What Makes a Blackjack Hand Hard or Soft?

Blackjack is a casino game that is based on probability. The goal of the game is to beat the dealer by scoring points equal to the sum of the face cards (blackjack) minus the dealer’s hand (dead card). The hand is made up of five cards, and each suit has its own rank.

The face cards are high, middle, low, and Ace. The Ace can be counted as either a high or low card.

There are six different types of hands in blackjack: soft hands, hard hands, moderate hands, hard-soft hands, and easy hands. Each hand has its own advantages and disadvantages that can make it more or less likely to win.

A soft hand is one in which the player has fewer than five cards of the same rank. A soft hand is advantageous because it pays more for each point scored than a hard hand. A moderate hand is one in which the player has between five and seven cards of the same rank. A moderate hand is neither as advantageous as a hard hand nor as disadvantageous as a soft hand.

A hard-soft hand is one in which the player has at least eight cards of the same rank but fewer than 10 cards. Hard-soft hands are advantageous because they pay more for each point scored than either a soft or hard hand, but they are also disadvantageous because they can be easily beaten by a dead card (a card that does not count toward scoring). An easy hand is one in which the player has at least nine cards of any rank. An easy hand is disadvantageous because it pays less for each point scored than any other type of hand.

The advantage of hard hands over other types of hands comes from two factors: (1) Hard hands have a higher chance of containing aces, which are worth more than any other card; and (2) most decks have an even number of cards, so hard hands have an even chance of containing any given card (i.e., two tens, two jacks, two queens).

The disadvantage of hard hands comes from their vulnerability to being beaten by a dead card (which doesn’t count toward scoring).

The advantage of soft hands over other types of hands comes from two factors: (1) Soft hands have a lower chance of containing aces; and (2) most decks have an odd number of cards, so soft hands have an even chance of containing any given card (i.e., one ten, one jack, one queen).

The disadvantage to soft hands comes from their vulnerability to being beaten by a live card (which does count toward scoring).

Related Posts