You hold a hard 13 (no ace counted as 11). The dealer shows a 4. Here is the mathematically correct basic-strategy play — and why.
| Stand ← | -0.2111 |
| Hit | -0.2742 |
| Double | -0.5484 |
| You bust on the next card | 38.5% |
| Dealer 4 busts | 39.4% |
Stand is worth 0.0632 more per unit than Hit. On a $10 bet that is $0.63 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 266th by expected value — better than 74 of them, worse than 265. Expected value is per unit staked, computed for multi-deck, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed. The model and the code are published as data.
Showing a 4, the dealer ends up busting about 40% of the time. Meanwhile, if you hit hard 13, the next card busts you 38% of the time. When the dealer is this likely to destroy their own hand, taking that risk is a losing trade — you stand and let the math work against them.
This is one of the most common mistakes at the table: players feel 'weak' standing on 13 and draw anyway. Over thousands of hands, hitting here costs real money. The chart says stand — every time.