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Playing the Soft Hands in Blackjack
In contrast to blackjack hard hands, soft hands are initial hands that have an Ace. Soft hands have the Ace take a value of 11. The same school of thought that works for hard hands also works for soft hands, which is to always use basic blackjack strategy in order to bring down the house advantage and win more hands.
Mastering the blackjack strategy for soft hands will simply take an average amount of effort and will require only a few minutes of practice sessions. The key to mastering soft hand strategy is to practice until you have committed every detail to memory.
You will still be following the same drill when dealing with soft hands, which is to compare your two cards with the card that the dealer displays. You will then base your actions given the cards you see on the blackjack table. If you master this drill and practice soft hand strategy you can bring down the house edge in blackjack. Soft hands are a lot easier to play if you compare them to the hard hands.
If your soft hand contains a two and an Ace or if you have a three and Ace instead, your initial move using blackjack basic strategy is to double down if your dealer has five or six. If your dealer has a different card then you are required to hit.
Moving up in the total, here's what you do if your Ace is paired with either a four or a five. Given these blackjack soft hands you are to double down given that your dealer has a card from four to six. If the dealer shows a different card than four or six then your next option is to hit.
If your blackjack soft hand consists of a six and an Ace you are supposed to double down only when the dealer's up card is three to six. Your other course of action is to hit if the dealer has a card outside of that range.
A soft hand consisting of an Ace and a seven will have you stand given that your dealer exhibits eight, seven, or two. However, if the card happens to be within three to six you are to double down. If it isn't within these ranges of values then your only recourse is to hit.
Lastly, if you have an Ace coupled with either an eight or nine your only option according to this blackjack strategy for soft hands is to stand. It will take a few minutes to an hour of dedicated practice for one to master this blackjack strategy. If you manage to master this you can diminish the casino's advantage.