How the dealer plays his hand

The dealer must deal in a standard manner, without any choices. Two popular rules are in existance today that determine what totals the dealer must draw to. In any given casino, you can tell which rule is in effect by looking at the blackjack tabletop where it should be clearly labeled with one of these rules:


1. "Dealer stands on all 17s"
This rule is the more common of the two. In this case, the dealer must continue to take cards ("hit") until his total is 17 or greater.

As an example, if his card total is 16 (say Ace,5 or 10,6) then he would have to hit and draw cards until his total is 17 or more. Even if he has three cards (say Ace,5,6) which gives value of 12, he still has to hit.

Take note that the ace for the dealer is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealer going over 21. For example, (Ace,8) would be 19 and the dealer would stop drawing cards ("stand"). Also, (Ace,6) is 17 and again the dealer will stand. (Ace,5) is only 16, so the dealer would hit.


2. "Dealer hits soft 17"
Some casinos use this rule variation instead. This rule is identical except for what happens when the dealer has a soft total of 17.

To illustrate, examples of soft 17 will be hands such as (Ace,6), (Ace,5,Ace), and (Ace, 2, 4) . The dealer hits these hands, and stands on soft 18 or higher, or hard 17 or higher. When this rule is used, the house will have a slight advantage against the players.

Again, the dealer has no choices to make in the play of his hand. He cannot split pairs, but must instead simply hit until he reaches at least 17 or busts by going over 21.