Blackjack Strategy Chart

The full basic strategy chart: hard totals, soft totals and pairs against every dealer upcard. Six decks, S17, DAS — with what changes when the rules do.

Find your hand down the left column and the dealer’s upcard along the top; the letter where they meet is the play with the highest expected value. H hit · S stand · D double (hit if doubling is not allowed) · P split. The tables assume six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, doubling after a split allowed and no surrender.

Hard totals

No ace, or an ace that has to count as one.

Hard totals — No ace, or an ace that has to count as one.

Your hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
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	H	H
16	S	S	S	S	S	H	H	H	H	H
17	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Soft totals

An ace still worth eleven — one more card cannot bust the hand.

Soft totals — An ace still worth eleven — one more card cannot bust the hand.

Your hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
A,2	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,3	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,4	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,5	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,6	H	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
A,7	S	D	D	D	D	S	S	H	H	H
A,8	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S

Pairs

Decide whether to split before treating the hand as a total.

Pairs — Decide whether to split before treating the hand as a total.

Your hand	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
2,2	P	P	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
3,3	P	P	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
4,4	H	H	H	P	P	H	H	H	H	H
5,5	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
6,6	P	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
10,10	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
A,A	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P

How to read the chart, and why it says what it says

Basic strategy is not a betting system and not a trick. It is the answer to a solved arithmetic problem: for every combination of your hand and the dealer’s upcard, one of hit, stand, double or split has a higher expected value than the others, and the chart records which. Played perfectly it takes a normal six-deck game to roughly half a percent against you — the best price the game offers, and still a price.

Three tables cover every hand you can be dealt. Hard totals are hands with no ace, or an ace forced to count as one. Soft totals are hands where the ace is still worth eleven, which means one more card cannot bust you — that safety is exactly why the correct play often differs from the same total played hard. Pairs come first: decide whether to split before you treat the hand as a total at all.

The decisions players get wrong most often

Hitting a hard 16 against a dealer 7 or higher feels reckless and is correct — standing loses more often than busting costs. Splitting 8s against a 10 feels worse still: two hands of 8 against a strong upcard both look bad, and they are, but two bad hands lose less than one hand of 16. Never splitting 10s belongs on the same list, because breaking a 20 to chase two 20s gives up a hand that already wins most of the time.

Insurance is the clearest case. Offered as protection, it is a separate bet on the dealer holding a ten in the hole, priced firmly in the house’s favour. Without counting cards there is no situation in which taking it is correct.

The rules on the table change some of the answers

This chart assumes six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, doubling after a split allowed and no surrender — the common online configuration. Move any of those and a handful of cells move with them. A dealer who hits soft 17 costs you about two tenths of a percent and changes several doubling decisions; surrender, where offered, adds a few hands you should give up rather than play out.

One rule overrides all of it. If the table pays 6:5 on blackjack instead of 3:2, that single change costs roughly 1.4% — nearly three times what perfect basic strategy saves you. No chart rescues a 6:5 game; the correct play is to find another table.

What the chart cannot do

Basic strategy minimises the house edge. It does not remove it, and it does not make blackjack a positive-expectation game. Card counting can, in principle, under conditions that online play deliberately removes — continuous shuffling, or a shoe reshuffled every hand, leaves nothing to count.

What it does do is make the difference between paying half a percent and paying two or three. Over any real number of hands that gap is the largest single lever a blackjack player has, and it costs nothing but recall.

Frequently asked

What is the basic strategy for blackjack?

For each combination of your hand and the dealer’s upcard, basic strategy names the play with the highest expected value — hit, stand, double or split. The three tables on this page cover every possible hand.

Does the chart guarantee I will win?

No. It reduces the house edge to about 0.46% in a standard six-deck game, which is the lowest price available in the game, not an advantage over it.

Do I hit or stand on 16 against a dealer 7?

Hit. Standing on hard 16 against a 7 or higher loses more often than the risk of busting costs you — it is the single most commonly misplayed hand in blackjack.

Should I ever split 10s?

No. A hand of 20 already wins the large majority of the time; breaking it into two hands gives up a strong position for two weaker ones.

Does this chart work for every blackjack table?

It assumes six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed and no surrender. Other rule sets shift a handful of cells. A table paying 6:5 on blackjack costs about 1.4%, which no strategy chart can offset.

Is memorising the whole chart necessary?

Not to benefit from it. Hard totals of 12 to 16, the doubling hands and the pair decisions account for most of the value; the rest are hands where the obvious play is also the correct one.