How Blackjack Dealers Play Their Hands
Blackjack players often have to make tough decisions during a game, and often enough these would either lead to disaster or profits. Since a player will be competing against the dealer, these decisions sometimes become crucial to one's game. Fortunately, blackjack dealers don't have the same options as the players do.
Sometimes, knowing how your opponents react or play their hands help you a lot in your own game plan, this is also true in blackjack. By knowing how blackjack dealers play their hands we have a bit of an advantage. We can work around and be able to figure out what the right move is depending on how the blackjack dealers play their hands.
There isn't much legroom for movement when you're the blackjack dealer. You don't have the liberty of other moves that blackjack players enjoy. Blackjack dealers always play their hands in a specified way. They are not allowed to make any other choice in a game of blackjack.
Generally, there are two popular rules that blackjack dealers must abide. You can easily tell which rule the blackjack dealer will follow by simply looking at the tabletop. Which rule variation blackjack dealers follow will be printed there.
When you look at the table and see something like the dealer stands on all 17, remember that this is the most common rule blackjack dealers follow when they play their hands. Let's discuss this in detail and we'll give you guys some examples how this works.
This rule states that blackjack dealers should continue hitting (i.e. taking cards) until they get a total of 17 or higher. Knowing this helps us with our own strategy when handling our own blackjack hands. An example is do we stand on a 16? It's a sure loser since the dealer will always take another card to get past 16.
When blackjack dealers get an Ace, they will always count it as 11 if it doesn't make them go over 21. This is also a good practice that players can try. For instance, blackjack dealers would get an Ace, Five, and Seven, this totals to 13. So blackjack dealers keep hitting. If blackjack dealers get an Ace, Eight, they stand on that 19.
The other rule on how blackjack dealers play their hands say that dealers will hit on the soft 17. This rule is almost the same as the one mentioned only that when blackjack dealers get a soft 17 (e.g. Ace, Six), they're obliged to hit rather than stand.
Blackjack dealers don't have a choice on how they play their hands. By knowing how they play their hands, we can take advantage of the situation and cash in some winnings.