Soft 18 basic strategy

[Dschddny]

One move that I often get dealers and ploppies looking at me like I'm nuts (and I sometimes start to question myself) is when I hit or double on a soft 18.

What is the correct basic strategy move for this (or even true count variation)? My understanding is that it is Double vs 3-6, Stand vs 2,7, or 8, and Hit vs 9 or 10. Is that correct?

I am playing 8-deck in Atlantic City (yes I know that 8-deck is terrible, but this is my only option to play).

Thanks!

 

[The Mayor]

Follow this link

http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/basic/basic.htm (Archive copy)

 

[Rob McGarvey]

Correct

(Dead link: http://members.rogers.com/blackjackprofessional/flash.htm)

(Dead link: http://members.rogers.com/blackjackprofessional/hitstand.htm)

 

[MrPill]

Correct and I would also hit A7 against an Ace too.

Pill

 

[Victoria]

The links supplied to you earlier will give you all the tech backup your mind should need.
Hitting or doubling soft 18 or splitting 9,9 is just about always going to bring ploppy heat and heat from dealers who do not know how to play the game. The basic idea of the ploppy is that 18 is a good hand but we know, on the average it is not and especially not against 9,10 or A. Doubling that soft 18 gets you more money on the table while you have the advantage. These players are in some way benifical to us. Without their poor play more casinos would introduce more bad rules if they had to live with their BS advantage of say .5%in a shoe game. These plays and others probably bring their real profit to perhaps much closer or above 2% and gives us the chance to play with an advantage. So you just have to take the dirty looks or comments when things go bad or sometimes you are left with no choice but to say something.

I made a post the other day on a different board discussing my splitting 9,9 against a dealer 6 and the nutso woman at third base with a soft 18. I split and it works well. I get an A on the first 9 and then a 2, double and a 10. The woman stays on her soft 18, dealer turns 16 and hits a 3, loosing to me but beating her. She goes nuts about what a horrible play splitting a perfectly good 18 is and of course, taking the dealers bust card. When she actually got out of her chair and came next to me to yell, I just was not going to sit there silent. Stood up (I am a head taller than her) and told her if she had doubled she would have hit 21 and would be very happy and quiet now, saw the pit boss coming and sat back down. He sorts out what happens and tells her, "maam, players can play their hands any way they want, blackjack is not a team game." A line I have used myself.
As a bonus, she storms over to the next table leaving me heads up with a count over +3.
These kind of things do not happen that often and I realize that when it happens between two guys there is a better chance that it could escalate to more than words but in order to make money in blackjack you really can not give away these basic plays in order to maintain friendship on the table.

As far as dealers are concerned, many do not know how to play. Others are political and will take the side of the majority or the biggest tippers. Smart ones laugh to themselves, tell stories in the break room but just deal the cards on the table.

 

[Automatic Monkey]

Re: fighting at the table

Strangely enough Victoria I think that men are less likely to get physical with one another over that kind of thing than women. Most men who habitually get into fights quickly end up someplace where there are no blackjack tables so we have it socialized out of us. We can also get killed, whereas when women fistfight usually nothing too serious happens and certain very strange men even find it attractive.

Although one time I did blow up at someone. This guy cursed me and told me to "Get the f. away from the table" because he did not like my play and the result of the hand was not what he wanted. Now this guy was of a background that I naturally have little patience with anyway (Hint: they have a history of flying airplanes into our buildings) so I jumped up and yelled "No you get the f. away from the table. And while you're at it, get the f. out of my country, you SOB. You don't belong here!" The dealer and PC sternly admonished us both about our language, and after a few minutes the guy left. True, I shouldn't have said that but he deserved it. Now I avoid all confrontational behavior at the table because it can cause your picture to be taken and your face remembered.

 

[V-man]

Soft 18 is one of Ploppy BS.

Soft 18 is a play that teaches me a lot about ploppies. These people don't play BJ with logic, they play with their emotion amd feelings. I once teaches a friend of mine about the play, and at first she follow BS properly but then again and again she stop hitting against dealer upcard 10. I ask her why and she said that standing seems to do better for her. Ploppies play with their strong feelings, hitting on soft 18, getting a 6, then another card to bust when dealer turning up a 6 under and proceed to bust, is a very memorable experience for the ploppies.
Every ploppy at my local casino play the same, they seem to conform to certain 'Ploppy BS', and believes that if you play differently then their 'Ploppy BS', you will screw the 'flow of cards'. And the worst thing is that they would hold on to this crappy BS, like their own religion, and also expect everyone at the table to follow this kind of belief. This creates a lot of pressure onto newcomers, forcing them to follow this 'religion'.
This experience with ploppies made me understood why so many ploppies play the way they play, disregarding the pile of blackjack books, internet, colorful BS charts, etc ... Nothing will convince them. That's also why casinos are getting away with crappy games like 6:5.
God save the .. ploppies!