Cards from 2 to 9 are counted at their face value.

Each jack, king, and the queen is worth 10.

To begin the hand, the player receives two cards face-up, whereas the dealer receives one card face-down and the other face-up.

The game objective is to create a hand as close as possible to 21 without busting.

The game is played between the dealer and 1 to 7 players.

H17 game, plus three more if the variation you’re playing allows surrender, as shown in the table below.This is what the basic structure of Spanish 21 blackjack looks like: There are three scenarios in which your moves will be different in an S17 vs. Of course, one must also account for other flexible rules, like no/late surrender or DAS/NDAS. The rule also affects the house edge by 0.2% and changes the player’s strategic approach. In other words, the rule that the dealer must hit on soft 17 is more advantageous to the dealer, making the S17 game more beneficial to the player. On the other hand, their chances of making a better total than 17 are around 0.8%. The dealer has a higher chance of busting with this rule by about 0.4%. If the dealer hits on soft 17, it increases their chances of busting, but it also increases their chances of improving the hand. It has an effect on your chances and strategy, just like the number of decks or the blackjack payout. Soft 17 is one of the most crucial blackjack rules. Written directly on the table alongside blackjack and insurance payouts, it should say something along the lines of - “ dealer must hit soft 17” (H17 game) or “ dealer stands on 17 and must draw to 16” (S17 game). Many blackjack variants implement the soft 17 rule, which forces the dealer to either stand or hit on this exact hand total. However, things are different for the dealer.

When you’re a player, it doesn’t matter whether you have a soft 17 or not, as you are free to choose your move whenever it suits you.

Another way to look at it is that you are guaranteed not to bust if you hit on your soft hand because the ace can always count as one instead of 11. When any hand contains an ace, it’s called a soft hand since aces in blackjack can count as both 1 and 11. Soft 17 is a situation in which the blackjack hand contains a total of 17 with a single ace (6+A, 4+2+A, etc.). Let’s find out! What Is the Soft 17 Rule? So, why 17? What’s “ soft” about it, and how is this special rule applied in the game of blackjack?

Blackjack strategy dealer hits on 17