Playing Blackjack Basic Strategy

A good Blackjack playing strategy must have proper bankroll management, make good use of basic strategy and always let you know when you should just walk away.

There a lot of strategies out there. There are simple strategies, elegant strategies, complicated strategies, and simply dumb strategies. The trick is finding one that is best suited to you.

There are two main things that people search for in a Blackjack strategy:

If you are looking to improve your game then you are in the right place. We will do just that.
If you want to learn how to card count, just look on certain sites.

Most Blackjack strategies are based on basic strategy. Developed in the 1980's it is still the most advanced strategy available. When computers first began to be common place, some mathematicians programmed one for Blackjack. The computer analyzed all the possible card combinations and came up with the best decision to take in each case.

Basic strategy is nothing more than a chart of what decision to take when playing Blackjack. On the left side of the chart all your card combinations are displayed. On top, all the dealer's possible card combinations are displayed All these numbers and letters from the top and from the left intersect in the chart.

Legend

H	Hit
S	Stand
P	Split pairs.
D	Double down.
SU	Surrender if available. If not, HIT.
D/P	Double if available. If not, HIT.
D/S	Double if available. If not, STAND.
P/H	Split if double after split is available. If not, HIT.

Hard totals Table

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Ace
8	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
9	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
10	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
11	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H
12	H	H	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
13	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
14	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
15	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	SU	H
16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	SU	SU	SU
17	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Soft totals Table

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Ace
A,2	H	H	H	D/H	D/H	H	H	H	H	H
A,3	H	H	H	D/H	D/H	H	H	H	H	H
A,4	H	H	D/H	D/H	D/H	H	H	H	H	H
A,5	H	H	D/H	D/H	D/H	H	H	H	H	H
A,6	H	D/H	D/H	D/H	D/H	H	H	H	H	H
A,7	S	D/S	D/S	D/S	D/S	S	S	H	H	H
A,8	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Pairs Table

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Ace
2,2	P/H	P/H	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
3,3	P/H	P/H	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
4,4	H	H	H	P/H	P/H	H	H	H	H	H
5,5	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
6,6	P/H	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H	H
7,7	P	P	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
8,8	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
9,9	P	P	P	P	P	S	P	P	S	S
T,T	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A,A	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P