Should I Hit or Stand?

If I have a (3+ card) hand totaling Hard 15 or 16, i.e (6, 4, 3 & 3) and the dealer has a 10 value card, Should I continue with Basic Strategy and Hit?

15 -- Hit
16 -- Stand

The rule of thumb I prefer is stand on 16 vs. 10 if your 16 has a 4 or a 5 in it. I would not fuss with exceptions with 15 vs. 10 and always hit.

If you had a 2 card 15 or 16 against a 10 and surrender is available, What would you suggest?

There's no suggestion. There's the mathematically optimal play, and other suboptimal plays.

You can double 15vT. That's worse than standing. Standing is worse than hitting. Hitting is worse than Surrendering. Surrendering is worse than grabbing your bet and running out the door.

There a lot written about blackjack at https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/.

With a 15, hit.

With a 16, it depends.
If it's a single-deck or double-deck game, stand.
If it's three or more decks, I would hit.

This reminds me of what I think was the first time I played blackjack in Vegas - it was a five-deck CSM, I was in the last spot before the dealer, and I had a hard 16 with the dealer showing a 10, so I hit, and drew a 2, but I think the dealer turned over a 5 and then drew a 3. IIRC, the player next to me had a 17, and would have pushed had I not hit; he turned to his wife/girlfriend and complained that I shouldn't have hit on 16.

Quote: MikeK

If you had a 2 card 15 or 16 against a 10 and surrender is available, What would you suggest?

Surrender both.

If there are other players at the table, and the cards are face-up, look at all the cards available to be seen, not just your cards.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

, the player next to me had a 17, and would have pushed had I not hit; he turned to his wife/girlfriend and complained that I shouldn't have hit on 16.

One of my favorite topics: "other" players at the table. lol

Whenever someone mentions 'Other players", my buddy 21forme, who is a member of this forum, reads most days, and occasionally posts, likes to ask "there are other players at the table"? The meaning of course is who cares what other players say or do. You shouldn't even notice that they are there.

I have a little bit different view on "other players". First of course other players, just by being there can change how good your game is. If you can score a good, deeply dealt game, you would prefer there were no other players, or at least the fewer the better. Can change the profitability of a game dramatically.

Actually for me and my style of play I prefer at least one other player because I exit aggressively on negative counts (wong out). If you are playing heads up and exit aggressively, the game comes to a halt when you exit, which by default draws attention, which I try to avoid at all costs. So one other player allows me to exit aggressively, quietly and quickly with minimal attention.

Anyway I got side tracked a little. I wanted to share how I handle other (annoying) players telling me how i should have played my hand. In my early years, I would argue with them. Give them mathematical reasons why I played the way I did. You definitely don't want to do that if you are trying to fly under the radar. Anyone hearing you (dealer or pit) knows you know at least something about the game. The question then becomes just how much?

So what I do is when another player says I should have hit or stood or played a certain way, I automatically agree with them. 9 times out of 10 they are wrong so anyone hearing me agree with them (dealer, pit), dismisses me as not knowing squat. :/ And then here is my favorite part: When that hand comes up again, I play it exactly the same way....my way, even after agreeing with them. This really pisses them off and I just sit there smiling. It is really great when I can pull that off just a couple hands after I just said they were right. That might drive them from the table. lol

One other thing I forgot to mention about "other players" that has to do with drawing attention. For a card counter there are certain plays that draw attention. Things like splitting 10's, or doubling A9 vs 5,6 or even doubling A8 vs 5,6 which is basic strategy for some games, and a few others.

So anytime I make some of these plays, these hands can draw attention, which again is something I try to avoid, but I will make these plays when it is profitable to do so. So there is nothing worse than making one of these plays, doesn't seem to really draw much notice and then some other player, makes a fuss about it causing pit to wonder over and take a look. :( I call that second-hand or secondary attention. The play itself didn't draw the attention you were hoping to avoid, the "other" player did. There is always a risk of that with other players.