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Difficult Blackjack hands

Last week I posted a Twitter poll (@casinologger) asking readers to vote on which hand was the hardest to stick to basic strategy on. These were the four poll options, along with what percentage of votes they got:

1. Hard 12 vs dealers 2 up 34%

2. Hard 13 vs dealers 3 up 31%

3. 9,9 vs dealers 7 up  14%

4. A,6 vs dealers 6 up  21%

Here is my analysis of your votes:

As you can see, hands 1 and 2 together took 65% of the votes, and I'm sure I know why.  I hate when the dealer has a two or a three up and apparently you guys do too. I just know that if the dealer has a ten for a hole card, he will draw an eight. Or if he has a seven for a hole card he'll draw a 10.  I even seem to lose when I stand on a 20 in these situations.

The way to play this hand is to remember that when the dealer has a two or three up you hit if you have a hard 12 and stand if you have a hard 13. Now, you can deviate from basic strategy based on the count if you want to. but if you do it too often, you'll probably be tagged as a card counter by either surveillance or the Pit Boss.

Hand number 3, pair of 9s vs a dealers 7 can be a hard one to play properly. If you look at a chart of basic strategy for pairs, this one stands out like a sore thumb because you are supposed to stand. Whereas if the dealer has an 8 or 9 for an up card, basic strategy says to split your pair. It's a little counter-intuitive, and the fact that more players didn't vote for this hand tells me that most of you probably don't know basic strategy as well as you think you do. Follow basic strategy precisely on this one.

Finally we come to hand 4, an A, 6 vs. a dealer's six. Don't fall for the fallacy of treating the soft 17 like it's a hard 17. An A,6 is just not a very good hand, but it's a good opportunity to bet more money against a very poor up card for the dealer. if you're not doubling down, you're doing the wrong thing.

That's all for now. If you voted in the poll, thank you very much. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

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Good luck everybody.

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