Blackjack Basic Strategy: The Complete Chart, Explained

Basic strategy is the single best play for every blackjack hand you can hold against every card the dealer can show. Follow it exactly and, under good multi-deck rules, the house edge falls to around 0.5%. Below is the full chart in three tables, followed by the reasoning that makes it easy to remember.

The rules this chart assumes

Strategy depends slightly on the rules, so here are the ones used:

• 4 to 8 decks.
• Dealer stands on soft 17.
• Doubling allowed on any first two cards, including after a split.
• No surrender (a separate section covers it if your table offers it).

These are common multi-deck rules. Basic strategy assumes you know only your cards and the dealer's upcard. It doesn't track which cards have been played; that's card counting, a different skill.

How to read the chart

Find your hand in the left column, then read across to the dealer's upcard. The 10 column covers all ten-value cards: 10, jack, queen and king.

Check the tables in this order. If you hold a pair, use the pairs table first. If not and you hold an ace counted as 11, use soft totals. Everything else is a hard total.

Hard totals

A hard hand has no ace, or has an ace that must count as 1 (like A-6-9 = hard 16).

The pattern is simple. Against a 2 through 6, stand on 13 to 16. Against a 7 through ace, keep hitting until you reach 17. Hard 12 is the odd one out: hit it against a 2 or 3, stand against 4 to 6.

Soft totals

A soft hand contains an ace counted as 11. It can't bust on the next card, which is why the chart doubles soft hands so often against weak upcards.

Soft 18 is the hand most players get wrong. It looks finished, but against a 9, 10 or ace, 18 is an underdog and hitting it (with no risk of busting on one card) does better.

Pairs

When the chart doesn't say P, play the pair as its total: 5,5 is hard 10, 6,6 is hard 12, and so on. That's why the 5,5 row shows doubles, not splits.

The 9,9 row looks strange until you notice what the 7 means. Against a dealer 7, your 18 is already favored, since the dealer's most likely total is 17. So you stand there, yet split against an 8 or 9.

Several small-pair splits (2s, 3s, 4s and 6s) are worth making partly because a split hand that catches a good card can then be doubled. At a table that doesn't allow doubling after a split, a few of those splits become hits instead.

If your table offers late surrender

Late surrender lets you give up half your bet after the dealer checks for blackjack. Use it only on these hands, all hard totals:

• Surrender hard 16 against 9, 10 or ace.
• Surrender hard 15 against 10.

Surrendering means accepting a sure loss of 50 cents per dollar. It's right only when your chance of winning is so poor that you'd lose more than that, on average, by playing on.

The logic behind the chart

You don't need to memorize 280 cells as random letters. Nearly every decision traces back to how often the dealer busts with each upcard.

• Weak upcards (2 to 6): the dealer busts often, so you avoid busting first. Stand on stiff hands, and push extra money out with doubles and splits.
• Strong upcards (7 to ace): the dealer usually reaches 17 or more. A stiff total only wins if the dealer busts, so you draw to improve.
• Split aces and eights. Two aces as soft 12 is weak; two hands starting from 11 are strong. Two eights make 16, the worst hand in the game.
• Never split tens or fives. Twenty is a great hand to keep. Ten is a great hand to double.
• Never take insurance. It pays 2:1 on a hole card that's a ten only about 4 times in 13, an expected loss near 7.7%.

Worked examples

• A,7 vs 6: soft totals, column 6, D. Double your $10 to $20 and take one card.
• A,7 vs 10: same row, column 10, H. Hit; you can't bust with one card.
• 9,9 vs 7: pairs table, S. Stand on 18.
• Hard 12 vs 4: S. Let the dealer take the bust risk.
• Hard 10 vs 10: H. The dealer's 10 is too strong to double into.
• A,2,5 (soft 18) vs 4: D, but you have three cards, so doubling isn't allowed. Soft 18 is the exception: stand.

How to memorize it

1. Learn hard totals first. They cover most of the hands you'll see.
2. Add the pairs rules: always split A,A and 8,8; never split 5,5 and 10,10.
3. Learn soft doubles last, using the pattern that the doubling window widens as the soft total rises from A,2 to A,7.

Then drill. The free blackjack trainer deals random hands and flags every deviation from this chart instantly, no money involved. If you're new to the game itself, start with blackjack rules for beginners.

The bottom line

Basic strategy is the closest thing to a free lunch blackjack offers: it costs nothing but practice and cuts the house edge to roughly 0.5% under good rules. The chart is less intimidating once you see the pattern: respect strong dealer upcards, exploit weak ones, split aces and eights, and skip insurance.

It won't make you a long-run winner, but it makes you the toughest customer the table allows without counting cards.