is just a function of the cards played. You should never alter the calculated strategy just because you don't see the soft 17 because it's out there.

Blackjack Strategy Chart Dealer Hits Soft 17

I am not sure what the strategy 'cost' is by following the stand on 17 vs the hit on 17 basic strategy tables.

I am not sure what the strategy 'cost' is by following the stand on 17 vs the hit on 17 basic strategy tables.

The difference between H17 and S17 is .2 % of your action. But if we're talking about the difference between playing BS in a S17 game using a H17 strategy, then the cost is negligible, as any strategy changes are very borderline, if I'm not mistaken.To answer your question, no it doesn't matter if the situation actually comes up.
If you play a 6:5 BJ game with (I believe) 2% disadvantage and never get a BJ. You were still playing at a 2% disadvantage, just because you never got a BJ is irrelevant.

Blackjack Betting Strategy Chart

Or if you play in a game where you can't double after split the house edge is still higher, just because you don't get the chance to do it in a given session also does not matter.

If you play a 6:5 BJ game with (I believe) 2% disadvantage and never get a BJ. You were still playing at a 2% disadvantage, just because you never got a BJ is irrelevant.

1.39%, for the Wizards benchmark rules ;)
To give a bit more reason as to why... The house edge is determined off of the math of the game with no hands, or infinite hands pending how you want to look at it. You are a 2% disadvantage. If you play for 2 hours and don't have a blackjack, you were still a 2% disadvantage because over the 'long run' of the game it will balance out to the predetermined math. I don't like to say this specifically, but for simplistic sake... If you have no BJ's for 10 sessions in a row it doesn't matter because by the time you reach 10,000 sessions you will have come closer to the average amount of blackjacks (law of averages) you should theoretically reach in that time frame. Meaning the 6/5 did hurt you all the same even though you didn't specifically see it in the first 10 sessions of your play.

The difference between H17 and S17 is .2 % of your action. But if we're talking about the difference between playing BS in a S17 game using a H17 strategy, then the cost is negligible, as any strategy changes are very borderline, if I'm not mistaken.

The Wizard says on the WoO blackjack BS page:

If you play a mixture of six-deck games, some where the dealer hits a soft 17, and some where he stands, and you only wish to memorize one strategy, I would recommend you memorize the one where the dealer stands on soft 17. The cost in errors due to playing the wrong strategy is 2.3 times higher playing a stand on soft 17 game, with the hit on 17 strategy, than vise versa.

There are six changes if surrender is offered, three if it is not. That's not a lot to learn.

Blackjack Hit Chart

H17 is not a deal breaker on a six deck game. Penetration and rules determine how playable the game is. Is anyone counting? The 0.22% increase in the house edge that H17 gives is at a count of zero. As the count rises, that percentage dwindles and that's when you have the money out.
It's about evaluating the game. It's not unheard of for a counter to bypass a S17 game in favor of H17. There was some talk of 6:5 in this thread but I'm referring to 3:2 only. I don't have a lot to say about 6:5 however there are those who say even that can be beaten.

how you are 'suppose' to play the hands may or may not change depending on if the situation actually arises where the dealer does hit the soft 17.

The only time the dealer wouldn't hit their soft 17 on a H17 table would be when all the player hands are already settled (due to busts or naturals).
The noticeable change is doubling (vs stand) A-8 vs 6.
As to how you're supposed to play your hand, you're supposed to play the way that's likely to win. That's following the right strategy chart, unless you have extra information.

The noticeable change is doubling (vs stand) A-8 vs 6.

For the casino I play, also doubling 11 v. A and A7 v. 2 changes. 15, 17 and 88 v. A change to surrender.
Edit: Changed A6 v. 2 to A7 v. 2. I tip my hat to 1BB for catching my mistake.If the unfavorable rules don't impact your particular play session, you were just lucky. Keep playing that game and they will. Eventually.