Vegas Strip H17 Blackjack — Rules, House Edge & Strategy

What is Vegas Strip H17?

Vegas Strip H17 is the standard ruleset at Bellagio, Aria, Cosmopolitan, MGM, and most other Strip properties at typical $25-$100 stakes. The one difference from the high-limit S17 version is that the dealer hits soft 17 instead of standing. This single rule change adds about 0.20 percentage points to the house edge, but the rest of the player-friendly perks (late surrender on all, DAS, full peek) remain.

The key rule changes vs S17

• Dealer hits soft 17 (H17) — when the dealer's total is 17 with an Ace counted as 11, the dealer must hit. This is the single rule difference vs Strip S17 and costs the player ~0.20 pt RTP.
• Late surrender available on every dealer up-card (same as S17 version).
• Double after split allowed (same as S17 version).
• Up to 3 splits (4 hands).

Strategy adjustments vs S17

Standard 6-deck H17 basic strategy adds a handful of soft-hand adjustments vs the S17 chart (the dealer hitting soft 17 changes the dealer's bust distribution slightly):

• Double soft 19 (A,8) vs dealer 6 — under H17 only (under S17 you stand).
• Double 11 vs dealer A — the H17 dealer is slightly weaker on Ace, making the double profitable.
• Surrender hard 17 vs dealer A — under H17 the dealer making 17+ more often makes hard 17 a marginal surrender candidate. (Some charts list 15 vs A surrender as well.)
• Surrender 8-8 vs dealer A — under H17 the pair is more often crushed than playable.

House edge

EV Solver computes Vegas Strip H17 at 0.53% house edge (99.47% RTP) — about 0.20 pt worse than the S17 version (0.33%) and 0.18 pt better than Evolution Classic 8-deck (0.71%). H17 is unfortunately the modern default on the Strip outside high-limit rooms; the trade-off you make for table access. The same six-deck shoe is friendly to card counters who exploit the rest of the player-friendly rules, but flat basic-strategy play loses about $5 per $1000 wagered.