Re: I\'m having difficulty accepting that I should hit a 16 against a 7
with 16 vs a 10, both hitting and staying are losing plays and it's very close. By staying, you lose 65 cents per dollar and by standing, you lose 64 cents. It's seriously that close. The reason why it's such a close play is because, yes, by staying you will lose to any 7-10 underneath, and any other card he could still pull out a hand. But hitting still sucks because frankly, only a 4 or 5 can help you. So only 2/13 cards put you in a good position.
This is why ideally the best play is surrender with 16 vs 10, because then you only lose 50 cents per dollar.
With 16 versus 7, catching an ace through 5 keeps you in the running to win the hand, and with the dealer busting about a third of the time with 7 showing, it's much better to hit than stay.
You can look up the actual EV numbers of each play for the proof.
|