The basic hitting and standing strategy is:

• Hit anything below 12
• Stand on anything above 16

If you have 12 to 16 you should either:

• Hit if the dealer's card is between 7 and Ace (11).
• Stand if the dealer's up card is below 7

Soft totals are made up out of an Ace and another value card(s). (If you recall, an Ace can be counted as 1 or 11.)

If you have an ace in your hand but no 10 value card:

• Hit if the soft total is 17 or less
• Double if the soft total is 17 or less and the dealer has a 4, 5 or
• Stand with soft total of 19 or 20

We covered the doubling down strategy for a soft total in the section above. The basic strategy for making the decision to double down should be:

• Never double if your hand totals less than 8
• Always double down on 11
• If you have 10, double down if the dealer has 2 to 9.

The basic rules for splitting are:

• Always split 8s and Aces
• Never split 4s, 5s and 10 value cards