Blackjack Strategy Tips

• The most important thing to remember in Blackjack is your basic strategy. The simpler you keep it, the better.
  The widely accepted single-deck Blackjack strategy can be neatly summarized in a table which indicates what the most optimal response is to the cards being dealt to you, and also how they match up against the dealer’s hand.
  Follow the key to the side of the table.
  
  

  H	Hit
  S	Stand
  D	Double if allowed, else hit
  D/St	Double if allowed, else stand
  P	Split
  P/H	Split if double after split, else hit
  P/D	Split if double after split, else double
  Su/H	Surrender if allowed, else hit
  Su/S	Surrender if allowed, else stand

  
  

  Single-deck, dealer stands on Soft 17
  Your Hand	Dealer's card
  	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
  8	H	H	H	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
  9	D	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	D
  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	Su/H	Su/H
  17	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
  A,2	H	H	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
  A,3	H	H	D	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	D	D	D	D	D	H	H	H	H	H
  A,7	S	D/St	D/St	D/St	D/St	S	S	H	H	S
  A,8	S	S	S	S	D/St	S	S	S	S	S
  2,2	P/H	P	P	P	P	P	H	H	H	H
  3,3	P/H	P/H	P	P	P	P	P/H	H	H	H
  4,4	H	H	P/H	P/D	P/D	H	H	H	H	H
  5,5	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	H	H
  6,6	P	P	P	P	P	P/H	H	H	H	H
  7,7	P	P	P	P	P	P	P/H	H	Su/S	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

  
  
• Remember, knowing your basic strategy – familiarizing yourself with a pattern – is not a guaranteed way of winning. It simply helps you understand the basics better.
  
  
• If the dealer has an Ace-up Blackjack, you will probably lose all bets made, from doubling to splitting. In this event, rather stand (if possible) or fold.
  
  
• If the dealer has an upcard of 7 or higher, keep hitting until you have a hard count of at least 17 or more, or a soft count of 18 or more (remember: a ‘soft’ hand has an Ace that counts as 11, whereas a ‘hard’ hand is a hand with no Aces, or where an Ace counts as 1).
  
  
• Always split Aces and eights, they are the best-odds pairs to do this with.
  
  
• Remember that online play is much faster than play in a real casino; don’t be alarmed by this, though, since you can take some time before you must play. Also, there is no penalty at an online table for placing your bet early. In a real casino, this play out-of-turn can earn you a penalty.