Soft 17 explained: hard and soft totals at the blackjack table

What is a soft 17, and what does it mean that the dealer "stands on soft 17" at the Card Lounge blackjack table? Once you can tell a hard total from a soft one, the dealer's play becomes completely predictable, and the payouts become simple arithmetic.

A quick word first: blackjack here uses play chips only. You start with 1,000 chips, you can reset to 1,000 between hands with "Reset chips", and nothing can be bought or won. This note explains the rules and the numbers; it is not betting advice, and no way of playing guarantees a result.

Card values

On Card Lounge blackjack, 2 to 10 count their face value, J, Q and K count 10, and an Ace counts 1 or 11, whichever suits the hand. The cards come from a shoe of six standard decks shuffled together, 312 cards in all, and the shoe is reshuffled when fewer than 78 cards remain.

Hard and soft totals

A hand is soft when it contains an Ace that is being counted as 11 without taking the total over 21. Every other hand is hard.

• A♠ 6♥ is a soft 17: 11 + 6.
• A♠ 6♥ 10♣ is a hard 17: 1 + 6 + 10. Counting the Ace as 11 would make 27.
• A♣ A♦ is a soft 12: 11 + 1. Only one Ace can ever be 11, because two would make 22.
• 10♥ 7♣ is a hard 17.

One useful consequence: a soft hand cannot bust on the next card. If the new card would push the total past 21, the Ace drops from 11 to 1, which takes 10 off, and no card is worth more than 10. A soft 18 plus a 9, for example, becomes a hard 17 (1 + 7 + 9), not 27.

What the dealer does at this table

The dealer gets one card face up and one face down, and checks for blackjack when showing an Ace or a ten-value card. Once you have finished your hand, the dealer follows a fixed rule: draw to 16, and stand on all 17s, including soft 17. The dealer never chooses anything.

Some blackjack tables elsewhere use the opposite rule and make the dealer hit a soft 17. Here, a soft 17 is final.

Worked examples

Dealer stands on a soft 17:

• The dealer shows 6♠ and turns over A♦. That is 11 + 6 = soft 17, so the dealer stands.
• If you stood on 18, you win. On 17, it is a push and your bet comes back. On 16 or less, you lose.

Dealer draws from a soft 16:

• The dealer shows 5♣ and turns over A♥: 11 + 5 = soft 16, so the dealer must draw.
• The next card is 9♦. Counting the Ace as 11 would give 25, so it drops to 1: 1 + 5 + 9 = hard 15. The dealer draws again.
• The next card is 2♠: 1 + 5 + 9 + 2 = hard 17. The dealer stands.

Notice that the same Ace started as 11 and ended as 1, which is why a dealer's soft total can drop before it climbs to 17.

Your choices

You have three actions: Hit, Stand, and Double. Double is allowed on your first two cards only; your bet is doubled and you receive exactly one more card. Splitting and insurance are not offered in this edition, so a pair of 8s is simply a hard 16, and a pair of Aces is a soft 12.

Payout arithmetic with play chips

Bets are 10, 20, 50 or 100 chips. A win pays 1 to 1, a push returns your bet, and a loss loses it. A blackjack, meaning 21 with your first two cards, pays 3 to 2 unless the dealer also has blackjack, in which case it is a push.

• Bet 50, ordinary win: you win 50 chips.
• Bet 50, blackjack: 50 × 3 ÷ 2 = 75 chips won. Starting from 1,000, your balance goes to 1,075.
• Bet 100, blackjack: 100 × 3 ÷ 2 = 150 chips won.
• Bet 10, blackjack: 10 × 3 ÷ 2 = 15 chips won.
• Bet 50, Double, then win: the bet becomes 100, and a win pays 100. A loss costs 100.
• Your blackjack against a dealer blackjack: a push, so your bet simply comes back.

A three-card 21 is a good hand, but it is not a blackjack: when it wins, it pays 1 to 1 like any other win.

Try it

1. Call each hand hard or soft, and give the total: A♥ 7♣; A♥ 7♣ 9♦; A♠ A♦ 9♣; K♦ 7♠.
2. The dealer shows 4♣, turns over A♠, and draws 2♥. What does the dealer do next?
3. You bet 100 and are dealt a blackjack; the dealer does not have one. How many chips do you win?

Answers: 1) soft 18; hard 17; soft 21 (11 + 1 + 9), a 21 but not a blackjack because it has three cards; hard 17. 2) 11 + 4 + 2 is a soft 17, so the dealer stands. 3) 150 chips.

Practise reading totals on blackjack, and look up any unfamiliar term in the glossary. For another game where counting cards helps you think clearly, read Higher or Lower: counting what is left, and see how to play for the rules of every game.