One of the most confusing aspects for blackjack novices is the quirky lingo at the tables. Inexperienced players often become perplexed when they hear others talk about “breaking hands”, “bust cards”, “five-card Charlies”, “soft hands”, “stiffies”, and the like. And indeed, many players who are just wading into the vast universe of 21 struggle to understand the difference between soft and hard hands (i.e., the aforementioned “stiffies”).
You will encounter these two terms across a vast range of books and strategy articles, but reading all the blackjack literature in the world amounts to nothing if you fail to make a proper distinction between the two main types of hands in this fascinating game of probabilities.
The thing is, optimal playing decisions vary greatly between soft and hard hands even when their totals are identical. In the following article, we look at the key differences between soft and hard hands in blackjack, explain which of the two is more valuable to players, and expound the logic behind several important playing decisions.
Soft Hands vs. Hard Hands: What’s the Difference?
So what is the distinction between soft and hard hands? Hard hands in blackjack either do not contain an Ace, or, when they do, the Ace is assigned a value of 1 and cannot be counted as 11. An example of an ace-less hard hand is K-6, which totals 16. A hand like A-4-10-3, totaling 18, is also hard despite the presence of the Ace because, in this case, it counts as 1. Otherwise, the player would exceed 21 and lose the round.
In contrast, soft hands are those that contain an Ace that counts as 1 or 11 depending on the player’s preferences. While at the blackjack table, you will face multiple situations where you start with a soft hand, which transforms into a hard one after you take one or more hits. Suppose, for instance, you start with a two-card hand consisting of A-2, whose total is either 3 or 13; the choice is yours.
You follow basic strategy and hit your soft 13, but you draw a Jack. Your hand is now a hard 13, and the Ace is counted as 1; otherwise, you would bust. Basic strategy tells you to take another hit, and you end up drawing a second Ace, which also counts as 1 for a hard total of 14. You hit again, draw a 3, and what started as a soft 13 is now A-2-J-A-3 for a hard total of 17. Here are a few more examples of soft hands turning into stiffs after one or more hits:
- A-3-8 for a hard 12
- A-5-6 for a hard 12
- A-4-K-A-3 for a hard 19
Soft Hands vs. Hard Hands Additional TipsIt is worth noting that A-A also counts as a soft hand that can be valued at either 2 or 12. However, soft 12 is a special case and, as such, is not treated like the other soft totals. The only right decision you can make in this scenario is to split the pair of Aces, in which case you normally get only one extra card per Ace.
It is crucial for a blackjack player to distinguish between soft and hard totals because the optimal plays for the two often differ, even when their sums are identical. For instance, you will approach A-6 differently than 8-9 or Q-7, right? Indeed you will, provided that you stick to basic strategy, which is something all blackjack players, professional or not, should do.
Which Hand Type is Better?
Soft hands are beneficial for players because they provide flexibility, letting them change the total of their cards until they have a strong enough hand against the dealer’s upcard. These valuable hands give you a chance to improve your total without risking a bust on the very next hit.
In fact, it is impossible to bust with a soft hand by drawing a third card from the shoe or deck, as becomes obvious from the following example. You start the round with A-3 and count the Ace as 11 because a value of 1 would be of no use in this situation. No third card can bust you because you can easily revert the value of your Ace to 1 if you catch anything higher than a 7. In that case, your soft hand will turn into a hard one and you continue to play in accordance with basic strategy.
Suppose you hit and pull a 7; this gives you the highest possible total of 21, which is unbeatable. Here you can only lose if the dealer has a blackjack. In the worst-case scenario, the two of you will push.
What if your third card is something else? If your starting hand is A-4 and you catch a 5, it becomes A-4-5 for a soft 20. This hand remains eligible for hitting, as the Ace can still be counted as 1 or 11, but you refrain from further hits. You are already in the safe zone with a total of 20, and there is no point in risking your hand by drawing more cards. Do not forget the average winning total in the game of blackjack is 18.5!
Soft hands are better than hard ones for yet another reason. They also give you the opportunity to make some very useful doubling-down decisions and increase your betting action during a round, particularly when the dealer is in a disadvantageous position with upcards 3 through 6. This allows you to increase your value by playing more aggressively when the dealer is weak.
The H17 Rule for Dealers
Remember, dealers can also end up with soft totals. Casinos have found a way to exploit these advantageous hands by tweaking the dealer’s drawing and standing rules for one specific soft total. Sooner or later, blackjack players will encounter tables where the H17 rule applies, which means the dealer is required to draw more cards when holding a soft 17.
This is generally considered bad for the player because it gives the dealer a chance to improve their soft 17 to a higher total, which, in turn, increases the house edge by 0.22% even if all other rules remain unchanged.
Another key thing to consider before taking a seat at an H17 table is the difference in the correct plays for certain hands. In one such game, you should always double down on hard totals of 11 against any dealer upcard, including an Ace. This is not the case in S17 blackjack, where you hit your 11 against an Ace.
The same goes for some soft doubling decisions, particularly the soft 18 (A-7) and soft 19 (A-8). You should double on soft 18 when playing against an H17 dealer with small upcards 2 through 6. Soft 19 calls for doubling in H17 games only when the dealer is at their most vulnerable with a 6. Without these strategy adjustments, you will fail to reduce the house edge.
The Frequency of Occurrence of Hard and Soft Hands
Gambling expert Henry Tamburin tells us there are 34 hands you can receive at the start of a betting round. As many as 15 of those will be hard totals (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19). Respectively, 8 of those will be soft totals (A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-7, A-8, and A-9), and the remaining 10 hands will consist of paired cards (A-A, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10). We treat blackjacks consisting of an Ace and ten-value cards as special cases since the Aces in them always count as 11.
But what is the frequency of occurrence of those hands after a reshuffle? Since ten-value cards outnumber all other card denominations, it is only natural for paired tens, Kings, Queens, and Jacks to occur the most frequently. They appear a little over 9% of the time and are followed by stiff hands 12 through 16. The reason hard hands occur so frequently is similar: there are more card denominations that can combine to form these stiff totals.
Next in line are naturals. They also have a relatively high frequency of occurrence (4.7%) because of the large number of cards that give you this combination. Paired cards (with the exception of paired ten-value cards) and soft hands tend to occur the least frequently, under 1% and 1.1%, respectively.
The Frequency of Occurrence of Hard and Soft Hands Additional TipsWhat about the advantage each of these hands can give the players? Not surprisingly, the most advantageous hand is the blackjack itself, followed by paired ten-value cards and soft 20 (these yield around 60% advantage), with hard 19 and 11 in tow (with an advantage of around 23%). Hard hands 12 through 17 are last in line since they hold you at a massive disadvantage that ranges between 30% and 40%. These are considered breaking hands because the player can easily bust with them on the next hit.
The starting hands that hold you at the biggest disadvantage logically yield the biggest loss rates in the long run. So it turns out the biggest “losers” in blackjack are hard 12 through hard 16, small hard totals 5 through 7, pairs of 2s through 8s, and soft totals 13 through 17.
Despite what some less experienced players assume, pat 17 and pat 18 are not very good hands in blackjack because the average winning total in the game is 18.5. It follows that blackjack’s biggest moneymakers are the starting hands with the highest occurrence frequency and the biggest win rates, namely the naturals, the pairs of ten-value cards, 11, hard 19, soft 19 and soft 20.
The Reasoning Behind Some Soft Doubling Decisions
You are probably wondering why soft hands are considered so important when they rank among the most frequently losing hands in the game. Indeed, that is a very good question. Moreover, why would you double on them when most soft totals have low win rates? Another good question. Let’s consider several soft doubling moves to try and provide an answer.
Suppose you are dealt a soft 13 against a dealer showing a 4, and you intend to double down. There are five cards out of 13 that can help you improve your total to 17 or higher. These are the 4, the 5, the 6, the 7, and the 8. The remaining eight cards will convert your soft 13 into bad hard totals.
Therefore, the odds of improving the hand are not in your favor since there are 8 cards that leave you with a hard total as opposed to 5 cards that help you. The same goes for soft 16, where you are again facing odds of 8 to 5 against you, with 5 helpful cards (2 through 5 plus the Ace) and 8 cards that transform your soft hand into a stiff.
Things are a bit different when your starting hand is soft 18, where eight cards can move you into the safe zone against the dealer’s weak card: the Ace, 2, 3, 9, 10, and any of the three face cards. This time, the odds of 5 to 8 are in your favor.
With soft doubling decisions, there are several things you need to take into consideration. The 5 and the 6 are the worst for the dealer, which is why you should always double against those with soft 13 through soft 18.
Soft Doubling Decisions Additional TipsCards with a pip value of 3 or 4 are also bad for the dealer, though not as bad as the 5 and the 6. Finally, the dealer’s 2 is not as weak and calls for doubling only on totals of 10 and 11 in S17 games and on soft 18 in H17 games.
You may have noticed that basic strategy recommends you double on soft 16 against a dealer 4 but tells you to hit a soft 13 instead of doubling, even though in both cases you are facing the same odds (8 to 5) against the same dealer upcard. Why is that?
It depends on the number of hit cards that would leave you wishing you could draw again. When you double on soft 16, the only card that would leave you wanting to take another hit is the Ace. In the case of soft 13, four hit cards would make you want to draw again: the 2, the 3, the 4, and the Ace. However, you will not be allowed to draw because you receive only one additional card after you double down. In conclusion, the lower the value of the soft total, the bigger your disadvantage when you restrict yourself to a single hit.