Blackjack When To Hit Or Stand

When to Hit and When to Stand in Blackjack. The most common dilemma that a player has to go through is when to hit or stand. Most professional players have their own basic blackjack strategy to guide them when would be the best time to stand and when would be the best time to hit.
If the dealer's face up card is 7, 8 or 9, and your hand totals 9, do not Double, Hit. Blackjack Tips #2: When To Stand. Use the following rules to determine when to Stand, according to your hand and the dealer's face up card.-When your hand totals 17 or above, no matter what, Stand. (Some strategies will tell you to hit 17 if the dealer has.

When to Hit and When to Stand in Blackjack. The most common dilemma that a player has to go through is when to hit or stand. Most professional players have their own basic blackjack strategy to guide them when would be the best time to stand and when would be the best time to hit.

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.

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.

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Hit Or Stand.net

Hit Or Stand Free Blackjack Game

The HitorStand.net websites offers a free blackjack game which teaches blackjack basic strategy while you play. Hit Or Stand is possibly the most trafficked blackjack websites on the Internet, but a lot of that is probably because of the large number of return visitors coming to the site. (Since the site offers a game and practice tool, people are likely to bookmark the site and return to practice.)

I've played the free blackjack game on Hit or Stand several times, and I've usually scored around 90% or so. It's a fast, fun, free blackjack game that requires no download.

Hit or Stand Blackjack Rules

Hit or Stand.net offers a summary of blackjack rules and a couple of basic strategy charts that you can study. (This is in addition to the tutorial nature of the free blackjack game.)

Blackjack Hit Or Stand Card

Hit or Stand Forum - Hit or Stand Message Board

The site also includes an active message board/forum with almost 2000 threads. The Hit or Stand forum is divided into the following sections:

Announcement and forum issues
Blackjack strategy
The Hit or Stand game
Blackjack experiences and funny stories

The most active forum, by far, is the blackjack strategy section, which contains over 1700 active threads. Much of the blackjack strategy discussion is pretty intense, and honestly, a lot of it was over my head. If you're looking for a serious discussion of different aspects related to blackjack tactics, then this is the place to find it. The forum posters seem polite and welcoming. (Unlike the posters in some poker forums.)

Hit or Stand Recommended Blackjack Books and Blackjack Authors

Blackjack authors Walter Thomason and Fred Renzey have both turned up in order to post in the blackjack forums at Hit or Stand also.

The Hit or Stand blackjack site also has a featured books section where the owners of the site recommend some of the following blackjack books:

Hit Or Stand Blackjack Strategy

Twenty-first Century Blackjack by Walter Thomason
Blackjack Bluebook II by Fred Renzey
Basic Blackjack by Stanford Wong
Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong
The Theory of Blackjack by Peter Griffin
Blackjack for Blood by Bruce Carlson

You can visit Hit or Stand directly: www.hitorstand.net