Blackjack basic strategy: the complete charts

Blackjack has a finite number of situations: your hand against the dealer's visible card. For each one, the expected value of hitting, standing, doubling and splitting can be computed exactly. Basic strategy is simply the list of answers. What it delivers: played correctly on a standard multi-deck game with reasonable rules, the house edge falls to roughly 0.5%. Played on instinct, the same game typically costs 2% or more — four times as much for the identical entertainment. What it is not: card counting. Basic strategy assumes you know nothing about the remaining deck. It is the best you can do without tracking cards, and it requires no memory of previous hands. The charts below assume the common online configuration: four or more decks, dealer stands on soft 17, doubling allowed on any two cards, doubling after splitting allowed. Variations exist and shift a few cells, but this version captures nearly all of the available return. One rule before any chart: never take insurance. It is a side bet with a house edge of around 7%, offered at the moment you feel most anxious. Decline it every time, including when you hold a blackjack.

Find your total on the left, the dealer's up card across the top. H = hit, S = stand, D = double if allowed otherwise hit.

The logic in one line: a dealer showing 2 through 6 is likely to bust, so you stand on weak totals and let them break. A dealer showing 7 through ace is strong, so you must improve your hand even at the risk of busting. The hardest cell to play correctly is 16 against a 10. It feels terrible either way. Hitting is correct, and it is correct by a small enough margin that people talk themselves out of it forever.

Soft hands contain an ace counted as eleven, so they cannot bust on a single card.

Soft 18 (A,7) is the most misplayed hand in blackjack. Eighteen feels like a good hand. Against a 9, 10 or ace it is a losing hand, and hitting it is correct. Pairs. Sp = split.

Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives. Splitting a pair of tens breaks a twenty, the second-best hand in the game. Splitting fives turns a ten — the best doubling hand — into two weak starts.

You do not need to memorise 300 cells. The charts compress into a short list of rules that covers the overwhelming majority of hands. The core rules: 1. Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives 2. Never take insurance 3. Hard 17 or more: stand, always 4. Hard 12 to 16: stand against a dealer 2 to 6, hit against 7 to ace. The exception is 12 against a 2 or 3, where you hit 5. Hard 11: double against everything except an ace 6. Hard 10: double against 2 to 9 7. Hard 9: double against 3 to 6 8. Hard 8 or less: hit 9. Soft 19 or more: stand 10. Soft 18: stand against 2, 7 and 8; double against 3 to 6; hit against 9, 10 and ace 11. Soft 17 or less: hit, doubling against 4, 5 and 6 where the chart says so Applying it in practice: • Keep the chart open while you play. Online, nobody can see it, and there is no reason not to • Never deviate on a feeling. The entire value of basic strategy is that it removes judgement from a solved problem • Ignore other players at a live table. Their decisions do not affect your expected value, whatever anyone claims after a bad outcome • Check the table rules first. Blackjack paying 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2 adds well over a percentage point to the house edge, which is more than perfect strategy saves you. A correctly played 6-to-5 game is worse than a sloppily played 3-to-2 game • Skip every side bet. Perfect Pairs and 21+3 carry edges many times the main game's