What are the good Blackjack hands?

Here we see the same 34 hands. But instead of the frequency of each hand, we see the advantage of each hand. That is, average gain or loss if you get the hand. Obviously, Blackjack is the best hand to receive at just under 150% advantage. The advantage would be exactly 150% except that sometimes the dealer will also get a Blackjack. The next-best hand is a 20, either T,T or A,9 followed by 19 and 11.

Pairs are not good hands overall except for pairs of aces and tens and to a lesser extent nines. Although this is heavily dependent on the dealer upcard.

As you would expect, stiffs (12-16) are the worst hands. But 17 is nearly as bad. Most players feel safe with a 17, but it wins only about 29% of the time and pushes 13% of the time.

Most soft hands also do not fare well even though you may have two chances to improve them.

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 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger