Do you hit a 12 against a 3? Hit or stand on 12, 13 and 14

Hard 12 against every dealer card

Average result per bet of each move with a two-card hard 12 (pairs not included), 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, no surrender. Against a 10 or an ace the dealer has already checked for blackjack. +1 means you win your bet, −1 that you lose it.

Do you hit a 12 against a 3?

12 vs 3: hit. Hitting hard 12 averages −0.233 per bet and standing −0.247.

12 vs 2: hit as well, and the gap is wider: hitting −0.253, standing −0.287.

Standing on 12 wins only when the dealer busts. A dealer 2 busts 35.7% of the time and a dealer 3 37.7%, against 39.8% to 43.9% with a 4 to 6 (6 decks). With a 2 or 3 that is too seldom to stand on a hand that only a ten-value card can bust.

Hitting 12 busts only on a ten-value card: with 6 decks, a 10 and 2 in your hand and a dealer 3, that is 95 of the 309 unseen cards, or 30.7%. Any other card gives you 13 to 21.

With 10-2 against a 3, standing wins 37.6% of the time and loses 62.4%. Hitting (and playing on in the best way) wins 36.0%, pushes 4.9% and loses 59.2%. Hitting wins a little less often, yet it loses less often too: some hit hands end in a tie with the dealer.

The closest call: 12 against a 4

Against a 4 standing averages −0.204 per bet and hitting −0.212: a difference of 0.008 of a bet, or 0.8 cents per $1. The chart stands, but the exact cards in your hand can tip a call this close.

The better move for exactly these cards and by how much of a bet it beats the other one; dealer hits soft 17, no surrender. Bold: not the move the chart gives for that number of decks.

With 6 decks every way to make 12 gets the chart's move: a few cards change little in a shoe of 312. With 1 deck they matter: 10-2 against a 4 is a hit and 8-4 and 7-5 against a 3 are stands.

A 10 in your hand is one card fewer that can bust a hit, so hitting gets better. Small cards in your hand leave more tens in the deck, so hitting gets worse.

6-6 is also 12, but it is a pair: the chart says split against 2 to 6 and hit against 7 to ace. See when to split.

For any other set of cards, the blackjack calculator gives the exact numbers.

Hard 13 against every dealer card

Average result per bet of each move with a two-card hard 13, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, no surrender. Against a 10 or an ace the dealer has already checked for blackjack. +1 means you win your bet, −1 that you lose it.

13 vs 2: stand. Standing averages −0.287 per bet, hitting −0.309. Against a 3 it is the same call: standing −0.246, hitting −0.292.

A hit on 13 busts on a 9 or any ten-value card: with 10-3 against a 2, that is 119 of the 309 unseen cards, or 38.5%. Every way to make 13 – 10-3, 9-4, 8-5 and 7-6 – stands against a 2 and a 3, with 6 decks and with 1 deck.

Hard 14 against every dealer card

Average result per bet of each move with a two-card hard 14 (pairs not included), 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, no surrender. Against a 10 or an ace the dealer has already checked for blackjack. +1 means you win your bet, −1 that you lose it.

14 vs 2: stand. Standing averages −0.287 per bet, hitting −0.364. Against a 3 it is the same call: standing −0.245, hitting −0.351.

A hit on 14 busts on an 8, 9 or any ten-value card: with 10-4 against a 2, that is 143 of the 309 unseen cards, or 46.3%. Every way to make 14 – 10-4, 9-5 and 8-6 – stands against a 2 and a 3, with 6 decks and with 1 deck.

7-7 is also 14, but it is a pair: the chart says split against 2 to 7 and hit against 8 to ace. See when to split.

Why 12 is played differently from 13 to 16

Average result per bet, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Bust chance: your 10 and the second card plus a dealer 2 are out of the shoe.

Standing on any total from 12 to 16 wins only when the dealer busts, so it averages almost the same for all of them. Hitting gets worse with each step up, because more cards bust you.

Against a 2 or 3, hitting is better only with 12. From 13 up, standing loses less. The bigger totals have their own pages, listed below.

When the rules change the answer

H hit, S stand.

Hard 12, 13 and 14 get the same moves in all of these games, and surrender is never the chart's move with them.

Your own table's full chart: blackjack strategy chart.

Other hands, worked out the same way: should you hit on 15, should you hit on 16 and how to play soft 18.

Questions people ask