14 October 2011
The card casino games are becoming more and more popular among the worldwide casino players. One of the well-known card games played by most of the players is the game of Blackjack. In the game of Blackjack, the dealer will draw the cards according to the rules set for the games. However, these rules may vary for different casinos. The main difference will arise in game, when the dealer will have a hand value of 17. Almost, in every variant of Blackjack game, the dealer will stand if he has hard 17. This is because; hard 17 shows that either the dealer does not contain an ace or if he possesses an ace, it becomes constrained to take the value of 1. On the other hand, if the dealer contains soft 17, the gaming rules become different. The rules at some of the casinos state that dealer will have to hand, while in others dealer will have to hit in case of getting soft 17 during the game. a soft 17 in Blackjack game is a hand with an ace card will contain a value of 11. However, by taking some additional cards, the value of ace becomes 1.
When the dealer will hit on soft 17, he will get an advantage, because this gives him the chance of increasing his hand value. This can be understood very well by the following example. Suppose that dealer of the game is having a six and an ace. The ace is having value as 11, while six is having value as 6. This will give hand value of 17 to the dealer. After hitting, suppose that dealer has drawn a five. However, the hand value of dealer now will not become 22 because now ace card will have the value of 1. Hence, new hand value of dealer will be 12. Now, dealer may draw another card as eight and thus his final hand value will become equal to 20. The hand value of dealer will not always increase on having soft 17, but chances of increasing hand value at soft 17 is greater. Therefore, this has been suggested to players, to adopt more defensive strategy while playing Blackjack game, in case of hitting on soft 17 by the dealer in game.
Separate strategy cards are prepared for Blackjack games for different cases as when the dealer stands in case of soft 17 as well as for the case when dealer hits on soft 17. The comparison of the strategy cards will indicate how the strategy of the players in game will change. When the dealer will stand on soft 17, player contains a hand value of 9 and face up card of dealer is from 3 to 6, the player will be in very good position and thus can have double bet in the Blackjack Game. On the other hand, by having same cards, but the dealer hitting on soft 17, the position of the player will become weaker and so he cannot play double bet rather can simply hit.
Another example, similar to the previous one is that when player possesses a hand value from soft 13 to soft 18 and face up card of dealer is either 5 or 6. Now, if the dealer will stand on soft 17, the player will be in a very good position and can have double bet during game. On the other hand, in case of hitting on soft 17, players can not able to play double but simply can take another card.
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