Players have such a hand when one of the cards is an ace valued as 11, meaning that they will not go bust next time they take an extra card. Players need to know how to proceed in cases where they have soft hands as such situations occur more often than gamblers realise. But first, let’s explain what the term “soft hands” refers to. Such is often the case with soft 13 through soft 17, so these are the hands we are going to examine today. However, some basic strategy plays are not so intuitive, causing novices to frequently misplay certain hands. For example, they understand that hitting hard 16 is recommended whenever the dealer has a ten or an ace or that they should split 8s when the dealer starts with a 5 or a 6. Many of the moves from the basic strategy chart are logical and intuitive to novice blackjack players.
