The Worst Blackjack Hand

There is a blackjack hand that instils fear in players, it is the terrible 16. Every player avoids hitting the hand since the possibility to bust is very high. Many are so frightened that they stand immediately not paying any attention to the dealer’s face up card. Others choose the surrender if available preferring to lose half a bet than to lose it all. If the 16 is a pair of 8’s the majority of players don’t want to split when the dealer’s upcard is a 9, 10, or ace since there is a possibility to lose 2 bets in place of one. Also there is the 16 which is made up with an Ace that is a soft 16. So what should a player do when his hand is a 16?

Firstly, let’s discuss a hard 16. That is a hand without an Ace or with the Ace counted as one, for example, 7-9 or 4-6-6 or 8-7-Ace.

The basic blackjack strategy for hard 16 advises the player to stand if the dealer’s face up card is small between 2 and 6 and hit if the dealer’s card is 7, 8, 9, 10, or Ace. The strategy does not guarantee you to win every time but in the long run you will lose less. Let’s see an example.

You have a 10-6 and the dealer has a 7 face up. If you hit you’ll lose 70% of the time on average and win 30%. If you stand you’ll lose 74% and win 26% on average.

You see your chances of winning are 4% better if you hit than if you stood. The dealer is the downright favorite, he wins 70% of the hands while you do only 30%. But it is really better than 26% if you stand. Therefore you should hit since your chance of winning in that case will increase by 4%, not very much, but when playing blackjack every percentage do matter in the long run.

So the main thing concerning a hard 16 is the following, even if you lose more hands than you win using the basic blackjack strategy in the long run your losses will be less than if you use any other strategy. To lose less on bad hands is as important as to win more on good ones.

What to do if the 16 is made up of 3 or more cards like 4-6-6? The basic strategy doesn’t give any advice what you should do in this case. But, if your hard 16 hand consists of 3 or more cards, you ought to stand if the dealer shows a 10 because you are holding several small cards needed if you wanted to draw. So the odds are in favor of standing.

Some of the casinos allow surrendering. Surrender is an option when you stop playing out your hand and lose half of your bet automatically. Even when there is surrender available, most players prefer fighting. Therefore they seldom surrender. But if you surrender a hard 16 when the dealer has a 9, 10, or an Ace showing you will save more money in the long run than if you hit. Surrender is really the best option if your chances of winning are less than 25%. For example, you have a hard 16 against the dealer’s 10 face up if you hit your chances of winning are 23.4% while the dealer’s ones are 76.6%. After having played a hundred hard 16’s hand against the dealer’s 10, you would win approximately $23 and lose $77 for a total average loss of $54. If you surrender every hand your total loss would be $50. Have you seen the difference? You’d better lose $50 then $54 that is why to surrender a hard 16 against a dealer’s 10 is better as you can save $4.

If you have been dealt a soft 16 (for example, Ace-5) you should neither surrender nor stand. You’d better double if only if the dealer has a 4, 5 or 6 face up. If not, then hit.

And at last what to do if you have the pair of 8’s. The basic strategy advices splitting the 8’s without paying any attention to the dealer’s face up card. Even if you lose money on both 8’s after splitting, the losses in the long run will be less than if you play the one hand as a 16. To split 8’s against a dealer’s 10 is a bit better then surrendering as well.

A 16 without any doubt is a rotten blackjack hand. And it is one of the most frequent hands that you can get in blackjack. But, if you try to follow the above playing blackjack strategy your chances of winning will increase in the long run.