A hand containing an ace counted as eleven. It cannot bust on the next card, because the ace drops to one instead.

Should I ever stand on soft 17?

No. It is the most common soft-hand error. The hand cannot bust, and 17 loses to every dealer total from 18 up.

What if the table will not let me double soft hands?

Then hit instead. Restricting doubles to hard 9-11 costs 0.09 percentage points.

Playing Soft Hands in Blackjack

What makes a hand soft

A soft hand contains an ace still counting as eleven. Draw a card that would bust it and the ace simply drops to one, so the hand survives. A,6 is a soft 17; draw a ten and it becomes a hard 17 rather than a bust.

That is a free option, and basic strategy exists largely to use it.

Every soft hand, computed

H hit · S stand · D double (hit if doubling is not allowed) · P split

Your hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
A,2	H	H	H	H	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,3	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,4	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,5	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,6	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,7	S	D	D	D	D	S	S	H	H	H
A,8	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A,9	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

The mistake almost everyone makes

Standing on soft 17. A,6 looks like a made hand and is not: 17 loses to every dealer total from 18 up and ties only 17. Since the hand cannot bust on the next card, hitting or doubling is free upside.

Never stand on soft 17. It is the most common and most expensive soft-hand error.

A,7 is the awkward one

Soft 18 is the only hand in blackjack where standing, hitting and doubling are each correct against some upcard. Double against a weak dealer card, stand against a 7 or 8, and hit against a 9, 10 or ace, where an 18 is usually second best.

Why the doubles cluster on 5 and 6

Soft doubles are not about your total. They are about the dealer's upcard: against a 5 or 6 the dealer busts over 42% of the time, so pressing a bet on a hand that cannot bust is close to free money. Our dealer upcard odds page has the full table.

Where the table restricts doubling to hard 9-11, every soft double disappears and the game costs more. Our doubling down page covers what that restriction is worth.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a soft hand?: A hand containing an ace counted as eleven. It cannot bust on the next card, because the ace drops to one instead.
Should I ever stand on soft 17?: No. It is the most common soft-hand error. The hand cannot bust, and 17 loses to every dealer total from 18 up.
Why is A,7 so complicated?: Soft 18 is the only hand where standing, hitting and doubling are each correct against some dealer upcard.
What if the table will not let me double soft hands?: Then hit instead. Restricting doubles to hard 9-11 costs 0.09 percentage points.

Every figure on this page is computed by an expected-value engine that plays the game out: it derives the dealer's final-total distribution by recursion, evaluates standing, hitting, doubling and splitting at each decision, and takes the best. Rule costs are measured by re-running the whole calculation with the rule changed, not by quoting a published delta. The model assumes independent card draws, which sits a few hundredths of a percent from an exact shoe analysis; the rule differences it produces match published values. Rules vary by table, so read the felt.