Online Blackjack Strategies

Breaking Hands: 12 to 16

You've heard the term "breaking hands" many times. Be sure you know what it means:

a) When you are dealt a twelve through sixteen count for your first two cards, you have what is known as a breaking hand because drawing a card is likely to "break" or "bust" you (cause your hand to go over twenty one).

b) When a dealer shows a 2 through 6, he is considered to be in a "breaking" position.
Breaking hands are when you and the dealer are weakest. These hands cause people the most trouble. In casinos throughout the world, the majority of people don't know how to handle breaking hands.

If you learn how to master the breaking hand, you will improve your Blackjack play about 25% 30%.
In Blackjack classes at my school, much time is spent stengthening a player's strategy when confronted with a breaking hand.

Before tackling details of the various moves, you should understand two basic concepts:

a) When both you and the dealer are in a breaking position, let him do the hitting!

b) When the dealer is in a standing position (his up card is 7 through Ace) and you have a breaking hand, you must hit. Don't allow him to turn over his hole card and beat you without drawing!

That is it in a nutshell. But the casinos clean up in these situations because most novices are scared to hit breaking hands for the reason that they usually go broke! That's right, you can expect to go broke and lose often when you hit a breaking hand.

But, there will be times you don't break and you will improve your hand. Then, your chances of beating the dealer are a lot better. You won't have any of those chances if you don't hit.

Believe me, when you have a breaking hand and the dealer shows a high card, you lose more hands by not hitting than you do by taking a hit.

I will give you a simple example which should help to destroy forever your desire to stand with a breaking hand when the dealer is in a standing position (remember, that means he's showing a 7 through an Ace).Assume you have a 7 and an 8 (a total of fifteen) and the dealer is showing a Queen. You are afraid to hit because there is the possibility of breaking. Well, that is the biggest mistake you can make at the Blackjack table. If you stand, the burden of drawing is shifted to the dealer, after he turns over his hidden card. Since the card he turns over can only be one of thirteen different ones, look at each one individually to judge what would happen if you didn't take a hit. Of course, if you hit, the results won't be the same.