On the charts it says to always hit a 12 vs a dealer's 7 - A.

[BJLFS]

Question: Is there ever a time/count where you would not hit a 12 vs those up cards? It just seems like I bust a lot when hitting a 12. It could just be the variance I am going through at this time.

 

[revrac]

Question: Is there ever a time/count where you would not hit a 12 vs those up cards? It just seems like I bust a lot when hitting a 12. It could just be the variance I am going through at this time.

The short answer is pretty much no, not if your just counting.

 

[Friendo]

Hand-waving analysis

The charts make it clear that you're screwed in this situation anyway. Hitting is the best of two awful choices.

It would have to be a monster count to justify standing. The problem is that such counts also make it more likely that the dealer already has a 17 through a 21.

 

[MangoJ]

You are the underdog by more than -21% to -38% with hitting, hence you are busting a lot (it's no imagination - you are not supposed to win at 12 against 7-A)

However hitting 12 is nothing near a marginal decision. There would be an index for standing those hands, but in my personal opinion this index would be astronomical high - implying a heavy unbalanced shoe distribution - that the linearized approximation of perfect strategy play (nothing else is a counting system) will not be justified.

 

[BJLFS]

Thanks everyone.

 

[moo321]

With hi-lo, there is essentially no meaningful index for these. There may be a sky-high index, but it's not very powerful or accurate, or worth knowing. Even an index like 14 vs. Ten isn't very powerful at all.

The issue is we don't count 7,8,9 which are the most important cards for this decision.