Strategy chart

Basic strategy for 6 decks · S17 · DAS. Change the table rules in any game's settings and this chart follows. Cells are marked with your own record — practice in the drill to fill it in.

Hard totals

2345678910A 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+

Soft totals

2345678910A A,2 A,3 A,4 A,5 A,6 A,7 A,8 A,9

Pairs

2345678910A 2·2 3·3 4·4 6·6 7·7 8·8 9·9 T·T A·A

Hit Stand Double (Ds: else stand) Split

Clean record Some slips Weak spot

5·5 never splits — play it as hard 10.

How to read the chart

Find your hand in the rows — hard totals (no ace, or an ace forced to count as 1), soft totals (an ace counting as 11), or pairs — and the dealer's upcard in the columns. When several plays could apply, check them in order: surrender (if the table offers it), then split, then double, then hit or stand. If the chart says double but you've already taken a third card, hit instead — or stand where the cell says Ds. Surrender is only ever available on your first two cards.

Why it's worth learning

Basic strategy is the mathematically best response to every hand against every dealer upcard, derived from the exact probabilities of the game — not hunches or patterns. Played perfectly under these rules (6 decks, double after split, resplit to four hands), blackjack's house edge drops to roughly half a percent, among the lowest of any casino game. Intuition play typically gives up several times that. Strategy doesn't predict the next card and it can't make the game beatable on its own; what it does is stop the slow leak of misplayed hands.

S17 vs H17 — why the rule matters

Whether the dealer stands (S17) or hits (H17) a soft 17 changes a handful of correct plays. Under H17 you double 11 against an ace, double soft 18 against a 2 and soft 19 against a 6 — and if late surrender is on, you also give up hard 15, hard 17 and a pair of 8s against an ace. H17 adds about 0.2% to the house edge, so prefer an S17 table when you have the choice. Toggle the rule in any game's settings and this chart redraws itself.

The spots players miss most

16 vs 10 — hit (or surrender when allowed). Standing feels safer and loses more.
12 vs 2 or 3 — hit. You only stand on 12 against a 4, 5 or 6.
Soft 18 vs 9, 10 or A — hit. Standing on A-7 here is one of the most common (and costly) habits.
Aces and 8s — always split, even 8-8 into a 10.
Tens — never split. 20 is already the second-best hand in the game.
Soft doubles — A-2 through A-7 double against a weak dealer far more often than most players realize.

The drill deals these exact spots as flash cards and brings back the ones you miss — a few minutes a day covers the whole chart surprisingly quickly.