Difference between soft 13,14 and soft 15,16

Nice to meet you, I am a contributor from Japan.
I have a question in Basic Strategy.

In a soft hand, soft 13 and 14 do not double against 4, but soft 15 and 16 do.
Why is there a difference between these soft hands, even though the number of cards the hand develops after doubling is the same?

When I discussed this with my friends, we agreed that it might be due to the cards I am holding.
However, while I can see the disadvantage of my holding 2 (it interferes with my opponent's 6), I don't see any particular problem with holding 3 (interrupting my opponent's 7 should be a plus for me, since I can hold 3 and still have the same hand).

If anyone has any idea why, I'd like to know.

Hi and welcome,

For a basic strategy player, the main reason why you hit instead of double soft 13 or soft 14 against a 4 is because there are more cards that do not improve the hand but still keep the hand a soft total (see scenario below).

Scenario "you have soft 14 v 4, and you receive a 2, the hand is now a soft 16":
a) If you had doubled, you can't receive any more cards.
b) if you had hit, you have a chance of improving the hand, by hitting again.

The link here, may explain it better.

I see, thanks!
I guess it's the same logic as 2 and 4, with 2 having the advantage.

Very helpful!
Thanks for sharing.

For a given dealer's card, your chances of winning by doubling any small soft total are roughly the same. However it's very close whether you double or not, so the advantages coming from the hitting option, because you can hit A23 etc., outweigh the double on some occasions.

Quote: charliepatrick

For a given dealer's card, your chances of winning by doubling any small soft total are roughly the same.

In fact, in an infinite deck, for soft 16 and under, it'd be exactly the same. The only reason for the small differences is player/dealer hand composition.