How to play blackjack best hands and ace the game

In blackjack, where one wrong decision can cost you the pot, learning the perfect blackjack strategy can mean the difference between hitting it big and throwing in your cards. It tells you what to do with all blackjack hands in all variations, so you don't play blind even though you're gambling. 

What should you do when you get the worst blackjack hand? Do you hit or split? What about blackjack winning hands? What are they, and what do you do when you get them? Find out in this blackjack hand guide and learn how to gauge your cards for better chances of winning in this favourite casino game.

What is a blackjack hand?

A blackjack hand consists of two cards, given each to the player and the croupier. These cards form the total hand value when added, determining whether they win. The higher the hand total is, the better since it's closer to 21, which is the goal.

At the start of the casino game, the dealer deals two cards face-up to all players and deals one face-up card and one face-down card to themselves. The latter is called the hole card since it's the only unrevealed information.

After seeing their hands, players can decide whether to hit or stand. If they hit, they add one more card and increase their hand value. If they stand, they don't want any more cards and are content with their hand.

Your chances of winning in blackjack depend on the value of the cards dealt to you. The best hand in blackjack is a natural wherein your two cards are equivalent to 21. This is achieved by having an ace card valued at 11 and a high card with a value of 10, which are King, Queen, Jack and 10. However, this is quite rare, with a hit frequency of only 4.75%. 

The worst hand in blackjack is a 16 since it is more likely to lose, especially when the dealer's up card is a 10. With this card, they're likely to finish with a hand closer to 21. Even if you hit, there's a high chance that your hand will bust, especially if the card is 6 and above. 

When a dealer's up card is a 4, 5 or 6, there's a high probability that their hand will go bust. This means that with the right blackjack strategy, you can win against the dealer.

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Blackjack hand chart

Since there are thousands of possible combinations, you must play your hand by ear. The blackjack hand chart below can help you understand further what actions you should take depending on your hand's value.

The top row is the total hand value of your cards, while the leftmost column corresponds to the dealer's upcard. The cell where they intersect tell which action you should take if you get these cards. 

They're denoted as such:

• H - Hit
• S - Stand
• D - Doubling down
• SP - Split
• H/SR - Hit or surrender.

Photo taken from onlineunitedstatescasinos.com

Blackjack hand types

Blackjack hands are categorised into three types—soft, hard and stiff—based on their cards and total value. Among these, some have better winning chances since they're closer to 21, while others have lower chances. Thus, distinguishing them is important to know whether you have a good hand worth hitting or a bad one worth surrendering.

Additionally, you can only determine your hand type and not the dealer since their hole card is hidden and only their face card is visible.

Blackjack soft hand

When you have a soft hand or soft total in blackjack, one of the cards you hold is an ace, and your hand total can change depending on which gives you more advantage. 

If you have a high-valued card paired with your ace, its value can be 1. On the other hand, if you pair it with a low-valued card, its value can be 11. For example, if your hand is an Ace and 9, its value can either be 10 or 20, but since the latter is higher, it's the better hand value. 

Moreover, a soft hand cannot bust because if you hit and receive a card that would make the hand worth more than 21, you can switch the value of the ace to 1 instead of 11. You'll then have a lower-valued hand that you can hit. 

How to play soft hands

If you have a soft hand, you should either stand or hit depending on the dealer's up card. Following the example earlier, where you have a hand that's either 10 or 20, you have to stand because there's a probability that you win the round except when the dealer hits 21.

Splitting is only allowed with soft hands when you have two Aces. This will always be split because the total is 2 or 22, putting you at a disadvantage. 

The blackjack hands table below shows how you should take action when you have soft hands. The rows above are the dealer's upcard, while the leftmost column shows what hand you have. Columns are denoted with H for a hit, S for the stand, and D and Ds for doubling down. 

Photo taken from blackjackapprenticeship.com

Hard hand blackjack

All blackjack hands that don't have an Ace are considered hard hands or hard totals since their values are already set. For example, if you are dealt a high-valued card of Jack and Queen, this has only one possible total, which is 20, making it a hard hand in blackjack.  

It doesn't offer the flexibility of a soft hand, but having it doesn't put you at a disadvantage. Moreover, this doesn't affect whether you can double down or not because this still depends on the total of your hand. 

The table below shows what you can do when you have hard hands. The rows above are the dealer's upcard, while the leftmost row shows your hand. Columns are denoted with H for the hit, S for the stand, and D for doubling down.

Photo taken from blackjackapprenticeship.com

Blackjack stiff hand

A stiff hand is valued between 12 and 16. You are at risk when you are dealt a stiff hand because it's likely to bust when you hit and unlikely to win when you stand. When you hit on 12, there's a 30% chance you'll bust. Nearing 16 also increases your chances of busting up to 62%. 

The best hands in blackjack are always seen on the hard and soft blackjack hands and never when it's stiff. 

The table below shows when you should surrender when you have a stiff hand:

Photo taken from blackjackapprenticeship.com

Blackjack winning hands 

To win in blackjack, you need to have a hand equal to or closer to 21 without going over. The highest hand in blackjack you can get is 21, achieved if you're dealt an Ace followed by a 10, Jack, Queen or King. With these cards, there's almost no chance you lose except when the dealer also draws a blackjack and you tie. 

Another one of the best hands in blackjack is the hard 20, which consists of two cards with a value of 10. According to the mathematics, you win 80% of the time, except for the chance the dealer also scores 20 or a natural. 

Aside from these two possibilities, a 10 or 11 starting hand is also good since it gives you more chances to use basic strategy and double down. This is where you double your wager and take another card with a high chance of making a 20 or 21. However, the same can be said for the dealer's cards, so it still has a risk. 

Card counting also comes in handy in creating blackjack best hands. With this strategy, you can predict which cards come next on the deck using statistical probabilities and card marks, thus giving you an edge on your play. However, this is a high-level technique that's indubitably hard to master, let alone use in casinos where it is highly frowned upon. 

Best hand in blackjack

What is the best blackjack hand? Nothing beats the blackjack that's equal to 21. This automatically makes it the best hand in blackjack because you're at an advantage. You're most likely to win the round unless the dealer also comes up with a natural blackjack. 

Your hand is natural if it's a soft hand containing an Ace paired with a 10-value card, namely 10, Jack, Queen or King. However, you can also get a blackjack even with hard hands. For example, if you're dealt a 5 and 9 and hit and draw a 7, you have a blackjack.

Worst hand in blackjack

Hard 16, two eights specifically, is the worst hand in blackjack because it's valued at 16, close but not close enough to 21. You can hit or stand, but there are high odds that you'll either bust or lose to the dealer. Most players opt to split a pair of eights when playing, reducing their chances of losing hands. It makes things very difficult for players when it comes to choosing the right moves. This is because a hard 16 really is the hardest hand to win with when playing blackjack. Without getting into the stats too heavily, the chance of winning when you have a hard 16 is at best 30%. At worst, it gives you a 23.4% chance of winning. This means that even if you make absolutely the right choices in terms of your strategy, you will still lose seven games out of ten. Is there anything that you can do to increase your chances of winning? Put simply, there is not a huge amount you can do to swing the hand back in your favour. However, you can give yourself at least a fighting chance of winning the hand. What is a hard 16? A hard 16 can occur in several different ways. Many people think that a hard 16 is when 16 occurs without an ace. However, this is not always the case. The true definition of a hard 16 is a hand that equals 16 and either contains no aces or the ace has a value of one within the hand. Many people either forget about or are not aware of the second part of the definition. This means that a hard 16 containing an ace will always have at least three cards. Some examples of a hard 16 are two 8s or a ten and a 6.

How to play a hard 16: The basic method

When playing a hard 16, there are several ways to do so effectively. While there is no surefire way to make you win more than you lose, there are several ways to keep your bankroll as high as possible. However, how you play depends on what the dealer is showing and, in some cases, what you have in your hand. First, we need to look at the case where your hard 16 is made up of two 8s. In this case, it is always best to split the hand. This is because you have a much better chance of winning from a position of having an 8 as your hand than you do with a hard 16. While some people may feel that it is best to surrender rather than risk losing two hands, splitting your hand will give you more of a return in the long run. Of course, this requires knowing how to play with an 8, which is covered in a different guide. If you do not have a pair of 8s, when you use the basic method, the composition of your hard 16 does not matter. All you need to do is check what the dealer is showing. If the dealer is showing a relatively low card, which is any card between two and six when playing blackjack, you want to stand on what you have. The reasoning behind this is that if the dealer is showing a low card, they have a good chance of busting when it is their turn. This means that you do not want to run the risk of busting yourself. The reasoning behind this is that even if the dealer busts, you will not get a return on your best if you bust yourself. If the dealer is showing a seven or an eight, the right move is to hit. This is because the chances of the dealer busting with a card of seven or above are much lower. Because their chances of busting are lower, you may as well take the risk of trying to improve your hand than standing on a 16, which is unlikely to be a score good enough to win. If the dealer is showing a ten or better, the best move is to surrender. If the option to surrender is not available, you should hit. This is because if the dealer has a ten or better, the dealer is very likely to get a good hand. If you can surrender, you will receive half of your wager back. This is definitely a better outcome than losing all of it. If surrendering is not an option, hitting is the best option because the dealer is likely to have a good score, and 16 is almost guaranteed to lose in that scenario. Following these hints will help in almost all hard 16 blackjack scenarios that you will come across. However, there is some more advanced information that you can follow if you want to increase your chances of winning by even more, but it does require more concentration and being aware of your own hand.

How to play a hard 16: The advanced method

The advanced method of playing a hard 16 requires a little more ability to analyse a situation than the basic method. Fortunately, it only contains one additional piece of information to remember. If your hand consists of three or more cards, instead of hitting when the dealer has ten or more, you should stand. This will increase your chances of winning by aiming to make the dealer go bust. The reason behind this is quite simple. It is essentially a very rudimentary form of card counting, but really it is just simple logic. If you have three or more cards making up your hard 16, it makes sense that you will have a lot of low-value cards in your hand, so it is less likely that there are low-value cards left in the deck. Therefore, there are two reasons for standing. First, if you hit, it stands to reason that you are more likely to bust. Second, it also means that the dealer is more likely to bust. While it does not increase your chances of winning by a significant amount, it does increase them by enough to make it a worthwhile choice.

Is a soft 16 bad?

A soft 16 is a hand that adds up to 16 when the ace is worth 10. So, an ace and a five would be a soft 16. A soft 16 is a much more favourable hand than a hard 16 and does not evoke the same level of fear. It is much easier to decide what to do when playing a soft 16. There are just two choices to make. First, remember that you should never stand or surrender. Other than that, you just need to look at what the dealer has. If the dealer has a four, five or six, double down if you can. If doubling down is not allowed, your decision much easier – just hit. A soft 16 is much easier to deal with than a hard 16, and it offers a much better chance of winning. The reason behind this is that with a soft 16, you will not be out if you bust, as the ace will be worth one in that scenario. It means that it is always worth hitting not only because of the possibility of getting a high score but also because of the security blanket the ace provides.

Does ace tracking in blackjack give good returns?

As the name suggests, ace tracking is simply following the journey of each of the aces in a pack of cards. That way, we can predict when the super A is going to turn up, which makes knowing when to hit, stand and double down in blackjack a whole heap easier. Like many card counting systems, the concept of ace tracking is simple enough: the idea is to memorise the sequence of cards – known as key cards – that will be dealt just prior to an ace, and thus give complete accuracy to the count. There is no advanced technique to shuffle tracking: quite simply, you will need to remember one, two or three cards – depending on your abilities – that have emerged prior to an ace in a previous deal. Of course, this process will need to be reset after the shuffle. It can be a gruelling undertaking, but one that evidently produces results, with many case studies online of successful ace tracking. As soon as mistakes creep into your count, you are on the path to bankroll devastation – and for amateur counters, add into the mix the shuffle and you have the potential for disaster. That said, the maths stands firm. A player has an edge of 50.43% when they have an ace as their first card, with a further 31% chance, depending on the game, of landing a clean blackjack – and the chances of making a strong hand pay are much, much higher. In short, ace tracking can pay when performed correctly. Want to work on your ace sequencing in a no-risk environment? Try the free play blackjack games here at Bitcasino, where you can hone your skills without spending a penny.

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FAQs about blackjack best hands

Do playing multiple blackjack hands affect odds?

Some players believe that spreading to two hands later in the game affects the chances of winning. However, having multiple hands doesn't affect your odds of winning. The house edge remains the same. The only thing that will change is how many hands you play per hour of gaming. 

For example, there are 80 rounds per hour, and you'll have to play 160 hands. This means your attention will be split into two every round you play. 

How to deal a blackjack hand?

First, you have to shuffle the cards. Then, deal the cards from the dealer's left, starting with the player from the far left. Distribute one face-up card to each player and then set a face-down card for the dealer. After that, distribute the second face-up card to each player and lay down the face-up card for the dealer. 

How to split a hand in blackjack?

You can split your hand in blackjack when you get a pair of matching cards. Point a V sign with your fingers to indicate you want to split the cards in land-based casinos. On online casinos, just click the dialogue box that would appear to split your hand.

What is the most common opening blackjack hand?

Since there are a lot of 10-value cards on a deck, the most common opening blackjack hand is a pair of 10s. About 9.2% of the time, you'll be dealt with this card pair. This gives you an advantage over the game since this is the second-best hand in blackjack.

Words by: Sunday Carreon