When and Why to Stay on Twelve in Blackjack

Whenever you are playing blackjack, in a live casino, or in an online casino room, you will come across times when you should not hit on a twelve. A lot of people have a hard time with staying on a twelve. Granted, twelve is not a very desirable hand, but one thing is for sure, if the dealer breaks, all twelves on the table will get paid, just the same odds (one to one) as a nineteen on the table would get paid when the dealer/house breaks.

To know for sure when the best time to stay on a twelve is, is to look in to finding a basic strategy card. The basic strategy cards can be purchased in a lot of different casino gift shops, and also can be found and boughten on the Internet. They are about the size of a credit card, but hold a wealth of information, which is all based on odds.

Blackjack Scenarios for Staying on Twelve

Here are some scenarios where staying on a twelve, while playing blackjack is in your best interest, when the dealer is showing a four, five or six as an up card. These up cards are a good indicator that the dealer could break, because any card underneath that four, five or six will surely not equal seventeen or higher, when added to the four, five or six. Considering that fact, the dealer will have to hit, and hopefully will exceed twenty-one, which is good for anyone that did not hit and break, themselves, before the dealer got the chance to break.

Of course, just because you follow the odds and stay on your twelve, against a four, five or six, does not at all come to mean that you will always win when you have a twelve, against a break-card, it just means that, mathematically, you will benefit, in the long run, more than if you hit your twelve, against the dealers four, five or six. As I always say, just because you do everything right, does not mean everything right will happen, at the right time, to the right person. Who is to say that you would win on every large bet and lose on every small bet, when you play a twelve against the dealer's junk card.

Yes, you will still always have to suffer through hitting your twelve against the bigger cards, such as the seven, eight, nine, face or ace, it is still in your best interest to try and make a hand against a dealer's strong up card, especially since only ten valued cards will hurt your twelve point hand. A lot of players will try to convince you that if you saw a lot of smaller cards come out of the shoe recently, it is best to stay on your twelve, because they think there is surely a face card coming, but this advice is not based on odds, or math, it is based on a guess. I always suggest going with a tried and true method of playing, one that was created from odds, statistics and math, not someone's gut feeling.

Play Consistent on Blackjack Twelve

One thing I always suggest when giving advice on playing blackjack, is play consistent, if you always play by the same rules, as opposed to deviating from your strategy, you will not have so many experiences where you want to kick yourself, for guessing wrong.