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Blackjack Basic Strategy Trainer |
Blackjack is a very simple game. You have some cards, you see one of the dealer's cards and you have to decide whether to hit, stand, double or, sometimes, split. Leaving aside counting, there is a single correct decision to be made based on your cards and the dealer's card. The basic strategy is simply a set of rules of what to do for any given card combination.
The rules are usually presented as three tables. The first table tells you whether you should split when your two cards are of the same rank. The second table tells you what to do if you have a soft hand, meaning that one of your cards is an ace and can be counted as either 1 or 11. The final table tells you what to do in all other cases -- if you are not splitting, and your hand is not soft.
So, when playing blackjack, you would first look to see whether your hand can be split. If it can, and table 1 tells you that it's appropriate to do so, you split. Otherwise, you check the other tables. If you have a soft hand, you look at the second table and do what it tells you. If your hand is hard, you play according to the last table. The key to learning basic strategy is to memorize these tables and to apply their rules during the game.
There exist many slight variations on blackjack rules. The most common differences include the number of decks being used, whether the dealer hits on soft 17 and whether splitting after doubling is allowed. Some games only allow doubling on certain totals. These variations affect basic strategy only a little bit and often not at all.
Usually, if you know the basic strategy for one set of rules, you won't be at much of a disadvantage if you use that strategy to play with a different set of rules. Also, if you know one basic strategy, switching to another should be very straightforward, because typically you would only need to remember a couple of changes.
| Rules | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4+ decks, stand on soft 17, doubling after splits allowed (default) | html | b&w pdf | |
| 4+ decks, HIT on soft 17, doubling after splits allowed | html | b&w pdf | |
| 2 decks, stand on soft 17, doubling after splits allowed | html | b&w pdf | |
| 1 deck, HIT on soft 17, doubling after splits NOT allowed | html | b&w pdf |
Web: BlackjackInfo.com, Wizard of Odds BeatBlackjack.com Wikipedia's entry