Free Blackjack Strategy Cards!
LuckyAce Casino is the best bet for practicing blackjack basic strategy without stress and distractions. The game comes in both free play and real money modes and you can play up to two hands on your own table. The rules are favorable and with a house edge of only 0.49%, better than most casinos. They also provide a blackjack tutorial and an accurate strategy card that you can consult while you play. Highly recommended.
Free Online Blackjack School!
LuckyAce casino offers an excellent online tutorial for learning blackjack. This interactive instruction introduces beginners to the table, rules, cards and chips. There are also practice lessons, an explanation of house rules and a glossary. A particularly useful feature is the basic strategy card which you can consult while you play. If you're learning blackjack basic strategy, check out this blackjack school!
ReadyBetGo's Basic Blackjack Strategy
Many people who play blackjack use hunches to make their decisions. If they have 14 and the dealer has a 9 showing, their hunch tells them to stand, because if they hit, they'll probably bust. As hunches go, that's a pretty good one. In a single deck there are 16 cards, or about 30% of the deck, that have a value of 10. If you include eights and nines, you're up to 46%. That means there's about a one in two chance you'll bust with a 14.
But wait! The dealer has a nine showing. So there's a fifty-fifty chance that he or she has a 17, 18 or 19. So if you stand, there's also a good chance you'll lose. What to do? Use your hunch? Nope... If you want to consistently perform better than the hunch-makers, you've got to use basic strategy.
Edward Thorp turned the world of blackjack on its head in 1962 when he published “Beat the Dealer.” Before then, blackjack was a game that was a consistent winner for the house. Thorp, using mathematical models, showed the game could be beaten with basic strategy. Over the years, the casinos have responded with more decks and a variety of rule changes. The good news is that mathematicians love the challenge of countering these measures and coming up with new systems. But basic strategy is where it all starts.
Basic strategy is a way of playing that depends on your cards and what the dealer is showing as the upcard (the card you see). If you memorize the ways to play outlined in the table below, you will win more consistently and increase your playing time at the tables. For those of you who don't like columns and rows, we've provided the same basic guidelines in list form further below.
Keep in mind that this strategy is applicable to most conditions you'll find in casinos including multiple decks.
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Blackjack Basic Strategy Table
Dealer's Up Card
(Double Down Not Allowed After Splitting)
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2
|
3
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4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
A
|
|
|
Player's
Hand |
||||||||||
|
A-A
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
|
10-10
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
|
9-9
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
NC
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
NC
|
NC
|
|
8-8
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
|
7-7
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
|
6-6
|
H
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
5-5
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
|
4-4
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
3-3
|
H
|
H
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
2-2
|
H
|
H
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
Sp
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 19-21
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
|
Soft 18
|
NC
|
DbN
|
DbN
|
DbN
|
DbN
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 17
|
H
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 16
|
H
|
H
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 15
|
H
|
H
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 14
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Soft 13
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Hard 17-21
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
|
Hard 16
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
Sr
|
Sr
|
Sr
|
|
Hard 15
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
Sr
|
H
|
|
Hard 14
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Hard 13
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
Hard 12
|
H
|
H
|
NC
|
NC
|
NC
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
11
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
|
10
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
|
9
|
H
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
Db
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
8
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
7
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
6
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
|
5
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
H
|
Key:
NC - Stand (no card)
H - Hit
Db-Double Down
Sp-Split
Sr-Surrender
DbN-Double Down if allowed, if not stand
A table like the one above can be intimidating. Here's another way to master the information. In this case we provide you 24 rules which should guide your play.
| Surrender if you have: |
| Hard 16 against dealer 9, 10, ace |
| Hard 15 against dealer 10 |
| Split if you have: |
| Aces or 8s |
| 9s except when dealer has 7, 10, ace |
| 7s against dealer 7 or lower |
| 6s against dealer 3-6 |
| 3s or 2s against dealer 4-7 |
| Stand if you have: |
| Hard 17 or higher |
| Hard 13-16 against dealer 6 and lower |
| Hard 12 against dealer 4-6 |
| Soft 19 or higher |
| Soft 18 against dealer 2, 7, and 8 |
| Double Down if you have: |
| Hard 11 against dealer 10 or lower |
| Hard 10 against dealer 9 or lower |
| Hard 9 against dealer 3-6 |
| Soft 17-18 against dealer 3, 4, 5, and 6 |
| Soft 15-16 against dealer 4, 5, and 6 |
| Soft 14 against dealer 5 and 6 |
| Soft 13 against dealer 6 |
| Hit if you have: |
| Hard 16 or lower against dealer 7 or higher (except when using surrender) |
| Hard 12 against dealer 2 and 3 |
| 11 or lower (except when doubling down) |
| Soft 18 against dealer 9 or higher |
| Soft 13-17 (except when doubling down) |
Double Down After Splitting
If the casino's blackjack rules allow you to double down after splitting, you will win more often. This means you should split more often. Here are the occasions where this is the best strategy:
| When the Dealer's Up Card Is: |
Split a Pair of: | Instead of: |
| 2 | 6s, 3s, and 2s | Hitting |
| 3 | 3s and 2s | Hitting |
| 5 | 4s | Hitting |
| 6 | 4s | Hitting |
For more on information on splitting, double down, and surrender, check out our the article in this series, Blackjack Rules - Beyond the Basics.
Once you have mastered the basic strategy, you'll need to know a few more things. We'll cover the impact of rules that don't favor the player such as Dealer Hitting of Soft Seventeen, Doubling Down on only certain cards, No Splitting of Aces and other negative edge issues in our next article, How Rule Variations Change Your Edge.
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