• One of the most common mistakes made by blackjack players occurs when they are dealt an initial hand of 12 dealer’s upcard is a 2. The reasons most players blunder on this hand is because they are afraid to draw any 10 and bust. In this article, I’ll show you how to play blackjack with your 12 perfectly every time.
• A single-deck Vegas Strip game (blackjack pays 3:2, double down on any two cards, and dealer stands on soft 17), is pretty close to being a break even proposition for a basic strategy player. With four or more decks in play, and the same set of rules, the house has about a ½ percent edge.

For a hard 12, you shoudl hit when the dealer is showing a 2,3,7,8,9,10, or ACE and stand on all other cards to win the most amount of money whenevr you are dealt a 12. If the 12 consists of 2 aces you shoudl split them.

by Henry Tamburin

One of the more frustrating hands in blackjack is being dealt a 12 when the dealer shows a 2 upcard. You hate to hit your 12 because you are afraid the dealer is going to give you a picture card and you’ll bust. There’s a lot of misconception on what’s the correct way to play this hand and I aim to sort it all out so it will no longer be a “dilemma” for you.
First off, let’s look at some facts about this hand.

• Many players don’t hit 12 because they believe the dealer has a ten in the hole and, therefore, they won’t risk busting when the dealer has a weak upcard. However, when you hold a 12, only four cards will bust you ... any 10, Jack, Queen, and King, meaning you have a 65% chance of surviving a hit. Five cards ... any 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 ... will give you a 17 through 21 hand.
• With a 2 upcard, the dealer has a 35% chance of busting and 65% chance of making a 17 though 21.
• If you stand, you’ll win 35% of the time and lose 65% of the time.
• If you hit, you’ll win 37% of the time and lose 63% of the time.

So what does all of the above mean? First, when the dealer has a 2 upcard, she’s not as venerable to busting as she would with, say, a 4, 5, or 6 upcard. Secondly, your chance of busting isn’t as great as you think. Therefore, it appears that hitting the 12 would be the better play than standing and this is corroborated by facts # 3 and #4. Let’s look at this in a little more detail.
Fact # 3 says you will win 35% of the time standing on 12 against a dealer 2 and lose 65% of the time. This means if you bet a dollar a hand, you would be down $30 after 100 hands on average. That certainly isn’t a good outcome but that’s a fact: standing on 12 when the dealer shows a 2 is not a profitable play and you will lose more money than you win in the long run. However, let’s look at the second option, namely hitting 12. Fact #4 says you will win 2% more times compared to standing. In dollars and cents, this means you will lose $26 after 100 hands on average. That’s also a loser but here’s the question you must ask yourself: is it better to lose $26 or $30? I hope that I’ve convinced you that even though hitting 12 against a 2 is a loser, you will lose less money in the long run compared to standing. In other word, this is classic hand where the best playing option allows you to minimize your losses.
What if your 12 consists of a pair of 6s? Now you’ve got another option and that’s to split the 6s and play two hands against the dealer’s 2 upcard. It turns out that when you split and play a 6 against a dealer 2, you will win roughly 43% of the time. In other words, you’ve increased your chances of winning when you split the 6’s against a dealer 2 compared to hitting. To say it differently, starting with a 6 is a whole lot better than starting with a 12 when you are facing a dealer’s 2 upcard. Therefore, the correct strategy is to always split a pair of 6s against a dealer 2 upcard (with one exception: if you’re playing a four-, six-, or eight-deck game where you can’t double down after pair splitting, you should hit 6’s against a 2).
You could also be dealt a soft 12, which happens to be Ace-Ace. This hand should be a no brainer. You should always split a pair of aces regardless of what the dealer’s upcard is.
Is there ever a situation when you wouldn’t hit a non-pair 12 hand against a dealer’s 2? Actually two cases come to mind. The first is when the remaining cards contain an abundance of high-value vs. small-value cards (thus increasing your chance of busting if you hit 12). In fact, card counters will sometimes stand on 12 whenever their count gets moderately positive (indicating more high cards than small cards remain in the unplayed deck of cards). So, the next time you see a fellow player standing on 12 against a dealer 2, think twice about calling him a nerd because he might just be a skilled card counter making the correct play.
The second situation which justifies deviating from hitting 12 against a dealer 2 comes about in tournament play. If the tournament rules specify that the double-down card is dealt face down, instead of hitting your 12 you could double down for just one chip (i.e., doubling for less). This move, although it involves some risk of busting, allows you to disguise the outcome of your hand from your opponents who must play their hands after you. This is a powerful strategy especially when it’s used on the last few hands of a closely contested tournament.
So now you know how to play a 12 against a dealer’s 2 under all types of situations; therefore, this hand should no longer be a dilemma for you, right?

Here's the situation:

You're in a four deck game, with standard rules. You've been dealt a seven and a five for a hard 12, while the dealer shows a three as his upcard. He might bust, and then again he might not. You're mulling it over. What do you do here?

Well, you're going to have to hit the hand, but make sure you take just one hit. Any card you draw will take your new three-card total beyond what would call for a hit in your Basic Strategy.

This is somewhat similar to the dynamic involved in the 12 vs. 2 situation. If you do not hit this hand, you WILL win about 1.5% more of your hands. So why don't I stand here, you ask?

Well, the flip side is that you're going to lose about 3.5% more if you stand pat.

You will push 5% of the time with the dealer. Sometimes the reason you make a certain play is NOT to win more than you lose (because it's not always possible) or to win more often than you would otherwise.

Sometimes you make a play because it will cause you to lose less than otherwise. Pushes are not a bad thing for you here. 'Pushing' the hand means that you don't lose; you just get your original bet turned back to you and you start all over again.

Unless your potential gain can outweigh your potential loss, don't move against the recommended Basic Strategy. Remember that you will at times be called upon to hit a potential busting hand against a dealer's 'stiff' upcard.

If there is an overriding lesson to be learned here, it's not to be afraid to do it if the percentages dictate it!

US vs. THEM Blackjack Strategy Series
An Analysis
By Charles Jay

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