Blackjack: Hard, Soft and Stiff Hands

Standing ‘pat’ is a term that is used in a wide variety of different Unibet casino games of which Blackjack is one. By telling the dealer you are ‘standing pat’ means that you are happy with your hand and do not want to be dealt any further cards.

There are certain hands that the dealer will be familiar with as always being pat hands. The hard pat hands are the easiest to decipher, with hard hands of 17, or higher, invariably always standing pat. To go against this decision would be a losing play and most players understand this point. In fact, in some live casinos if you were to hit on a hard 17 or higher the dealer will often draw your attention to the fact that it may not be a great idea.

Just because we are standing pat on hands of 17 or more does not mean they are magnificent hands. On the contrary, 17 is a terrible hand and 18 is not much better. If you want to become a winner over the long haul then you need to be hitting 19+ on a regular basis.

The soft pat hands are far more subjective because of their ability to make two different totals, and so there are no real hard and fast rules concerning these types of hands.

The Stiff Hands are the totals of hard 12 through to hard 16 and the one thing they have in common is the ability to bust when drawing one more card. They are terrible hands to have and despite hard 12 having nine cards to draw that won’t bust it, can still go broke if a ten-value card pops out of the deck. Unfortunately, for Blackjack players these are the cards you will be dealt the most frequently