Blackjack Basic Strategy Sheet
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Introduction
Blackjack: Basic Strategy Card Cheat Sheet: Cards. For the visually impaired, here's a blow up of the blackjack basic strategy card that is available is most casino gift shops. The Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart The Blackjack basic strategy chart is one of the most essential things for any blackjack player. As the strategy recommends only the best decisions from a mathematical point of view, the blackjack strategy chart is the table that contains all the solutions recommended by blackjack basic strategy. Basic Strategy Cheat Sheet REMINDER: THE BLACKJACK BASIC STRATEGY CHEAT SHEET ONLY GIVES YOU CLOSE TO 50-50 ODDS. It is the statistically correct way to play any given hand to maximize your chances against the dealer but The house still has an ever so small advantage.
To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. There are two charts depending on whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17.
Other basic strategy rules.
- Never take insurance or 'even money.'
- If there is no row for splitting (fives and tens), then look up your hand as a hard total (10 or 20).
- If you can't split because of a limit on re-splitting, then look up your hand as a hard total, except aces. In the extremely unlikely event you have a pair of aces you can't re-split and drawing to split aces is allowed, then double against a 6, otherwise hit.
If you play a mixture of six-deck games, some where the dealer hits a soft 17, and some where he stands, and you only wish to memorize one strategy, I would recommend you memorize the one where the dealer stands on soft 17. The cost in errors due to playing the wrong strategy is 2.3 times higher playing a stand on soft 17 game, with the hit on 17 strategy, than vise versa.
Basic Strategy in Text
For the benefit of my blind readers, here is the above strategy in text form, when the dealer stands on soft 17 and surrender is allowed. To use the strategy, start at the top, and follow the first rule that applies.
Work out the value of your hand, as well as that of the dealer, to get as close as possible to 21 without going bust. You can either use your instinct, or refer to our blackjack strategy cheat sheets.
Surrender
- Surrender hard 16 (but not a pair of 8s) vs. dealer 9, 10, or A, and hard 15 vs. dealer 10.
Basic Blackjack Strategy
Split
- Always split aces and 8s.
- Never split 5s and 10s.
- Split 2s and 3s against a dealer 4-7, and against a 2 or 3 if DAS is allowed.
- Split 4s only if DAS is allowed and the dealer shows a 5 or 6.
- Split 6s against a dealer 3-6, and against a 2 if DAS is allowed.
- Split 7s against a dealer 2-7.
- Split 9s against a dealer 2-6 or 8-9.
Double
- Double hard 9 vs. dealer 3-6.
- Double hard 10 except against a dealer 10 or A.
- Double hard 11 except against a dealer A.
- Double soft 13 or 14 vs. dealer 5-6.
- Double soft 15 or 16 vs. dealer 4-6.
- Double soft 17 or 18 vs. dealer 3-6.
Hit or Stand
- Always hit hard 11 or less.
- Stand on hard 12 against a dealer 4-6, otherwise hit.
- Stand on hard 13-16 against a dealer 2-6, otherwise hit.
- Always stand on hard 17 or more.
- Always hit soft 17 or less.
- Stand on soft 18 except hit against a dealer 9, 10, or A.
- Always stand on soft 19 or more.
As I've said many times, the above strategy will be fine under any set of rules. However, for you perfectionists out there, here are the modifications to make if the dealer hits a soft 17.
- Surrender 15, a pair of 8s, and 17 vs. dealer A.
- Double 11 vs. dealer A.
- Double soft 18 vs. dealer 2.
- Double soft 19 vs. dealer 6.
My thanks to Kelly for putting together the above text strategy.
Blackjack Basic Strategy Cheat Sheet
Written by:Michael ShacklefordBlackjack Basic Strategy Guide
| Using a blackjack cheat sheet is a good way for beginners to learn the ins and outs of the game. The blackjack cheat sheet shouldn’t make your decisions for you but it can be a great reference to see statistically what your best move would be. Not all blackjack tables abide by the same set of rules. Some combinations will have different recommendations depending on the rules of your table. Make sure you know what these rules are before consulting the cheat sheet. The blackjack cheat sheet below is for Vegas USA blackjack, with 4 or more decks, and a dealer that stands on a soft 17. This is basic blackjack strategy at its most general, adaptable to many common rule variations. The first column represents your first two cards. The top row represents the dealer’s upcard. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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