I was reading one of the earlier posts on this forum that suggested not to split 10s for the sake of cover. Would you suggest the same for a hard 17? I sometimes get heat for hitting SOFT 17s and 18s but hitting a hard 17(even against the A) might attract too much attention.
What do you think?
vs Ace is a real heat bringer. I do it a few times a year but usually with a multiple card hand where I can say that I thought I had 16.
Hitting soft18 versus high cards shouldn't give you any heat as it's perfectly normal BS-play, let alone hitting soft17 against any upcard. However there are a lot of ploppies who think you shouldn't hit soft17 against a bad upcard (Don't take his bustcard!) and you might get heat from them but this shouldn't matter to you.
As far as hitting hard17 is concerned, I must admit that I have never done that.The index versus the ace is so highly negative that I'm either off the table or in with a minimum bet when such play would be called for. So it doesn't really add to your EV, at least nothing that would justify annoying the other players and puzzling the pit.
Francis Salmon
