Basic Blackjack Strategy

This is a page about basic strategy: the foundational strategy of blackjack that gives the player the best mathematical advantage against the dealer. When a hand is dealt, you use the basic strategy with your cards in completement with the dealer cards. Each hand is different so it all depends on what the dealer upcard is and what decisions you make with only this card and the cards you are holding. We will show you what to do in each blackjack scenario.

You may have heard of blackjack charts or "cheat sheets" that tell you what the best move is for a combination of upcards. The only problem with this though is the strategy chart changes for each variation of blackjack as there are many different types of blackjack. In fact, if you really wanted to, it is perfectly legal to bring in a book of strategy charts to a land based casino because this techically is not cheating. Here we will explain the hand by hand blackjack strategy for every possible move.

First, the biggest tip is knowing that tens, jacks, queens and kings are all worth ten points, meaning there are more tens in the deck than any other point. You can use this to your advantage to predict with higher probability what will happen if the dealer has a ten or you have a ten, and then what blackjack move you should make.

OK, below is where the action is and a link to a page for every possible blackjack hand. Click on the link and follow the detailed step by step instructions to learn the basic strategy.

Blackjack Strategy - Hard Hands

A hard hand is defined to be a hand without aces or when the ace is counted as 1 point instead of 11 because the hand would bust. The list below consists of the basic strategy for hard hands.

Blackjack Strategy - Soft Hands

A soft hand is one that has an ace but the ace can be used as 1 point or 11 points, therefore you have a choice and more room to score a blackjack. The list below are different strategies when you have a soft hand and the ace is counted as 11 points. The following links provide information for the basic strategy for soft hands.

Blackjack Strategy - Splitting Pairs

The strategies below are to be used when the dealer has dealt you two cards of the same value. You have a better chance of winning big when you split certain pairs over others. Below is a directory of the basic strategy for pair hands.